Soccer: US National Team to Play Poland in October

By Raymond Rolak and David Applegate

Registration Includes Ticket to Poland versus USA "Friendly" Game, Chicago Fire Game, On the Field Seminar and Lectures.

New Jersey Native to be U.S. Soccer Head Coach 

CHICAGO - As part of the activities during the USA versus Poland "Friendly" - U.S. Soccer’s Coaching Education Department will conduct a Symposium Oct. 8-9.  The theme for the two-day event will be focused around “Creating a Professional Training Environment.”  This will be in conjunction with the U.S. Men’s National Team game against Poland at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.

On Oct. 8, the registered coaches will attend the U.S. National Team training session at Soldier Field in advance of the team’s match against Poland on Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. CT.  After practice, members of the National Team staff will address the group about the specifics of practice and the following day’s match.

Attendees will then make their way to Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill., to watch the Chicago Fire take on the Columbus Crew.  The game is scheduled to kick-off at 8 p.m. CT.

On Oct. 9, U.S. Soccer Technical Advisor Louis Mateus will address the attendees at the U.S. Soccer Training Center at Toyota Park.  Mateus, a former youth coach with the Chicago Fire, will invite local players to attend training sessions run by National Team Staff Coaches.  The Training Centers are being held in conjunction with local clubs and state associations to identify players with national team potential.

Following the Training Center activities, coaches will return to Soldier Field to get an up and close view of the pre-game warm-ups.  The two-day symposium will conclude with post-game remarks from the National Team staff.

Cost for the symposium is $110 for active U.S. Soccer CoachesNet members and $120 for non-members. Registration is open to all coaches. Space is limited.

U.S. Soccer “A” licensed coaches will earn two “Continuing Education Units” for attending the two-day symposium.

Tentative Schedule

Friday, Oct. 8
4-4:30 p.m. - Symposium Registration
5-6 p.m. - U.S. MNT Training (Soldier Field)
8 p.m. - Chicago Fire vs. Columbus Crew (Toyota Park)
 
Saturday, Oct. 9
12-1 p.m. - Lecture - Professional Environment (Toyota Park)
1:15-3:15 p.m. - U.S. Soccer Training Center (Toyota Park)
6-6:15 p.m. - Pre-Game Overview (Soldier Field)
6:15-6:45 p.m. - U.S. MNT Training (Soldier Field)
7 p.m. - Kickoff

Post-Game
Lecture - Post-Match Analysis
Schedule is subject to change* 

Questions regarding the symposium schedule can be directed to Bryan Koch in the U.S. Soccer Coaching Department at: bkoch@ussoccer.org or 312-528-1219.

Quick look at the recent history between the U.S. and Poland:

June 14, 2002: Poland 3, USA 1 at the 2002 World Cup in Daejeon, South Korea. Landon Donovan scored the Americans' only goal.

March 31, 2004: USA 1, Poland 0 in Plock, Poland. A first-half goal from DaMarcus Beasley gave the U.S. its first win in Europe under Bruce Arena.

July 11, 2004: USA 1, Poland 1 in Chicago. Carlos Bocanegra scored late as the second game of the home-and-home ended in a draw.

March 1, 2006: USA 1, Poland 0 in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Clint Dempsey's fourth international goal a preview of his strike against Ghana at that summer's World Cup.

March 26, 2008: USA 3, Poland 0 in Krakow, Poland. Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu and Eddie Lewis score in a road rout. Two days later, the U.S. loses 2-0 to England.

U.S. MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM, HEAD COACH HAS THE PEDIGREE

Bob Bradley has once again been handed the reigns as the U. S. Men’s National Team Coach.  The team begins its journey towards the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Bred in the ranks of American soccer, the New Jersey native is familiar with the players, coaches and structure of the sport at all levels.  He has parlayed that familiarity along with his soccer pedigree into unprecedented success at each level.
In South Africa, Bradley led the U.S. to an undefeated record in group play for the first time en route to a first-place group finish for the first time in 80 years. After tying group favorites England, the team rallied from a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 with Slovenia to set up the dramatic third group game against Algeria.  The 1-0 victory – the USA’s first ever point and victory in the third group game of the tournament – lifted the U.S. to first place in the group with five points, the most points ever in group play of a World Cup.

