TORONTO – The General has become the Captain at Toronto FC.
In a year of big changes at the club, Michael Bradley remains the constant. With the captain’s band now wrapped around his arm, Bradley has become the face of Toronto FC. There won’t be any talk of “bloody big deals,” anymore. TFC is Bradley’s team to lead in 2015.
“It’s a new year. It’s a new team,” Bradley said. “In a lot of ways, it’s a new beginning.”
It is very much the dawn of a new day for Toronto FC, a team built around the 27-year-old US national team midfielder. Bringing in Jozy Altidore helped ease the transition to life after Jermain Defoe. The acquisition of Sebastian Giovinco made Toronto a city of dreamers once more. Bradley had a hand in both signings, especially Altidore’s, where Bradley restructured his own contract in order to help the club fund the signing.
Back in February, during Altidore’s introduction, Bradley spoke about that decision, calling it a “no brainer.”
“It got to the point towards the end that I felt like it was the only way it was going to get done for sure,” Bradley said. “I have not thought about it a second since.”
The club brass also spent the offseason addressing one of the pressing questions from last year: who will play alongside Bradley in midfield? Toronto FC looked to Marseille and found its answer in 33-year-old French midfielder Benoit Cheyrou.
Already, the two are forming chemistry. Where once there was confusion at how the midfield clicked, there is now cohesion. Cheyrou attacks, Bradley retreats, and vice versa.
“The ball, in soccer, is a language,” Cheyrou remarked. “Sometimes we don’t even have to speak, just look at each other.”
The language of soccer is one Bradley is fluent in, and therein lies the beauty of Bradley, the man directly in the middle of the park, both on and off the field. He is the bridge between the team’s most vital pieces; he and Altidore have a friendship spanning nearly a decade; with Robbie Findley, Bradley has another former international teammate to work alongside.
Bradley's time in Italy with Roma allowed him to forge an instant connection with Giovinco, very much on a new adventure of his own. He’ll explain concepts and tactics to Giovinco in Italian, one of the many languages the American veteran speaks. Bradley’s measure as the central figure is captured in those little moments where he extends a helping hand; it’s something Mark Bloom says helps his own game tremendously.
“There was a time, I think, when we were going through the rough patch last season, where he just pulled me aside and said, ‘You know, you’ve been doing really well this year. People look to you so we need you to keep going and work hard. Don’t worry about a bad game. Just keep moving,’” Bloom told MLSsoccer.com. “Just bringing me aside and telling me that, it means a lot.”
In many ways, failing to make the playoffs at the end of the 2014 season lit an even bigger fire within Bradley. The captain’s armband only served to symbolize just how important he became to the team in the last 12 months.
“Oh, he’s hungrier,” said TFC coach Greg Vanney, pointing out Bradley’s “incredible intensity” and “relentless work rate.”
There’s more to it than just hunger, though. There were some physical changes as well. Bradley took care of a nerve issue in his foot during the offseason, undergoing successful surgery in October. Vanney says no one really saw just how much that foot injury impacted Bradley’s game.
“I definitely think [his foot] bothered him more than he let on,” Vanney said. “He’s a warrior, so he’s going to fight through anything and get himself out there, give you everything he has. But, clearly, now, we see him in a healthy state, just the way he is performing, training, playing, everything. Last year you kind of knew it was there, though he didn’t let it on to everybody. Now you can see he’s clear in his mind, he feels a little bit freer and he doesn’t have some of that irritation or pain he had before.”
By the time February rolled around, Bradley had not only recovered from the operation, but was labelled the fittest guy in the US national team camp, too. But, it’s all just part and parcel of being a professional, according to Bradley.
“Your body is your livelihood,” Bradley said. “You have to do everything possible to take care of yourself, and not only maintain, but to improve. As I’m getting older, I understand how important every little aspect of your life is. The way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you live your life away from the game. All of these things are so important and I just try to do all the little things to make sure I’m fit and always ready to go.”
When Bradley speaks, there is, perhaps, no one more professional and, frankly, more intimidating in Major League Soccer.
But Altidore knows the truth behind the man, and he’s happy to poke the sleeping bear. He’ll do so with a big grin and a laugh, too.
The truth, according to Altidore, is that while Bradley presents an intense exterior, he is actually quite a funny guy, a player who gets along well with his teammates, enjoys Italian restaurants and enjoys a little red wine every once in a while.
He’s competitive. That’s no secret. But, then again, so is Altidore.
“He’s almost as good as me at Ping-Pong,” Altidore said. “He’s second-best, but he’s actually a good Ping-Pong player.”
Only second best?
“Well, we spoke yesterday about getting a ping pong table upstairs,” said Bradley when presented with Altidore’s assessment before allowing himself a rare smile in front of the cameras. “I’ll get back to you on that in a little while."
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Those little moments of fun reveal the truth about the man, the family man, that is Michael Bradley, whose eyes filled with something oddly familiar when asked about his family, about home, living in Toronto.
At first, that look was hard to place. And then, in a moment, it became clear: there’s a touch of puppy love in his eyes. Toronto has captured the New Jersey native’s heart. He’ll freely admit it.
“We love [living in Toronto],” Bradley said, smiling now, freely. “We couldn’t be happier. In every way, we’ve made Toronto home. My daughter was born here, and so, for us, this is where we see ourselves for a long time. The club, the people, the city has made us feel incredibly welcome since day one. On my end, I’m desperate to give the people and the city something back.”
It is that desire to leave a legacy that motivates him, painted with dreams of MLS Cup glory, in shades of Toronto FC red.
“I think, anybody who comes through here, you see how special it is, the city, the club, the potential that we have here,” Bradley said. “It’s a city that gives us real relevance. It’s a media market that covers us in big ways. There are all of these things and up until now, there’s never been any real success. For us, there’s that desire, that motivation to push things over the top here, to win – to really win – and to see what that will all be like when we do that. That’s why any of us are here.”
