CHICAGO – US captain Michael Bradley knows there’s plenty of chatter going on among fans and media due to the team’s 2-0 loss to Colombia last week, but it’s not anything he or his teammates are interested in hearing.
The US national team’s business remains on the field at Copa American Centenario.
“I don’t spend two seconds worrying about what the reaction is or what the narrative on the outside is,” Bradley said prior to a training session at Soldier Field on Monday. “You guys are going to write what you write, people are going to think what they think and ultimately we’ve got much bigger things to worry about than what goes on on the outside.
"I think since I’ve been in this team one of its strengths has always been the ability to respond on big days and be able to close the door, know who we are, know what needs to be better, understand that we’re still good and get ready for whatever comes next and obviously that’s what we need to do [Tuesday] night.”
Bradley didn’t tiptoe around what the US needs to improve on to pull off a victory against Costa Rica on Tuesday in their second Group A match (8 pm ET, FS1, UniMás, UDN). He put the onus on everyone to be better than they were against Colombia.
“To win big games, to win games against good teams, we need to be better,” Bradley said. “Like I said, there’s no magical dust or anything that is now going to changing things overnight. Again, you guys always want deep answers at times. Sometimes it’s as simple as we need to play better. To win big games, you need more guys to play better.
"We want to be sharper. We need to in certain moments create a few more chances, defend a few more plays in front of your goal better. It’s the entire package and just understand we have a few more games and need a lot of guys to play well. It’s a basic way to put it.”
Having a massive pro-US crowd before them in Chicago would obviously be preferred, but it’s not something Bradley is banking on.
“We certainly hope [for more of a home-field advantage], but the reality in our country and we’ve talked about it many times and in the grand scheme of things it’s certainly a positive thing, but the reality is you never know what to expect in terms of the makeup of the crowd,” Bradley said. “It’s not something we spend too much time worrying about.”
