Sport Watch

Filed under: PGA, FedEx Cup

PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — Matt Kuchar‘s fortunes took quite a turn Sunday, and so did his golf ball.

Kuchar beat Martin Laird in a playoff at The Barclays with a shot out of the rough that rolled toward the back of the 18th green, then caught enough of the slope to turn back toward the hole and stop 30 inches away for a birdie.

It was a stunning conclusion to the first FedEx Cup playoff event.

Kuchar closed with a 5-under 66, and it didn’t look as though it would be enough. Laird had a one-shot lead and needed two putts from just inside 25 feet for the victory, when he ran his putt 7 feet past the hole. He missed the par putt, setting up the playoff.

The timing could not have been better for Kuchar.

His first victory of the year came two weeks after he made his first Ryder Cup team, and the win can only give him a shot of confidence. Kuchar moved to No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings by winning the first playoff event, giving him a good shot at the $10 million prize. And his third career win is likely to move him to a career-best No. 10 in the world ranking.

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Tiger Woods continues to make progress, which in this case means he gets to keep going.

Woods, who started these playoffs at No. 112 in the standings, closed with a 4-under 67 to easily make the top 100 who advance to the second round next week at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Woods tied for 12th, his best finish since June, and moved up to No. 65.

 

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Filed under: English Premier League, US Soccer, U.S. Men’s National Team

Aston Villa has done its part to extinguish the relatively ludicrous link between its vacant coaching position and U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley, issuing a statement from CEO Paul Faulkner that said, in part, that “experience of managing in the Premier League” is a quality of of “crucial importance” for the new hire.

That would eliminate Bradley, of course, just in case anyone out there thought that a high-profile English club would actually consider an American coach. The time may come when the board of a major European club possess both the courage and respect for American soccer to pull the trigger on a move like that. Some time after that, there may be a point at which the fans wouldn’t set fire to something in protest. But both of those times are pretty far off, maybe when an NBA team considers appointing an English coach.

The link between Bradley and Villa was manufactured by journalists and bloggers who’ve become exhausted by the tedious staring contest between the coach and U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati. That’s it. The only thing affiliated with the Birmingham-based club that suggested a potential interest in Bradley was owner Randy Lerner’s U.S. passport.

English bookmakers ran with it, perhaps hoping to capitalize on naive American bettors by installing Bradley as the favorite, while Bradley himself fanned the flames by revealing his interest. Of course he’s interested. Who wouldn’t be interested in a Premier League coaching gig?

The truth is, it never would have happened. Faulkner’s comments remove any doubt.

“Two of the traits we believe are of crucial importance are that candidates have experience of managing in the Premier League and a strategy for building on the existing strengths in our current squad,” he said. Bradley, of course, has worked to acquire players only in the very non Premier League-like environments of the NCAA and MLS. There are loads of more qualified options.

“We will now start the process of interviewing candidates we believe meet the key criteria required to manage Aston Villa with a view to making an appointment in the near future,” Faulkner said.

Villa, sent reeling by Martin O’Neill’s shock resignation three weeks ago, ended a humiliating week on a high note when it beat Everton, 1-0, on Sunday. It had lost 6-0 to promoted Newcastle the prior weekend and was eliminated from the UEFA Europa League last Thursday by Rapid Vienna.

Now that Villa is moving forward in its search for a permanent manager, it’s time for Bradley and Gulati to do the same. The pair met last week in Los Angeles, but reports have suggested that the conversation was more of a World Cup debrief than a look at the future. Then word leaked that Gulati again was courting his German crush, Jürgen Klinsmann.

Bradley has no leverage. It’s not his fault that a European club isn’t ready to hire an American coach — that’s partly jingoism and partly a realistic reflection of this country’s contributions to the global game. His only real option is to campaign hard for a second four-year term. Gulati needs to make a decision and make it soon — there are friendlies against Poland and Colombia in early October that aren’t entirely unimportant.

It’s been more than two months since the U.S. was eliminated from the World Cup. It’s almost impossible to imagine that Bradley’s had any possibilities since then other than another four years with the national team or a retreat to MLS. The only plausible explanation for Gulati’s delay is that he’s been looking into the availability of other candidates. He knew he could always have had Bradley back if he wanted him, so there was no rush to tie him up.

Gulati will make his decision when he figures out if there’s another, more attractive candidate available. Meanwhile, Bradley, and the rest of us, will be left to twiddle our thumbs and conjure fantasies about an American coaching in the Premier League.

 

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Fanhouse Soccer

Filed under: US Soccer, U.S. Men’s National Team

Bob Bradley will remain the coach of the U.S. national team through the 2014 World Cup, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced late Monday afternoon. In recent days, there were indications that momentum was building against the 52-year-old New Jersey native. Instead, Bradley will guide the national team and continue to shape American soccer at its highest level for four more years.

U.S. Soccer provided no additional details or quotes from either Bradley or president Sunil Gulati, who met late last week in Los Angeles. Reports then surfaced that Gulati had resumed his pursuit of former German national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann, who had rebuffed him in 2006. There was never any confirmation of that rumor, and no other names surfaced as potential candidates. Meanwhile, Bradley expressed interest in a possible move to England, but nothing materialized.

The decision likely seems rest on the fact that each represented the best option for the other. U.S. Soccer was not going to be able to entice or afford a coach with a better resume that Bradley, and Bradley was never going to be considered a viable candidate for a high-profile job in Europe. It was either the national team or a vacation, followed by a return to Major League Soccer. That isn’t a very difficult choice.

 

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