Video and context of Michael Bradley’s wonderful goal

Stop us if you have heard this before – and you certainly have if you read ProSoccerTalk:

Michael Bradley is the most important man in a U.S. shirt these days. Apologies to Tim Howard, who was in caped super-hero mode once again on Wednesday. But it’s Bradley who makes this team go.

When he’s not in the lineup, the U.S. side simply cannot get the darned hand-brake released.

Not only does Bradley work, organize, tackle, track and link with the some of the game’s top two-way midfielders now, not only is his variety in passing (short, long and medium) essential to the effort, but his timing and technique in the final third remains peerless on the U.S. side.

That’s always been the hallmark of his game, as longtime Bradley followers know, that instinctive and disciplined ability to hold the run and then surge into position just in the nick of time. Still, it takes pinpoint technique to make something happen from there.

Watch his wonderful strike from Krasnodar; talk about craftsmanship in the execution.

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