TORONTO – Much of what Alexi Lalas said Sunday night about the current state of the U.S. national team and its struggles to qualify for the 2018 World Cup can be dismissed as grandstanding populism.
The Trump-esque rant – Trump-esque in the sense that it lacked nuance and thoughtfulness; not in the sense that Lalas went off the teleprompter, because it was a carefully choreographed TV performance – was another in a long line of attention-seeking ploys from the Fox Sports commentator. It wasn’t an exercise in constructive criticism, but rather blatant self-promotion.
Lalas did get one thing right, though. Toronto FC captain Michael Bradley is zen.
A former U.S. defender with 96 caps to his credit, Lalas tore into the U.S. national team during Sunday night’s broadcast of the Seattle Sounders-LA Galaxy game, calling them “a bunch of soft, underperforming, tattooed millionaires.” He also called out a number of players by name, including Bradley and TFC forward Jozy Altidore: “Michael Bradley. The U.S. does not need you to be ‘zen,’ the U.S. needs you to play better. Jozy Altidore. Is this really as good as it gets? Because it’s still not good enough.”
Bradley’s response? A wonderfully zen answer.
“The lion doesn’t care about the opinion of the sheep,” Bradley told reporters following TFC’s practice on Wednesday.
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Anybody who expected Bradley, the U.S. national team captain, to give as good as he got and fire back at Lalas in a similar fashion when presented the chance hasn’t been paying close attention. Bradley doesn’t do hot takes. He offers sober and contemplative reflections.
Zen is his thing, both on the field with his composed play in the heart of Toronto’s midfield and off the field as TFC captain in keeping his teammates focused at all times, especially during the team’s current run that sees them closing in on a first-place finish and a new MLS record for most points in a season.
No matter how thorough the victory (like last week’s 4-0 destruction job of the San Jose Earthquakes) or how disappointing the result (last month’s 1-1 draw against 10-men D.C. United), Bradley is zen. Never too high, and never too low. He looks at the big picture at all times.
Toronto is on the cusp of the greatest campaign in MLS history, and the win over San Jose marked one of the team’s best and most dominant performances of the year. To Bradley, though, it was just another game, one of many. An ends to a means. By the time the beat reporters piled into the locker-room to get Bradley’s thoughts on the comprehensive way in which the Reds dispatched the Earthquakes, he had already moved on.
“We feel good about where we are, what we’ve done. But there isn’t one person who is satisfied. Not even close,” Bradley said.
“We have to keep going. There’s six games left, 18 points on the table. We want to take as many of those as possible. We want to win the Supporters’ Shield, and as soon the regular season is done we’re going to regroup and make sure that [we’re ready for the playoffs].”
Bradley’s calming leadership and even-keeled style of play sets the tone for this TFC side, and it’s one of the main reasons the Reds are enjoying such an incredible campaign and are the leading contenders to hoist the MLS Cup.
Each week, Bradley has reminded his teammates that the game in front of them, no matter how modest the opponent, is the biggest match of the season. Nothing matters more than the next 90 minutes, and as soon as it’s over it’s the next 90 minutes that matters the most, and then the next 90 minutes after that.
What’s his zen-like attitude born out of? It was a question put directly to Bradley this week by Sportsnet, and one that he struggled to answer. Not because he was lost for words, but because it’s difficult to explain something when you don’t know any other way.
“[We have an] understanding that one game doesn’t make a season. Two games doesn’t. Five. 10,” Bradley stated.
“The fact that I don’t have a great answer for you is just this idea that it’s [natural]. What’s the other option, you know? The other option is you win a game and you think you’re the best team in the world, and then you lose the next game and you’re reacting off of a loss, and then you win, and every week turns into a coin flip.
“That’s not the way to try to build a team, to try to build something that can hold over time, that can be successful over the course of seasons. It takes the right group; it takes the right mentality. Quite honestly, it’s second nature to us.”
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