KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Yes, Michael Bradley had a great outing the last time he played as a No. 6 for the U.S. national team. No, you shouldn't expect him to play there all the time – even though that's his preferred position with his club team, Toronto FC.
"It's definitely an option to have, an option that can work very well," US coach Jurgen Klinsmann told reporters on Friday, a day ahead of his team's friendly against Bolivia in a final tuneup for the Copa América Centenario. "It always depends on the other elements around. This is when you go from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3, or you play a 4-2-3-1 with maybe two holding midfielders. It always changes with who you have around and how you put the puzzle together at the end of the day.
"The puzzle with us is a different puzzle than Toronto has. So you can never kind of say, 'OK, this is the club situation and it should also be the same in the national team.' It never works."
It clearly worked for Bradley and his team on Wednesday, though, when he dropped to a deeper-lying role and took over for Kyle Beckerman after the Americans' lackluster first half against Ecuador in Frisco, Texas. With Bradley stirring the drink as the No. 6, ball distribution improved across the board and culminated in halftime sub Darlington Nagbe's 90th-minute goal for a 1-0 victory.
"Look, I thought as a team we were able to find a good rhythm in the second half, in terms of our ability to play a little bit more and to start to put the game on our terms with the ball," Bradley said. "So I thought credit goes to everybody in those ways."
Defender Geoff Cameron – who missed the first two Copa America prep friendlies with a sore hamstring but is expected to be available on Saturday – said Bradley offers a reliable link-up option when he sits deep.
"We always have an out ball to give to him, then he can give it back to us and we can release pressure," Cameron told reporters. "There's a time where you have two deep or two high. We've just got to get that mix, and once we have that understanding with the interchanging of the midfield, I think with more support up top, then you have that guy sitting in the hole.
"I think Michael can do that. You've seen him do that over and over again. He has the technical ability, he has the awareness to sit in those holes and get the ball off of us in the back four."
Klinsmann doesn't want Bradley taking possession so far back on a regular basis, though.
"I think that the major point that we ask Michael to do with us is receiving the ball higher up – not coming back and picking up the ball from the center backs," he said. "This is huge. Otherwise we lose one passing option in midfield. Once you receive the ball behind the opponent's strikers or in midfield, then we can start the game, really.
"This is a point that we discussed many, many times. So if he can always stagger higher up, receive the ball there out of the center in the No. 6 role, I think it could work really well."
If Bradley is playing that role at all, that is. Klinsmann emphasized that the personnel he tasks with that No. 6 role will depend on the game scenario at hand.
“Sometimes, it depends also on the opponents,” he said. “If the opponents come with a 10, a real playmaker that needs to be tied up, then you have an option like with Kyle Beckerman, where Kyle is going at that guy. So it really depends on every game situation.”
While acknowledging his strengths in the No. 6 spot, Bradley also knows that he's not always going to get to play there for the Yanks.
“Ultimately, we all have ideas of where we thing we're best and where we can give the most,” he said on Friday. “At the end of the day, it's the national team. It's bigger than any one person, and so I've always been somebody who's ready to give everything I have for the group and try to make a difference wherever I play.
“I think for me to have the ability to play in different ways in the midfield – depending on the game, depending on the opponent, depending on who I'm playing with on any given day – is something that has been useful. But I feel like I have good things to add to the team, playing in that spot a little deeper. But again, ultimately the decision is not mine, and you step on the field ready to give everything you have every time.”
