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Michael Bradley Says Media Are More Worried About Lionel Messi Than USA Team
U.S. captain Michael Bradley insists that he and his teammates respect Lionel Messi and Argentina, but aren't as concerned as the American media seems to be.
OMNISPORT
Michael Bradley has faced Lionel Messi and Argentina on multiple occasions during his career, and isn't very likely to be overawed by the challenge of trying to stop the world's best player.
If anything, Bradley says, the hype building around Tuesday's Copa America semifinal between the U.S. and Argentina, and the notion that Messi is going to tear the U.S. apart, is being driven by media fears rather than reality.
Bradley's assertion came after a plethora of questions aimed his way on Tuesday at NRG Stadium which, in a variety of ways, asked him how he and his team will deal with the Barcelona star.
"I think you guys are probably worrying more about Messi than we are,” Bradley told reporters. “He’s a very good player – again, that’s probably understating it, but it’s still a soccer game. It’s still 11 of their guys against 11 of our guys. Our mentality has to be that we’re going to make the game as hard as possible and have the mentality and the commitment to do it over and over and over again for 90 minutes."
Bradley took issue with a question about whether the U.S. might be overly concerned with Messi, particularly with the fact it was just one of a steady stream of Messi questions.
"In the last five minutes of me standing here, look at even just the questions that you guys all ask. So much of it is dictated from you guys," Bradley said. "For us, again, it’s a game. It’s a semifinal, against Argentina, 11 of them against 11 of us. There’s a bunch of very good players on their team. We have a few good players as well.
"Our mentality, again, is sure, on paper they’re the team that everybody thinks is going to win," Bradley said. "No problem. But ultimately when that whistle blows, it’s still 90 minutes of competition."
While Bradley was more interested in having a chance to reach a Copa America final than he was about worrying about Messi, other members of the U.S. team acknowledged that facing the five-time Ballon d'Or winner does add more significance to Tuesday's match, which has sold out the 71,000-seat NRG Stadium.
“You don’t get many opportunities to play against a guy like that so I think everybody’s looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity,” said U.S. defender Matt Besler, who will be facing Messi for the first time in his career.
For Klinsmann, who faced off against legendary Argentine star Diego Maradona many times during his career, the significance of having his team face Messi and Argentina can't be understated.
"This is special, absolutely it’s special to play these types of players," Klinsmann said of facing Messi. "When you get the opportunity to play the biggest players in the world, you want to raise your game. You want to be with them and enjoy that.
"I had a European Cup final against Maradona and they did the warm-up where 70,000 people in Stuttgart stopped watching us," Klinsmann recalled. "They all just watched Maradona juggling the ball. They had a specific song to it, it’s now on YouTube, I don’t know how many million of people have watched it.
"You’ve got to enjoy that moment. Give him all the credit and compliments in the world, but hey, this is a one off. In a tournament anything can happen."