By Beau Dure, USA TODAY
COLUMBUS, Ohio — With his hair cut shorter these days, 21-year-old Michael Bradley looks more like his father, U.S. men’s national team coach Bob Bradley, than he did as a teenager. Wednesday night, he did what his father and coach asked. He and Sacha Kljestan, the USA’s central midfield tandem, disrupted the Mexican attack. And Michael Bradley did much more. Near the end of each half, he found himself with an opportunity and converted. Just as in 2001 and 2005, archrival Mexico left Columbus with a 2-0 defeat.
Bradley first played for his father at age 16 with the MetroStars, now called the New York Red Bulls. After moving to Dutch club Heerenveen, he debuted for the national team in 2006 under Bruce Arena. When Bob Bradley replaced Arena, Michael was once again the coach’s son. In Holland, he scored 21 goals over the 2007-08 season, but with Germany’s Borussia Moenchengladbach, he’s still not positioned as a primary scorer. “With Gladbach this year, we’ve had to adjust how we play based on how the other teams play,” Bradley says. “There’s been games where I’ve played deep in the midfield, there’s been games where I’ve played farther forward.”
In the first half Wednesday, DaMarcus Beasley played a corner kick over the massed players in the penalty box. Landon Donovan headed the ball back into the center for Oguchi Onyewu, whose close-range header was well-saved by Oswaldo Sanchez. The ball fell to Bradley’s feet. In an instant, it was in the upper netting. Mexico pressed in the second half, but Bradley and Kljestan helped the U.S. defense limit chances. After Mexico’s best chance — a ball that hit Giovani dos Santos’ foot just inches from the goal but didn’t go in — captain Rafael Marquez rashly charged into goalkeeper Tim Howard. He was ejected, reducing Mexico to 10 players.
In stoppage time, Jozy Altidore played the ball down the wing to Donovan. Altidore was clobbered as he made the pass, but the referee allowed play to continue with the USA attacking. Donovan drew the defense and centered to Bradley, who was trailing the play. He fired the ball past the diving Sanchez. Bradley and Kljestan, teammates on last year’s Olympic team, have accounted for all five U.S. goals this year. “It’s not too common that the two deep-lying midfielders are going to be the two leading goal scorers on the team,” Kljestan said. “I’m sure Landon (Donovan), Clint (Dempsey), (DaMarcus) Beasley and Brian Ching are going to be the leaders as we move forward this year.”
In an interview tent that rattled in the wind after the game, Bob Bradley broke from father and son’s usual stoicism to allow himself a little smile when a reporter asked Michael if he would now replace Donovan as the villain in the eyes of Mexican fans. But asked how he felt about his son, the coach demurred.
“Right now, I’m the coach,” Bradley said. “It’s about the team. “I have three children. I’m proud of all my kids. I have a great family, and I’m a lucky man.”
The game was the first of 10 in the “hexagonal,” a six-team round-robin from which three teams will qualify for the World Cup and a fourth will go to a playoff.
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