Bradley has eyes on team trophy
Sounders ‘didn’t steal anything,’ says Reds’ superstar
TORONTO — He’s the Most Valuable Player on the best team in MLS history. He’s also the most detested player by a swath of U.S. fans who continue to show fan education is just as lacking south of the border as the Yanks were in World Cup qualifying.
Michael Bradley wasn’t just snubbed in league MVP voting this season. Toronto FC’s captain was a notable omission from last week’s MLS Best XI, a laughable list with some puzzling inclusions.
“I didn’t come to Toronto to win Best XI. I can promise you that,” Bradley said with a chuckle a week before his Reds host the Seattle Sounders in a mouthwatering MLS Cup rematch.
Bradley agreed to an extended sit-down with the Postmedia Network before a Who’s Who of North American soccer icons and journalists and pundits and top brass descended on the Big Smoke.
He reflected back while addressing naysayers who continue to question Toronto FC’s quality. He also plainly stated why individual accolades are meaningless at this point in his career.
“As long as everybody around here understands and has respect and appreciation for who I am and what I’m about, and as long as my teammates and coaches and everybody in this club and our fans know that when push comes to shove, the only thing I care about is us winning trophies, that’s all I’ll ever need,” Bradley said.
He’s hoisted five of six trophies he’s competed for since last year’s Eastern Conference final — including the Supporters’ Shield, Canadian Championship and Trillium Cup.
Yet, one trophy, the biggest trophy, remains elusive after the Sounders stunned Bradley’s Reds on penalties last December.
“The conference trophies are important because they give you the chance to get to the big one. But those don’t carry anywhere near the same weight (as MLS Cup),” Bradley told Postmedia Network. “The Supporters’ Shield, Canadian Championship, Gold Cup are trophies that I went after and the teams I was on went after. You have people who try to discredit all three of those in different ways.”
Bradley continued: “That’s fine. But those people probably don’t know what it’s like to compete at the highest level and spill your heart and soul into something and to try and achieve something.”
Those people, those doubters, remain omnipresent. One analyst this week called TFC the “supposed” best team in MLS history before picking the Sounders in another upset win.
Another pundit added the Reds were “going out of form” before calling out Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco.
Never mind the fact TFC’s strikers combined for a series-winning goal days earlier.
“Some of that (criticism) is our own doing in terms of how good and how dominant we were during the regular season,” Bradley answered. “Some people probably expected us to just be able to continue that in the playoffs and role through things. There’s probably not an appreciation for what the playoffs are and how different they are.
“Everything gets tighter in the playoffs. The margins become smaller. For the teams that couldn’t find the right way to make sure they were ready for certain regular season games, it’s easy to get ready for games now. If you’re not ready, your season’s over. Everything becomes tighter. The weather cools down. The fields aren’t necessarily as conducive to playing perfect football.”
Whereas the Seattle Sounders waltzed through a pitiful Western Conference playoff field, the Reds were made to slog it out against well-coached sides bent on spoiling their record-setting season.
Yes, the Reds “survived” backto-back series against the Red Bulls and Columbus. But the fact they survived such tests points to a mentality Bradley says most MLS sides don’t have.
“The Red Bulls were, in some ways, the perfect foil,” Bradley reflected back. “The way they play is perfect to surprise and disrupt. I’ll go to my grave saying that so many teams would have lost their way in that series.
“We’ve seen it so many times in the history of this league — a team wins the Supporters’ Shield but they’re not ready for the difference in the playoffs. They’re not ready for things getting cranked up.
“They’re not ready to embrace the tough moments. We understood from the beginning that (the playoffs) weren’t going to be the same (as the regular season).”
One team (the 2011 L.A. Galaxy) has claimed both the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup since Toronto FC entered MLS in 2007.
“Our ability to win games in different ways has meant we’re sitting where we are right now,” Bradley added. “If people don’t recognize that or appreciate that, that’s their problem. It doesn’t bother me one bit.”
“The focus and the single-mindedness of our team has been like nothing I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t faze us. It doesn’t throw us off. We see a lot of (what’s being said). We laugh about a lot of it.”
Expressions shift, however, when attention turns to the Sounders, a side bent on spoiling TFC’s Christmas for a second-straight season.
The 2017 Sounders are a better version of the listless side that grinded out an ugly MLS Cup win one year ago.
“They didn’t steal anything,” Bradley said when reminded the Sounders didn’t produce a shot on frame. “They played the hand they had at that time and they got to lift the trophy.
“Everyone gets the chance to play, to compete, to go about it however they want. At the end, you won’t hear me pointing fingers and blaming them for how they won. They won.”
Now the Reds have a chance to right that wrong — to do what they feel they already should have done.
“You don’t get a million chances,” Bradley said. “Before the second leg against Columbus we said, ‘Let’s make sure we spill our guts on this field to get ourselves back to a final.’ ”
“When you’re on the doorstep, the emotions of what it means to be so close to a final, to a game where you have a chance to win something, you can’t explain to anybody. They’re why you play.”
In other words, league awards are usually coveted more by those who aren’t playing on the final day.