Michael Bradley does not need to be defended by a slob on the Internet WITH OPINIONS any more than he deserves to be criticized by a slob on the Internet WITH OPINIONS. Michael Bradley has done enough in his career both for clubs and for country that the product should speak for itself. 

That said, I hope Michael Bradley and the members of his family did not read any tweets after yesterday’s match. Twitter is a lot of things. One of them is a dumping ground for the misspelled thoughts of the blissfully unaware. And so once the final whistle sounded in Manaus, the masses took to their Twitter accounts to call for the benching of Michael Bradley, using the very clever hashtag #BenchBradley.

My guess is that most of these people calling for Bradley’s benching are neophytes. I’ve yet to talk with one person that follows the US Men’s National Team religiously who thinks that benching the team’s best field player is even a remotely decent idea. 

Did Bradley play well against Ghana? No. He had probably his worst match under Jurgen Klinsmann. But Bradley didn’t play poorly yesterday against Portugal. There are, of course, the two obvious instances where the casual football observer would think that he was some kind of choking dog. But I’m not sure that casual observer is capable of noticing what a player like Bradley does over the course of 90 minutes. 

Never in my life has the US had a box-to-box midfielder with Bradley’s skill and adeptness. By American standards, he’s a terrific passer and a player you want with the ball at his feet leading a break. He’s also a guy who defends the middle of the pitch very well. He is certainly not of the class of an Arturo Vidal, Yaya Toure, or Xavi, but Bradley is undoubtedly a world football player. 

Soccer is not a sport where end of game statistics tell the entire story. Case in point: Spain out-possessed Holland 57/43 in their Group B match and still lost 5-1. For players like Bradley and Xavi, statistics aren’t the story. The world’s best goal scorers are often diminished talents without the supporting cast behind them (see: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s international careers versus their club careers). 

A prevalent (and wholly stupid) argument is that “Well, if Bradley was so good he should have scored on that “easy” shot and then the US would have won 3-2.” Soccer does not work that way. It’s often said that a 2-0 lead is the most dangerous type of lead in soccer. That is because teams will change their tactics on the fly to attack more. Portugal dominated possession in the first five minutes of yesterday’s match, leading to Nani’s goal. After that goal, the US attack built and the Portuguese seemed content to sit back, defend, and counter attack. When the US went up 2-1, Portugal stopped that tactic and started possessing the ball more, forcing the US into defend-for-your-lives mode.

It’s never as cut and dry as “tally up the shots on goal and viola! soccer!”At the risk of sounding like “That American Soccer Fan Guy,” it’s called the beautiful game for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is the amount of tactical thought and maneuvering that goes into a 90 minute match. This isn’t basketball. In the final minutes, Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t holding the ball at his feet, waving off teammates to clear a path so he could go iso with Matt Besler. Like no other sport, soccer is a team game. All 10 field players need to be in tune with each other at all times. A central midfielder, like Michael Bradley, needs to know the exact moment that his right back is going to streak up the touchline. If not, you risk a.) a pass going out of play b.) a pass being intercepted c.) that right back ending up in an offside position d.) any other number of scenarios. 

All of this leads to one central point: if you’ve watched the US Mens National Team closely since Jurgen took over, you know very well that Michael Bradley is the nucleus of the cell that is our team. With all due respect to his father, Michael was never this valuable when his dad was the at the helm of US Soccer. Jurgen has brought out the best in Bradley. To give that up now because of roughly 100 minutes of somewhat shaky football would be utterly foolish. This is not an aging, out of shape, whiny Landon Donovan, who wasn’t going to contribute much at all in this World Cup. This is a player in his prime who is maybe the primary reason why US Soccer is where it is today and a primary reason why US Soccer is headed in the direction it is tomorrow and every day after. Michael Bradley got us to this point. To turn our back on him now would seem to be quite contradictory to that other hashtag I’ve seen a lot of, #OneNationOneTeam.