Before there was Ted Lasso, the calm, compassionate and unassuming American coach who knew next to nothing about proper football, there was Brad Bobley, the loud, arrogant and abusive American coach who knew next to nothing about proper football.
A key difference, besides their personalities, is that Apple’s Lasso is entirely fictional. Bobley, a creation of Sky Sports ironically named Soccer AM show, was a brutal spoof of a real guy.
Bob Bradley, the real guy, had been a professional coach for two decades when he arrived in the English Premier League in 2016. Now at Toronto FC, he’d managed teams in four countries on three continents, took the U.S. to the second round of the ’10 World Cup and almost qualified with Egypt four years later. But at Swansea City, Bradley made the unforgivable mistake of using terminology like “road game” and “PK,” and, when results for the fading club didn’t improve, he received zero benefit of the doubt. He lasted 11 games.
