I normally hate Colin Cowherd, and he was defending Bob Bradley, which made me dislike him even more, but he did make some good points that, while a lot of us are aware of them, a lot of Americans that want Bradley gone do no understand it either.
Basically it was that we do not have nearly as much talent as the teams ahead of us in the FIFA rankings (particularly the top 10). He said that we were the South Carolina of the SEC. We have the ability to go 9-4, but we will hardly ever compete on a consistent basis with the best of the best. We may beat them occasionally though.
He also pointed to Bradley's record while a USA head coach:
Record
All-Time: 38-21-8
Qualifying: 13-3-2
Gold Cup: 10-1-1
Goals For: 120
Goals Against: 82
Shutouts: 25
Record vs. …
CONCACAF: 25-5-5, 74 GF, 33 GA
CONMEBOL: 1-7-1, 9 GF, 21 GA
UEFA: 7-8-2, 24 GF, 24 GA
AFC: 2-0-0, 7 GF, 2 GA
CAF: 3-1-0, 6 GF, 2 GA
Record when …
Leading at half: 21-3-2
Losing at half: 3-9-3
Tied at half: 13-9-3
By year …
2007: 12-5-1
2008: 9-3-2
2009: 13-8-3
2010: 4-5-2
2010 is not very impressive, but the other years are all pretty good. Once again, I am not defending Bradley, because he often seems at a loss as to how to manage the team, and his substitutions/starters have been pretty poor at times. I'm just not sure how much better somebody else could do because of the talent deficit at our hands against the better countries.