12.23.15
ASN Morning Read: It's Michael Bradley's World
The midfielder wins his first United States national team Player of the Year award, which is strange because 2015 was far from his best season; a central midfielder moves south; how bad was the year?
- About time:
Congratulations to Michael Bradley on his first U.S Soccer Male Player of the Year award: https://t.co/7QEFlmYaci pic.twitter.com/gPS5u6WvpA
— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) December 23, 2015 - At least someone is winning: "The United States youth national teams’ fortunes mirrored those of their senior counterparts in 2015. While the women won consistently, the men struggled.Among the men’s teams, only the Under-20s performed close to their expected level in international competitions, with Tab Ramos’s men making a run to the quarterfinals of the World Cup before falling to eventual champion Serbia in penalties. The U-17s didn’t win a game at their World Cup, and the U-23s face a tough playoff against Colombia in order to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The women, on the other hand, lost just twice in 22 games across the U-17, U-20 and U-23 ages. The U-20s played 13 of those, winning their fourth consecutive CONCACAF U-20 Championship to qualify for the 2016 World Cup in Papua New Guinea."
- Progress: "Major League Soccer (MLS) and its tremendous growth can no longer go unnoticed. MLS has experienced a surge in interest in the recent past, with double digit growth across a variety of metrics, including local sponsorship, season tickets and attendance. In 2014, MLS had ninety-eight night games televised. This past year, MLS had all of its 340 games on air."
- So long, Omar Gonzalez. Things got weird.
- Then they got smart: Three Thoughts on Omar Gonzalez' Move to Pachuca.
- This guy: U.S. team year in review—it wasn't really that bad, was it?