As the 33rd head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team; he is the first coach to win his first three games in charge with victories against Denmark, Mexico and Ecuador.  Initially named interim head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team on Dec. 8, 2006, he had the interim tag removed on May 16, 2007.  Bradley concluded his first year with a 12-5-1 record while capturing the 2007 Gold Cup crown, the regional championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The title earned the U.S. a place in the 2009 Confederations Cup.

In 2008, the U.S. kicked off its qualifying campaign for South Africa with an 8-0 victory against Barbados that was the largest victory ever for the U.S. in a qualifier.  The momentum continued as the U.S. won three-straight road qualifiers for the first time to go 7-1-0 during the second and semifinal rounds.  Overall in Bradley’s second year, the U.S. team posted its best scoring and defending marks in a year with more than 10 games, scoring a record 2.14 goals per 90 minutes while allowing just 0.57 goals per 90 minutes.

Bradley’s third year in charge was one of the most successful years in U.S. history.  The team finished atop the CONCACAF final round standings to qualify for South Africa 2010 with a 6-2-2 record. He also guided the team at the 2009 FIFA Confederation Cup in South Africa where the U.S. team advanced to its first final in a FIFA tournament as the U.S. upset then-No. 1 Spain in the semifinals.  The U.S. lost to Brazil in the final, but still ended up with its best finish in a FIFA men’s event.

In four years, Bradley has quickly become the second-winningest coach in U.S. history with 38 wins, and the 42 goals scored by the U.S. in qualifying were the most of any team in the world. Other milestones include leading the U.S. to three straight road victories (Oct. 17, 2007, at Switzerland, Nov. 17 at South Africa and March 26, 2008, at Poland) for the first time, including the first back-to-back wins for the U.S. in Europe (Switzerland, Poland). He has led the team to a record six-straight wins in World Cup qualifying and is the only coach other than Bora Milutinovic (1991, 1993) to lead the U.S. into back-to-back Gold Cup finals.

Bradley used 92 different players, including 48 Men’s National Team debutants, during the first 66 games of his tenure from a 3-1 victory against Denmark on Jan. 20, 2007, to the final game of the 2010 World Cup.

Bradley joined U.S. Soccer after nine seasons as a head coach in Major League Soccer, having accumulated the most victories of any coach in league history at the time. He previously served as assistant coach for the U.S. U-23 Men’s National Team, holding that position during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

The first two-time Coach of the Year winner in MLS history and first to record 100 wins, Bradley brought his teams to the playoffs in each of his first nine seasons as a head coach.  The first coach to lead an expansion team to a league championship title in its debut season, his Chicago Fire claimed MLS Cup in 1998. That same year, Bradley guided the Fire to their first U.S. Open Cup crown while earning the first of his Coach of the Year titles.  Bradley won his second U.S. Open Cup title with Chicago in 2000.

After three seasons at the MetroStars, Bradley joined second-year expansion side Chivas USA in 2006, orchestrating the club’s turnaround from having the league’s worst record in 2005 into finishing in the top three in goals scored and qualifying for the playoffs the following year.  That performance once again earned Bradley MLS Coach of the Year honors.  His coaching record in MLS stands at 124-94-54. Bradley began his MLS career serving as Bruce Arena’s top assistant during D.C. United’s first two title-winning campaigns (1996, 1997), capturing back-to-back MLS Cups (1996, 1997) and one U.S. Open Cup (1996) with the charter MLS club.

A 1980 graduate of Princeton University, where he led the Tigers in scoring his senior year while completing his history degree, Bradley assumed his first head coaching job at age 22, leading the Ohio University men’s soccer program (1981) while finishing his master’s in sports administration at the school.

Hired in 1983 by Bruce Arena to serve as his assistant at University of Virginia (1983-1984), Bradley returned to Princeton in 1984, where in 12 seasons (1984-1995) he led his alma mater to two Ivy League titles (1988, 1993) and Princeton’s only NCAA Final Four berth to date (1993).

It is a sports family.  Bob’s brother Scott, played  for the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, and is currently the Princeton baseball coach, while another brother Jeff, is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.  Bob has a son playing professional soccer in Germany.

Raymond Rolak is a Michigan based Sports Broadcaster and David Applegate is Media Coordinator of U.S. Soccer.