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RCS: How does a kid from Kansas and a Princeton graduate become this hooked on soccer?

Wahl: It just kind of happened. I was like a lot of kids who quit playing soccer when I was 12. I followed pro indoor soccer in Kansas City in the mid-'80s but didn't watch outdoor soccer until 1990, the first World Cup the U.S. played in a long time. Then in 1993, I was a student at Princeton working for the paper covering the school's soccer team. The coach of the team? Yep, Bob Bradley. It's funny how it worked out. I covered him as a sophomore, got to know him a little bit and wrote something in the alumni magazine. He'd probably tell you that I've been asking dumb questions for 17 years. It's kind of cool. I think neither one of us would've thought that he'd be the U.S. coach and I'd cover him for SI now.

RCS: Well, then, give us your assessment on how Bob Bradley has done as the U.S. national team coach.

Wahl: What he's done so far, we know when he's had the best players he's done well, as he did in the 2007 Gold Cup, last year's Confederations Cup and the World Cup qualifying. When he hasn't had the best players, they didn't perform so well. But the bottom line is what he's done in the last four years will be a footnote to what this team does in the next 2-4 weeks. That may not be fair, but that's the way it is.

RCS Interviews Grant Wahl