elder brothers?

You might not know it, but there are many reasons to root for the United States during the World Cup. I have plenty of them, personally. But what about you, the casual sports fan who wants to get acquainted with the team in an informative yet casual manner in the lead up to the World Cup? Well, it turns out you’re in luck — in the next series of posts, I will explain why you absolutely have to LOVE this US National Team. Hop on board!

Did you know that our scrappy starting central midfielder shares the same DNA as our stoic-but-lovable coach? It’s true! Michael Bradley, one of the finest young players that our country has produced in the past few years, is actually the son of our coach, Bob Bradley. This gives our team an unquestionable advantage in the “You’re embarrassing me, dad!” moments that a team can accumulate during the World Cup. Score one for nepotism!

When Bob Bradley was appointed the position of head coach and one of his first moves was making his young son the starting central midfielder, many US supporters were skeptical. I was certainly among them. I had not really seen the younger Bradley play before his father was named head coach, so I assumed that Michael was given the benefit of the doubt because of his dad. There is actually some precedent for fathers coaching their sons at the international level — the legendary Paolo Maldini was coached by his father Cesare over the course of several years in Italy, and he too proved worthy of the position given to him by his father. Well, it turns out that Michael Bradley is also quite a great player himself, regardless of who’s coaching him. He’s proven as much in the past 4 years.

He’s played a crucial role in Borussia Monchengladbach of the German Bundesliga’s success this past year, appearing in 53 games (starting many of them) and scoring 7 goals. He even shaved his head this year to better illustrate just how awesome it is to have two bald Bradleys on the same team. If that’s not family pride, I don’t know what is.

So there you have it: Nepotism! Just another reason why you have to root for the US during the World Cup this summer.