Thursday, January 18, 2007

Bob and the Boys


Two days from now the US will return to action for the first time since, uh, well, it seems like years, doesn't it? Remember back in June when Zinedine Zidane was in the same class as Maradona and Pele, when David Beckham was a key figure for both England and Real Madrid and Bob Bradley's Chivas USA team was still trying to gain respect in MLS.

A lot has changed since then. Bob's gone from Chivas and Preki has replaced him. Several US players have walked off into the sunset and a new batch of players has been called up.

When Bob left Chivas, I was both delighted and disappointed. In the year he spent with Chivas, I got to know Bob fairly well on a professional level. I gained the utmost respect for Bob. There was a scene in an episode of The Sopranos where Tony and Christopher are having some sort of confrontation and Christopher tells Tony "I would walk with you to the gates of hell." That's kind of how I feel about Bob.

I was disappointed with his departure because I thought he could have built something really special out here and I would have liked to have had him around for that. I think Chivas has the pieces in place to do something special this year and Preki is a good fit but I'll miss Bob this year.

I hope Bob's Boys win 4-0.

No comments: