Bob Bradley Quotations

I didn't have a good feeling with the way things were handled in New York. It still doesn't sit right with me.

From our standpoint, this is the most important game we've played yet and the responsibility is on us to really make this into a true rivalry.

I believe that the starting points for building a good team are in place. Now we've got to keep going. It's a process. Then as we go, you know what, we can start to figure out what's realistic and where we are. Where are we in the standings? Are we still in position to set our sights on other things? Are we fighting to make the playoffs? You go a little bit at a time.

Certainly, he's one of the players I am really counting on to set a good example and a good tone each day.

When he was let go, I knew in our building process that having a player like Timmy can only help us in all ways. Timmy is a great professional and he's a plus to every team he's on. He works hard every day. He has a terrific attitude and mentality. He can play a number of positions. He's one of the fittest guys on the team.

We looked hard at some of the things that we did wrong at the end of the game yet we made sure everybody understands that it is that kind of hard work that will eventually turn those games into wins. There were a lot of good signs. I really thought the response coming out of the second half was excellent. We picked up the level of play. We did a good job of pushing to get the second goal. We'll learn from those mistakes.

I always knew that he would still have defensive qualities. They don't go away. He's not fast but he was never that fast. He reads things. He puts attackers on his terms. He knows how to slow guys down. For me, it was just a matter of seeing one, if he was healthy and two, if he was just really strong in terms of his motivation. I think he's shown both.

He is a winner and he is a fighter. I had great respect for the way he played when he joined the team last year. That is a great starting point. Peter Nowak was a winner and a fighter and when you have that mentality from your best players it sets the tone.

He is a goal scorer who possesses a good left foot and has had experience with championship teams.

Looking back on calls never gets a team anywhere. The game is still like that and you have to focus on how you improve. You hope the breaks balance out over the season. Things have gone against us a little bit the last two games but it doesn't change what we want to do.

That actually works well but we'll try to keep the rest the same. They had Sunday and Monday off and now we'll work hard through this week. Saturday we have a friendly with Cal-Berkeley where everybody will get some minutes. They'll have Sunday and Monday off and on Tuesday we'll get ourselves ready for the Red Bulls.

Plain and simple, when you start a season, you start with the idea that you want to win a championship. How you get there is another thing. When we start training today, it's not with the idea of 'Oh, maybe we can do a little better than last year.' No, no. It's the idea that this is the first day of a process that can put us in position to win a championship.

I saw the replay on the board and from what you see it looks like he took it down and put the ball back into the net. The explanation was that it was a deliberate handball.

I saw the replay on the board and from what you see it looks like he took it down and put the ball back into the net. The explanation was that it was a deliberate handball.

Last weekend was a weekend when a few results kept things very tight. I still believe that it says a lot about the conference that everybody's grouped so closely and that really winning a game at the right time, making a couple of plays at the right time, those are the things that really will determine the standings and the playoff pairings.

Landon has the ability to drift wide if he thinks things are tight in the middle. It's just important that as a team we can keep track of him and whoever is called on is ready to deal with him, especially his speed. His timing, his running into the attack is something that works real well for him.

I still think it will happen. I think this was a little setback but there's no reason why he can't push himself forward.

I think (Wynne as first pick) is the general consensus -- most people would say he's the likely No. 1, and he's earned that. He's obviously a special kind of athlete. And when you talk about somebody who can adjust and play right away, his athletic qualities allow him to do that.

Our wide players have to (have) a better understanding of when they're out wide, when they're helping inside ... especially on a wide field. They can't be standing out by the touchlines and now expecting that one or two guys in the center of the field are going to take care of everything.

Our people's standard of living has gone way up. People have been able to buy washers and dryers and cars. They've put new roofs on their homes. We've been able to buy more Christmas gifts than ever before.

I think Ryan has experience, he's a good competitor. The question is can his experience and competitiveness help us as we go down the stretch? That's the reason why we picked him up.

It gave us a chance to focus on getting people healthy and focus on improving. I'm not sure it would have been our choice but that's how it went.

I think you have to make it a two-way game that puts them under pressure and highlights some of the areas where they are not as strong. Give them credit. They've had a good season. They're a balanced team and work hard. They've got a bunch of players that have been together, know each other and seem to have fun playing together.

We don't have to, but we're always looking everywhere.

Most of our preseason is focused here around The Home Depot Center. The fact that so many MLS teams will be in this area gives us a chance to play against them and to really focus ourselves on what it takes to be successful here.

We really need to make sure that the mentality in terms of what training needs to be like every day, how to be stronger, how to compete. ... I really felt like that part needed to get put in place and that without that we were not going to step forward the way we wanted.

That's the reason why we brought him (here), because we felt that he can bring those types of special qualities to our team. ... I think it's been great to see.

We're a different team. We are making progress. That doesn't mean it's always going to happen all at once. The game can be cruel sometimes. I still remind the players that that's true on all levels. I mentioned Bayern Munich-Manchester United to them today because that is one of the most obvious examples.

We've changed throughout preseason. I feel like we're continuing to look at different combinations and see what works and we need that type of flexibility as we through the season. We still have a ways to go. For me, it's still good to see guys moving themselves forward. There's a group that's doing pretty well.

We've tried to create a good understanding of how to play as a unit based upon the team we're playing against. We always try to build around the strengths of the players.

We've tried to see if on certain days we can play three in the back and certain days play four based on our opponents. In that regard we try to create a good understanding on how to play and not worry about the formation.

We've very lucky that John is a complete player. He can play an attacking role in the midfield and he can play more of a defensive role.

We're hopeful that we can put the last touches on that. We all know that John is an excellent player that I think would be a great addition in terms of the way he plays and the things that he does on the field.

When I talk about the mentality and how we play and how we're organized, all of that has to work so that now in the midfield we are harder to play against. It's not enough to think that we're good with the ball and that alone will win every game. We want to continue to be good with the ball but that must work now collectively.

It was very close. The replays of the free kick seemed to indicate the ball was over the line.

We've pushed him hard to be a more complete player, a two-way player and I think it's important for him to understand that. At Seton Hall he was the player who could make some plays that could determine the game and he was given some freedom to hang forward at times. I'm not sure he'll fill that role here. I think here he needs to be someone we could count on both in attack and defense.

We feel like we are going in the right direction. But we also recognize that becoming a good team is hard work and you learn to deal with things that go against you, whether it's a game that goes against you or calls at key moments because you have to be able to deal with the things that don't go your way in order to become very good.

Brad has had a good stretch of training with the national team. He'll be with them a while longer with the possibility of getting into a game. I'm hoping that will happen.

Bruce has communicated very clearly with him. He knows it's imperative that he moves himself along.

Bringing in some experienced players here to ensure day in and day out that we are establishing the right kinds of habits ... goes a long way towards setting a tone.

They take a different look all the time. There's times when there are four in the back but an outside back has pushed into the midfield so now there's only three. There's time when there's three in the back and one of the wide midfielders is pulled deep and it looks like four. It's not the most important thing in terms of our organization and our understanding of the field.

I've always felt that you try in MLS to find a balance. You need young talent. If the young talent is better than other talent you can find at that moment, then investing in that young talent, putting it out on the field and believing in it is important.

Youri was not pleased with the way he played early on. He seems to raise his level of play when most needed.

I know what happened last year but I always try to look at what's going on this year. I try to see the whole picture and try to figure out with the rest of the staff who we think can make us a better team. I don't know if there's a definite formula of how much of last year counts but it's part of what you do every year.

I know that's really important and yet I also try and create an environment where there's a strong group of players to provide leadership, not just one.

I'm assuming he'll be down in Cary but then it's going to be up to him that all this work that has gone in thus far is going to mean that by the time he gets there he will be ready to go at it every day. Bruce has been pretty clear about that.

I'm interested to see where he is because I have not seen him play in a few years. He's one of these ageless, timeless veteran players that always seems to know how to play in the defense. Hopefully over time we can size that up.

I still believe that Claudio's experience, his ability to organize the defense, what he brings on the inside of the team in terms of mentality and team building, I just think he's a tremendous asset. He has a tremendous understanding of how to organize people around him, of how to communicate, of how to make (people) better and I think that will go a long way for our team.

Not good goals, obviously a ball turned over early in the first half and Ryan Pore was able to get Jeff on the wrong foot and Tony was cheating a little bit, thinking that the ball was coming across and he got caught. We worked hard to get back to 1-1. Now to continue that push and keep the game even until we get chances to win. Again, early in the second half, it was a tough goal to give up.

It's necessary to be cautious as he comes back this time because the knee continues to cause some problems for him.

It's got to be like that on the field. Ultimately it's going to be like that in the stands, and we can build on that. That's our goal.

I still believe that Ramon can help us with that. Last year ... I feel like Ramon worked very hard but I feel sometimes he was asked to do so much by himself. Forget the age for a minute -- no one can do it by (himself). It has to be collective. I still feel he can add to that.

It's important that we push him along but not push him to do too much too soon, so we've got to gauge that in the next few days. It's always enticing to get him on the field as much as we can.

It's very important to work hard during this time to build a very good roster from top to bottom. We have a big group of players in. There are some that we will quickly let go and we will bring others in and try to use this time to look at different possibilities for how to improve our roster.

It takes a lot of work to come back from two goals. I thought we had some good chances. At the end you are looking for a miracle and we got one.

In the back I hope that the addition of Claudio Suarez will help because I feel that his experience will go a long way in terms of organization.

In terms of getting him back, it was slower than we all hoped. This past week was disappointing for him and disappointing for us because we were all hopeful to have him on the field.

He's still working his way back into full fitness and it's a wet field, so it didn't feel like it made sense to use him. We'll gauge where he is and hopefully we can keep moving along.

Things establish themselves. Every day, the training is right and guys are pushing each other and then from that we are able to start to piece the little things together.

It's an area where we must improve. It's early. It's still a matter of seeing in training and in some of the exhibition games how things work, where we need to continue to focus, who looks good and that kind of stuff.

A sea of humanity. What a wonderful sight to see at the start.

After we took the lead, we had stretches where we played very well. We pushed to get a second goal to try to finish the match and we didn't and we paid the price.

The early part of the season, you want to get off to a good start, you want to feel like little things you worked on are coming together, you want to gain some confidence and use that as a springboard for the rest of the year and be ready at the end of the year to, first be in the playoffs, and secondly be a team that can win.

You can only do goals for shorter periods of time. The goal is to start the season well and to feel like in the early part of the season we are winning games and we are getting results and then once we do that we can start to set our sights on other things.

It's like any other game. Early on it will be a battle to see which team can get the edge, can impose itself on the other team. They'll enter the game with more optimism, excited about some new talent. But then it's our job, especially at home, to get on top of them in a way that takes that factor out of the picture.

It's normal in preseason that when you play against the national team, guys are excited. It's a little different kind of game than normal. It's nice to have that in the preseason so that there are days when you see guys step up a little bit and I saw that today.

It's not just about the defenders because we must defend well as a team starting with the frontrunners and make sure that in the midfield things are tighter.

It was good for our team to trade the first pick, because we got three excellent players and not just one. Jason is a great defender. I like the way Sacha sees the game and the way that Jonathan moves on the left side. I'm really happy about our picks.

We certainly will need to have a third goalkeeper on our roster somewhere, so we're still wide open in terms of how we put it together.

It says a lot about Claudio that he's here, he's on the field and he's getting to know people. He brings great qualities in that regard. We need that for sure.

The last time I thought about it was ... a few weeks ago. It's not something that is on the front burner in terms of the work that's being done right now.

The makeup of our team has changed a great deal. When you put players like Claudio Suarez on the field who have been in so many big games ... players with that kind of experience, it gives us a different mentality. With this group, there will be no concessions. Our guys feel like we're a good team and now we're ready to really go after the Galaxy and try to put them on their heels and really make it a good game.

All of that fits with how a team is coming together. When you have new players and trial players and everything else, it's silly to start talking about anything else.