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Bob Bradley (born March 3, 1958 in Montclair, New Jersey) is the current manager of the United States men's national soccer team. Before taking over the national team in December 2006, he had previously coached in the American college game and later in Major League Soccer, managing the Chicago Fire, MetroStars, and Chivas USA over nine seasons.
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Ryan Bradley | |||
| Kerry Bradley | |||
| Michael Bradley (1987) | 31 July 1987 Princeton, New Jersey, United States | ||
His son, Michael Bradley, is a professional footballer currently playing with Borussia Mönchengladbach of the German Bundesliga and the national team.
Family
Bradley comes from a family of athletes. His brother Scott played baseball for the Seattle Mariners in the 1980s and is the current coach at Princeton University. His other brother Jeff is the head soccer writer for ESPN The Magazine.
Bradley's son, Michael, was drafted by the MetroStars in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft, and played for the team until a transfer to Dutch club sc Heerenveen. Michael enjoyed success in The Netherlands, finishing joint top-scorer for Heerenveen with 15 goals in the 2007-2008 season, before transferring to play for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the German Bundesliga. He is now a regular with the national team.
Bradley and his wife Lindsay have two other children, Ryan and Kerry, and currently reside in Manhattan Beach, California, near Los Angeles.
Background and college career
Bradley was born and raised in New Jersey, playing soccer at West Essex High School and Princeton University. Following his graduation from Princeton, Bradley briefly worked in the Procter & Gamble's executive training program before entering the Ohio University sports management program in 1981. While there, Bradley's managing career started when he was named the manager of Ohio University at the age of 22.[1]
He was lured away by University of Virginia manager Bruce Arena and spent two years as his assistant, before taking the top job at his alma mater, Princeton. Bradley led the Tigers from 1984 to 1995, winning two Ivy League titles and reaching the NCAA Final Four in 1993.
Major League Soccer
In 1996, Bradley became Arena's assistant once again, this time with D.C. United of the newly formed Major League Soccer. After two seasons there, he became the first manager of the expansion Chicago Fire, leading them to the MLS Cup and US Open Cup double in 1998. For this success, he was named MLS Coach of the Year. He won more silverware in 2000 when the Fire won the Open Cup.
After the 2002 MLS season, Bradley resigned as manager of the Fire and took the reins of his home state team, the MetroStars, which had previously considered him for the job in 1996 and 1997. During his tenure, he had the historically underachieving club headed in the right direction as the MetroStars advanced to the US Open Cup final for the first time in club history in 2003. Bradley stayed with the club until October 2005, when he was fired with three games left in the regular season. The club had suffered losses in back-to-back fixtures and diminishing playoff prospects prior to Bradley's firing.
Shortly after the 2005 season, Bradley was named the manager at Los Angeles club Chivas USA. Bradley revived a Chivas USA team that had endured a poor first season in 2005, leading a young squad to a third-place finish in the Western Conference before losing in the playoffs to the Houston Dynamo.
United States
Following the U.S. men's national team's disappointing showing at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, U.S. Soccer appointed Bradley the interim coach of the team. Although Bradley was widely tipped to be a future national team manager, perhaps for the 2014 World Cup cycle, most observers and several national team players expected U.S. Soccer to hire recently departed Germany manager and California resident Jürgen Klinsmann, due to his success and connections to American soccer. However, after contract negotiations with Klinsmann fell through, U.S. Soccer quickly named Bradley interim manager on December 8, 2006. Although many saw Bradley as a second choice, he quickly went about building a strong foundation for the team, introducing younger players to the squad and approaching the job as though he already was, or would soon become, the permanent manager.
References
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Footnotes (including sources)