The USA coach says he handed the armband to Michael Bradley in order to take the heat off the Seattle Sounders star
USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann says he named Michael Bradley as captain for the Concacaf Gold Cup to allow Clint Dempsey to step out of the spotlight and switch his focus onto his performances.
Bradley will wear the armband for the duration of the tournament after Klinsmann opted to give him the responsibility this week. Klinsmann had met with Dempsey to discuss the fallout from his dismissal in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup match in June and figure out the best way forward.
And after speaking with Dempsey, Klinsmann said he decided to make the change in order to free up the attacker to channel all of his energy into retaining the Gold Cup this month.
“I think it was just important to take the heat off Clint,” Klinsmann said during a press conference ahead of Friday's friendly against Guatemala.
“It was a dramatic moment for him. I just saw it on the Internet - I was still in Europe after the two games in Holland and Germany. It’s nothing you want to go through, and he knows that.
"It was his first red card ever. At the age 32, that’s quite amazing. I was at a different number at that time.”
“But things happen,” Klinsmann continued. “It’s important that you talk through that stuff and try to understand the mindset of the player when he goes through a mistake. Coming up so quickly with this Gold Cup, we thought it was best to pass on the captaincy for the next couple of weeks to Michael.”
Bradley has served as captain in each of the past five USA matches, including high-profile victories over Netherlands and Germany in June, and welcomed the opportunity to wear the armband in the Gold Cup.
The 27-year-old midfielder said Klinsmann pulled him aside after breakfast earlier this week to share his decision with him.
“It’s a huge honor and a big responsibility, certainly one that I’m very excited about,” Bradley said. “But it doesn’t change who I am. I’ve said before that I am who I am, whether I was the captain or not. I always will be.”
It is a measure designed to pull Dempsey away from the scrutiny that followed him for much of the past two weeks. Dempsey received a three-game ban from MLS and a six-match (or two years, whichever period is greater) Open Cup suspension from the Open Cup Adjudication and Discipline panel after he reached into the pocket of referee Daniel Radford, pulled out his notebook and ripped it to shreds in the dying stages of a 3-1 defeat to Portland on June 16. In the wake of intense criticism of his conduct, Dempsey issued an apology on Twitter last week.
Klinsmann said he wanted to make sure he did everything possible to ensure Dempsey would perform to his usual standards over the next month.
“We need him,” Klinsmann added. “We need him on board. We need him in a good mood. We need him to be enthusiastic about the next couple of weeks. And we need him to score. Based on all of those things, we thought it was a good move to do that. He’s on board with it. Michael is on board with it as well. And then we’ll see after how things are going.”
USA begin their Gold Cup campaign against Honduras on Tuesday in Frisco.
No comments:
Post a Comment