Michael Bradley is a hot head, but you knew that

You remember this, don't you?



Quite possibly the softest of the three red cards the US earned in its five match stay in South Africa, this tackle has led to a four game suspension for young Mr. Bradley. His daddy must be so proud.

Of course, his daddy is the coach, so this transgression will probably be forgotten as soon as the suspension is over.

The full weight of the four games was brought down on Bradley, not solely because of the tackle itself, but because Bradley allegedly had words with referee Jorge Larrionda in the tunnel after the match. Spanish paper AS (possibly making shit up because the US team vanquished their unbeatable heroes) even went so far as to claim Bradley physically assaulted Larrionda, though FIFA found no merit in that particular claim. FIFA did rule that Bradley violated article 49 of their Disciplinary Code, which means that he showed unsporting conduct toward a match official. Considering the reaction above probably did not merit such a censure, the idea that there was a post-match face-to-face between the two seems to be the ebst available answer. Occam's Razor and all that.

Here's the good-ish news--Bradley's suspension will effectively be over at about 11PM EDT on Wednesday. Even though he is not on the Gold Cup roster, Bradley will get credit for the Brazil final, the walkover against Grenada and Wednesday's upcoming match against Honduras. The fourth match will itself be suspended, provided that Bradley keeps his nose clean for six months. Here at UF, we put the odds at about 75-25 that Bradley will eventually have to serve his fourth match of the suspension. I mean, it's almost a given that he picks up a red at the Azteca on August 12th, right?