U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley was brought up the way most soccer-crazy kids can only dream about — by hanging out with the pros. At the age of nine, writes Steven Goff, he would spend his summers watching and then knocking the ball around with John Harkes and Marco Etcheverry. It helped that his dad, current U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley, was D.C. United’s assistant coach at the time.
“Seeing how guys did things, how they acted and how they trained, being in that environment, you pick up things without even realizing it,” said Bradley, currently playing his club soccer with Borussia Moenchengladbach in the German Bundesliga. “It becomes the only way that you know how to do everything. A lot of other kids in America, maybe the first time they are exposed to that environment is as a professional. I was lucky. I was 9 years old and already getting a feel for it.
“It was the only thing I knew. Aside from having to go to school, soccer was all I did. I was always around it. The weekend would come and I’d watch games on TV from Europe. I don’t think there was one day where I suddenly decided to pursue it as a career. It was always what I wanted to do.”
Playing for his father has attracted what Goff calls “largely unfounded criticism from fans.” But Bradley Junior isn’t much bothered by it. “It’s not something I can change,” he said. “People will talk, but it’s not something I worry about. The most important thing for me is that every time I come into camp — the way I play, the way I train, the way I act — I am able to earn the respect of the other guys on the team and the coaches. If I can accomplish that, I couldn’t care less what a bunch of people on the outside think.”