Watch: MLS coach introduces throwback shootout to preseason sessions
Michael Bradley had a stellar MLS career as a player and he steps into his first coaching job with the New York Red Bulls.
The new MLS season is now less than a month away. Preparations are well underway across the league, with one newly-appointed head coach taking inspiration from the MLS of the past.
Last month USMNT legend Michael Bradley was named the new head coach of Red Bull New York, returning to the team where he broke through as a 16-year-old in 2004.
Bradley spent nearly a decade in Europe and represented the United States at two World Cups. But despite those experiences the well-traveled former pro is looking to his MLS roots as he takes his first preseason with the Red Bulls. Footage shared by the team’s social media account shows Bradley introducing “the original 1996 MLS 35-yard dribble-up shootout” to his players.
Bradley, clearly a scholar of early-years MLS, is referring to the unique tie-breaker method used in the late 1990s. For the first four season after its foundation in 1996, MLS settled tied/drawn games with a 35-yard shootout.
Players were given the ball midway into the opposition half and, without any defenders in their way, were given five seconds to get a shot away and beat the goalkeeper.
The practice actually originated in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1977 but was reintroduced by MLS in a bid to increase excitement in those first seasons. Bradley’s time as a young professional never actually overlapped with the now-infamous 35-yard shootouts but that didn’t stop the RBNY head coach bringing it back for a new generation.
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