Bradley and Guzan rejoin US team for first time since Trinidad

TAMPA: Midfielder Michael Bradley (pic) and goalkeeper Brad Guzan are back with the United States national team, two days shy of the first anniversary of the most crushing defeat in the team’s history.

Bradley captained the Americans for the 2-1 loss at Trinidad and Tobago last Oct 10 that ended the US’ streak of seven straight World Cup appearances.

Guzan was on the bench and watched the Soca Warriors twice beat Tim Howard.

Coach Bruce Arena quit three days later and the team have been run on an interim basis by his top assistant, Dave Sarachan, who has given debuts to 18 players in eight matches while leaving the most of the veterans out until now.

The 31-year-old Bradley and 34-year-old Guzan are two-time World Cup veterans and among a handful of the old guard who have a chance to play a significant role in the cycle leading to the 2022 World Cup.

“I think there’s a number of young guys who over this last stretch have done well and who have shown that going forward they need to be a big part of things as we start to try to put a team together that can move into a Gold Cup next summer and start to move into meaningful competitive games,” Bradley said on Monday.

“It’s important the balance in the group is right and this is another step in that process.”

Sarachan has not used anyone older than 30 until now and three players older than 29 but none extensively: defenders Tim Ream and Justin Morrow and midfielder Alejandro Bedoya.

Bradley, a son of former US coach Bob Bradley, has 17 goals in 140 international appearances and with his next match will tie Clint Dempsey for third on the American list behind Cobi Jones (164) and Landon Donovan (157). Guzan has 58 international appearances.

“They understand what their role is,” Sarachan said.

“First and foremost, they’re competing for a job and they want to play.

“So their role isn’t to coach, their role isn’t to mentor but it is part of the big package of everything when you have experience.”

The US play Colombia tomorrow in Tampa and Peru on Oct 16 at East Hartford, Connecticut.

“The timing was right,” Sarachan said.

“It’s going to be real good to have a few of the veterans like Michael and Brad in the mix with this group.

“We’re talking about a group here that has collectively over 400 caps and Michael has 140 caps.

“That’s a valuable resource to have.”