U.S. coach Bob Bradley understands magnitude of World Cup match, plans pep talk before Ghana game

Filip Bondy

Saturday, June 26th 2010, 4:00 AM

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U.S. coach Bob Bradley prepares for the biggest game of his career in Saturday's Round of 16 match against Ghana at the World Cup in South Africa.

Amendola/AP

RUSTENBURG, South Africa - When Bob Bradley was an assistant soccer coach at the University of Virginia, his office in Charlottesville was situated next to the visitors' locker room for basketball.

And so coaches and assistant coaches from different sports would gather inside this claustrophobic room and do some serious eavesdropping during halftime on the visiting ACC stars of the day: Dean Smith, Jim Valvano, Lefty Dreisell and Mike Krzyzewski.

"Not to spy for information, but to hear how these guys went about their business," Bradley said.

There were pep talks then, good ones, and now Saturday Bradley himself says he is likely to deliver a short, rousing speech to his own team, before one of the biggest matches he has ever coached. The U.S. faces Ghana, the last African team standing, a difficult but winnable second-round game. The winner moves on to a World Cup quarterfinal against yet another beatable opponent yet to be determined.

There is a sense of possibility these days around Bradley, around these players, that is beyond the short soccer memory of most Americans. And Bradley, who is often perceived as a chronically stoic man, is poised to carpe diem and rev up the rhetoric.

"In certain moments, you speak passionately," Bradley said Friday to a small group of American reporters after his press conference at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium. "You do it in the right moment, in words to be able to put everyone on the same page. The library in my head is pretty good. I never have to write out my speeches."