Double Speak From Bradley

Saw this today from the AP: U.S. phenom Adu told to start playing regularly

With the hype largely behind him, Freddy Adu is being told he needs to start playing regular club football to continue his development as a key member of the United States' squad.

A two-year spell in Europe with Benfica and Monaco, spent mostly on the bench, has helped dampen much of the spectacular fervor and unrealistic predictions of superstardom that greeted him as a 14-year-old professional athlete....

He played just 169 minutes over 10 matches on loan at Monaco this past season and is set to return to Portuguese side Benfica, which paid Major League Soccer $2 million for him in 2007.

Even so, his one goal in 13 international matches would be more than respectable for most young strikers who rarely play at club level.

But his immigrant background and precocious talent long since led sponsors and agents to see him as a perfect marketing figure and trumpet him as the United States' first true football superstar.

At 14, Adu's impending stardom was alluded to by his appearance alongside Brazil legend Pele in a soft drink commercial, and he soon became the youngest player and scorer in Major League Soccer.

But the anticipation generated among many fans was so great that Adu's failure to match the likes of Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo was always going to be judged harshly.

A two-year spell in Europe has helped reset those expectations, and United States coach Bob Bradley is just happy for Adu to continue his sporting education at the Confederations Cup.

"I think that sometimes when so much is said and written from the beginning, it creates unrealistic expectations of a young player," Bradley said. "Obviously, the fact that we call him in is an indication that we still see talent and the hope is that he can continue to move himself along.

"Every now and then there might be an example where a player skips a hundred steps -- goes from one to 101 very quickly -- but that's not normal."

This, of course, would make sense were it not for the fact that Jozy Altidore is a regular starter only for the USMNT. As stated there certainly does seem to be a double standard at work here. One for Altidore (and to some extent Demarcus Beasley) and another for Adu. This is unfortunate since the US could use Adu even if Monaco and Benfica cannot.

The questions marks surrounding the US Men's National Team continue to grow in number as they prepare to finish up qualifying for next year's World Cup. That is not a good sign. At this point in the proceedings the U.S. should be nailing down much of their lineup. Instead, more positions are being thrown up in the air. Before it was just right and left backs and forwards giving us trouble. Now you have to add right and left wing AND central and defensive midfield to the list. That is totally unacceptable, but Bob Bradley seems fine with it.

I'm not. Here are some modest suggestions to sort out the mess we have in the USMNT program.

1. Landon Donovan: For God's sake pick a slot and fit him in already. He's playing in central midfield...No striker...No wait! On the wing. Oh just stop it. Landon has always played best as a withdrawn striker but Bradley doesn't want to do that because he wants to play Altidore and Ching at the forward spots. All I can say is Altidore, YES; Ching, NO! Ching is not Brian McBride. Ching is not going to magically turn into Brian McBride. I can see in some limited tactical situations, against some opponents, Ching might be an OK option. However, he is not the full time answer at forward. Never will be either.
2. Defensive Midfield: Why is this even an issue? Only an idiot would not see that Michael Bradley should play this role on this team. Clark and Mastroeni should be riding the bench praying that Bradley doesn't get injured so they won't be exposed by quality opposition.
3. Attacking Midfield: OK, here we are basically screwed. No one is in the position to slot in here without a care. But this isn't new. We haven't had a good playmaker in this role since Tab Ramos retired. The only player that possesses the needed skill-set is Freddy Adu, but no one wants to give him the role. I say, why the hell shouldn't we put Adu in there? It isn't like anyone else is giving anything other than inconsistent play there. Even if its a longshot, Adu at least has a chance to develop into the role. Others simply do not. (I mean Torres??? Give me a break.)
4. Backs (Left/Right): Once again I think we are probably screwed. Wynne and Spector maybe have some potential but they would need to explode developmentally to be super solid by 2010. And still, our lack of depth means we are one bad step away from a world of hurt. Frankie Hedjuk has played his heart out for the Nats and we should all be thankful for that, but should we really be in the position where we have to pray he recovers from injury??? That's scary.
5. Wings (Left/Right): OK, this I don't get either. If you are going to play a 4-4-2 you are gonna have to have Dempsey on a wing, for good and ill. Live with that. As for the other side, I'm not sure there is another options more logical than Beasley. I know, I know, its not ideal but who else have we got?

Look, as you can see, the USMNT would have issues no matter who was coaching it right now. However, Bradley is making his life unnecessarily complicated. In fact, he is reminding me more and more of Steve Sampson every day.

That is not a good thing.