Actually, that's a question for you and the comments section below.

JoePublic got it started with this:

The subject that really has me frosted just now, Bradley's gotta go. The national team has put it in reverse, despite the fact we have more talented players now than ever. (Can we get a thread, DR?)

I remember in the early '90s US Soccer people talked publicly about developing players and teams good enough to challenge for the 2010 World Cup.

Um, dit-da-dit-da-dit, this just in: It ain't gonna happen.

The Costa Rica performance was the worst by a US team in many years. And now we've been held up against the gold standard in Italy and Brazil and found very, very wanting. You can see in the players that whatever confidence they had left is now gone.

I respect Bob Bradley but the time has come for him to go. The team has reasonably talented players, but there is no focus, no style, no concerted effort to play to strengths and conceal weaknesses, no sense at all that we have a plan. It's more like we're out there making up the numbers, like running, jumping practice cones.

I don't know who we ought to bring it, but it should be a manager with a proven record of success on the international stage. I suspect the USSF has money coming out its ears, so pay shouldn't be an issue. In the last negotiations with Klinsmann it sounded like the deal broke down because USSF didn't want to give him the control he was seeking for issues beyond the immediate team -- my recollection of that could be off. But it appears the federation does not know best in that regard.

That said, I am not convinced that Klinsmann is the answer. He has not done well since the last World Cup. On the other hand, he is available, and he can bring a plan and some international knowledge to the team. We could do worse, I guess.

I would like for this to happen quickly. Get a new guy in there to get acquainted with the team in the Gold Cup, which is not that important a tournament this year, and then get things moving in the right direction in the qualification matches. We will lose to Mexico in August, no matter what, but after that we have to get a team playing with purpose to finish off the hexagonal and book our place in the finals next summer.

But we cannot afford to come out of another World Cup finals without getting out of our group. We can't settle for minnow status, but that's where we are heading just now.

Thank you for letting me vent.

It's actually a very good time for this discussion, with the Confederations Cup disaster playing out, with the US team coming to Seattle for the Gold Cup, and of course, with World Cup qualifying.

Plus, the Sounders are in New Jersey today, so I don't know if any particular news will be coming from there until Saturday.

So: Thoughts?

Kells Irish Restaurant and Pub in downtown Seattle will host a viewing party Saturday while Seattle Sounders FC visits the New York Red Bulld. The event is a fund-raiser to benefit 'Kicks 4 Kids."

The event will be held 4-8 p.m. Saturday at Kells,
1916 Post Alley in Seattle near the Pike Place Market. Autographed Sounders FC items, match tickets, restaurant gift certificates and much more will be raffled.

Then on July 1, Doyles Public House in Tacoma is sending a supporter bus down to Portland for the U.S. Open Cup game between the Sounders and the Timbers.

The $60 charge include game ticket - section 218 first 3 rows - and round-trip transportation. The bus will leave at 3 p.m. and is expected back round midnight. Beer and bathroom will be available on board, and therefore no minors. Fifty-six seats are available, and as the Doyle's release points out:
"There is safety in numbers when traveling to far off lands."