BELIEVING IN BRADLEY Donovan said U.S. mentality growing
By Luis Bueno LASoccerNews.com Editor
Bob Bradley has yet to lose a game as coach of the United States national team. Photo by Luis Bueno/LASoccerNews.com
While the United States faced challenges in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the obstacles that lie ahead for the U.S. in Copa America are imposing.
“It’s not going to be easy,” said outgoing star Landon Donovan. “It’s not going to be playing Guatemala, El Salvador and Trinidad in the first round but it’s good experience for a lot of the guys. I’ll be curious to see how it goes.”
The Galaxy star rejoined his club following Sunday’s 2-1 win over Mexico in the Gold Cup final. Now, the U.S. moves on to a new challenge in Copa America. Games against Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia loom for the U.S., who feature nine players from the Gold Cup roster.
During the Gold Cup, the U.S. showed the fruits of coach Bob Bradley’s yearlong efforts. Bradley took over as U.S. coach in December and brought in some new faces to the squad for friendlies earlier this year. Mixing in new talent with veteran experience under Bradley took some time, Donovan said.
“What Bob tried to get across and what was hard for some of us to understand at first – which is probably true of any coach – how he wants to play and the mentality he wants us to have every time we step on the field,” Donovan said. “I think Bob knows that now and in the future, we’re going to have enough talented players going forward that we’re going to create chances and score goals. Every game we’ve played this year, we’ve had chances to score three, four or five goals, real chances.”
With Chivas USA, Bradley talked often about a process and believed in hard work. With the U.S., Bradley’s efforts have not changed much. Where the U.S. has found success is in its young players. Newcomer Benny Feilhaber scored a magnificent game-winning goal against Mexico on Sunday and paired with Ricardo Clark in the second half of the match as the duo took command of the midfield.
While veterans Donovan, Clint Dempsey and DaMarcus Beasley all played key roles in the Gold Cup victory, that particular trio is not part of the Copa America squad. But because Bradley has done well to instill his own stamp on the team, Donovan thinks the squad will prevail regardless of who is there.
“The mentality of how are we better as a team defensively and how are we on the same page, being connected with someone, helping someone out, that mentality has to get across and now that we have kind of stability, now it doesn’t matter hopefully who you bring in and who you put in,” he said. “You’re going to maybe lose a little talent-wise here or there, speed-wise here or there but at least we have that mentality and hopefully that makes us successful.”
