Something to prove

Call it the most unlikely of marriages. Bob Bradley, about as American a soccer coach as you'll find, and Chivas USA, the expansion MLS franchise that has sworn to play soccer the traditional Mexican way. They seem incompatible, but after a 2005 season that left both disappointed, each needs the other to help find redemption.

How did Bradley, once regarded as a shoe-in to replace Bruce Arena as U.S. national team coach, go from star to unemployed? Three disappointing years with the MetroStars was enough to take some of the luster off of Bradley's star. Truth be told, Bradley never would have left the Chicago Fire if he had known what was in store for him when he made the decision to return to his native New Jersey.

Bradley's decision to coach the MetroStars was as much about family commitments as it was about his desire to accept the challenge of turning he MetroStars into a winner. After three mostly disappointing seasons, Bradley was fired. He left with the type of bad taste in his mouth that wasn't going to go away until he had another chance to prove what so many in the U.S. soccer community think, that he is one of this country's best coaches.

Enter Chivas USA. Antonio Cue, the club's owner, said all the right things to enrage MLS traditionalists and fire up his fan base before the 2005 season began. He talked of attacking soccer and playing three forwards and terrorizing weak MLS defenses and bringing the MLS Cup title to Mexico with hopes if gaining some revenge for the U.S. national team's recent dominance of their rivals to the south.

None of it happened. Instead of playing exciting soccer, the Goats became a league laughing stock. They were equally inept at attacking and defending. Only one of the marquee players expected to lead Chivas USA, Ramon Ramirez, arrived on time and he learned the harsh lesson that MLS isn't an easy league to play in. By the time Francisco Palencia and Juan Pablo Garcia arrived, it was too little, too late. A woefully weak roster had already put the team into a hole and made the first year of the team's existence a failure.

Chivas USA had a respected coach in Hans Westerhoff, but in Bradley the club has signed a coach who has successfully built a winner in MLS before. While the team's original coach, Thomas Rongen, did have an MLS Cup on his resume, he never built a winner from scratch like Bradley did in Chicago. The Goats have the top pick in the 2005 MLS Draft and a marquee allocation to work with. Bradley has one of the best drafting track records in MLS history, and he made Peter Nowak and Amado Guevara his first allocation signings, respectively, with Chicago and the MetroStars, so Cue has good reason to believe Bradley can turn things around quickly.

And what type of team Chivas USA will be under Bradley? Some misguided souls on the West Coast have dubbed Bradley a defensive-minded coach when the opposite is true. Bradley's Chicago Fire boasted some of the best attacking squads the league has ever seen and for all the faults the MetroStars had during Bradley's three seasons, scoring goals and playing attractive soccer weren't on the list. If anything, Bradley's Metros needed more defensive bite and boasted more than enough attacking flair. Chivas USA wants to go after teams and entertain fans with exciting attacking soccer. Bradley is capable of building a team to deliver that.

This explains Chivas USA's decision to hire Bradley, but if you are Bradley why do you take the Chivas USA job? He could have surely waited until one of the U.S. youth national team positions opened up next year. Bradley is still regarded as someone on the short list of candidates to replace Arena, who seems unlikely to continue as U.S. national team manager after the 2006 World Cup. Bradley could have also waited a year and had his pick of jobs before 2007, when at least one expansion team is expected to join MLS.

The truth is, Bradley wasn't about to wait around. You just had to look in his eyes the day after he was let go by the MetroStars to see the fire, to see his hunger to prove that he could still lead a team. Improbable runs by the Galaxy and Chicago Fire eliminated a pair of possibilities for Bradley, and he seemed ready to accept an assistant coaching position in MLS before he wowed Chivas USA officials with his passion for the game and ideas for turning the expansion team around.

One of the most ironic aspects of this unlikely union is what it does to the suggestions by a misguided few that Bradley was, in some ways, a prejudiced coach who didn't fully respect or appreciate the play of Latin soccer players. The notion was a weak one to begin with, especially considering the number of Latin players Bradley signed during his three years with the MetroStars. After landing Guevara, Bradley also acquired Joselito Vaca, Jose Galvan, Juan Forchetti, Sergio Galvan Rey, Gilberto Flores, Pablo Brenes and Danilo DaSilva during his time with the MetroStars. Guevara was the only one to thrive with the Metros but that wasn't for a lack of opportunities provided by Bradley.

Bradley made his share of mistakes during his time with the MetroStars, but anyone that thinks he has forgotten how to coach could be in for a surprise next season. The parity and limited salaries of MLS make it possible for a handful of player acquisitions to turn a team's fortunes around. If Chivas USA finds a way to bring back Ramirez and Palencia, and Bradley can find the right defender or forward with the team's major allocation, the struggling club could be well on its way to making the transition from league laughingstock to playoff contender.

Ives Galarcep covers MLS for ESPN.com and is also a writer and columnist for the Herald News (N.J.). He can be reached at Ivespn79@aol.com.