TORONTO—There were no champagne bottles uncorked in the Toronto FC locker room on Wednesday night. There was no hooting and hollering. No barrage of high fives. No loud music.
There were a few “tall boys” of Stella Artois, but other than that, there was no hint of a wild celebration. It was such a subdued scene that you’d never have known TFC earned their first MLS playoff victory in franchise history just 20 minutes earlier.
TFC’s captain Michael Bradley set the tone for the rest of his teammates to follow with his trademark muted demeanour. Instead of walking around with his chest puffed out, Bradley sat in his stall, eating a slice of pizza, before breaking his silence to ask if anybody knew how the Raptors did.
This is Michael Bradley. He’s all business. He’s focused. He’s intense—even after the final whistle has blown.
That’s not to say he’s some sort of drone, or that he plays the game without passion and emotion. He does. But he carries himself with a quiet grace, going about his life without making too much noise or trying to draw attention to himself.
Bradley is the same way on the field, and maybe that’s why he’s always divided opinion among fans and those in the media who cover the team during his time in Toronto. His is a subtle and nuanced game. It’s not at all flashy. While Sebastian Giovinco scores high-light reel goals, Jonathan Osorio goes on darting runs, and Clint Irwin makes fabulous saves, Bradley’s contributions, significant as they are, often go unnoticed.
Wednesday night’s 3-1 win over the visiting Philadelphia Union was the perfect example. An examination of the official end-of-game stats sheets reveals a series of zeroes next to his name: 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 shots, 0 shots on target.
Dive deeper, though, and you’ll discover he had a big impact, as he picked off four Philadelphia passes, made two defensive clearances inside his penalty area, and he made several important tackles. As usual, he did an astute job of protecting the defence and breaking up the opponent’s attack, while serving as the key midfield link between his back line and forwards.
Like a hardened, grizzled cop walking his beat, Bradley doesn’t let much slip by him.
“Michael, I thought, was fantastic in patrolling that space in front of the back three; doubling balls when guys were receiving it, he was quick to get over there and work with other players to pick off balls, jump on the second ball and I thought it was one of his best games of the year in terms of breaking up plays,” coach Greg Vanney enthused after Wednesday’s win.
“I think it was one of those games because there wasn’t a ton of possession, you didn’t see Michael orchestrating a lot of plays, but he did the other side of it, doing the dogged work of cleaning up things in midfield and keeping the ball moving to the next guy.”
As much as TFC’s defensive renaissance this seasons owes to the additions of Drew Moor, Steven Beitashour and Clint Irwin, Bradley has played a major role in the Reds boasting the second-best defence in MLS in 2016 (39 goals against, down from a league-high 58 in 2015).
Bradley’s new assignment is part and parcel of the Reds’ change in tactical focus on defensive organization preached by Vanney since the start of pre-season.
The veteran midfielder scored five goals in 2015, and took over 50 shots in each of the last two seasons, with 29 of them on target. Bradley played practically the same number of games in 2016 as he has in each of the past two years, but his offensive stats dropped off drastically. The TFC captain took only 12 shots (three on target) the entire campaign, and his only goal of the year came in mid-September.
“He’s playing in a deeper role in midfield, and his role for us this year is to more connect the [defence] into the attack, that first phase of attack,” Vanney explained earlier this season. “On the defending side, [he’s had to be] a little bit more accountable to defending some of the spaces in transition and protecting our back group.
“Inherently, he ends up in slightly deeper positions than he has in the last couple of years. [In 2015) he was more of the attacking midfielder in the diamond, so we were asking him to get through gaps and to get himself into goal-scoring positions. That’s the main reason why he’s had less [shot] attempts this year.”
While the American international has had to somewhat supress his attacking instincts, there’s no question that he’s still influencing games in this more defensive role.
WhoScored.com recently released its MLS player rankings for the 2016 season. It calculates player rankings using “a unique, comprehensive statistical algorithm, calculated live during the game,” the notable website said. WhoScored.com uses 200 raw statistics, weighted according to their influence—every event during the game is considered, with a positive or negative effect on ratings weighted in relation to its area on the pitch and its outcome.
Giovinco tops the list with a rating of 7.76 out of 10. Bradley finished with a 7.28 score, tied for eighth overall with 2016 Golden Boot winner (and probable MVP) Bradley Wright-Phillips of the New York Red Bulls.
Bradley’s intensity clearly paid off for TFC this season, but sometimes it can land him in trouble. The Toronto captain earned the first yellow card of Wednesday’s game for a tackle on Philly’s Tranquillo Barnetta. It was a late tackle, to be sure, and deserved to be whistled for a foul. But it was hardly a rash or malicious challenge, and by all objective measures Bradley didn’t deserve a caution.
Nevertheless, Bradley is in a bit of a predicament here—if he picks up another yellow in Sunday’s home match against New York City FC in the first leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals he’ll be suspended for the decisive return match at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 6.
But don’t expect Bradley to walk on egg shells, try to tread a fine line, or alter his game in any significant way now that he’s a caution away from being suspended.
“Not ideal, but it’s not the first time. You still have to play; you still have to compete,” Bradley said.
“There are certain plays where you know you have to be a little extra careful, but you can’t let it change who you are. Obviously going forward, sure, it’s something to think about. But having said that, it can’t change what you’re about.”
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