Robert "Bob" Bradley was born March 3, 1958, in New Jersey, USA, where he grew up playing soccer. He went on to play soccer at West Essex High School. After graduating high school, Bradley went on to graduate from Princeton University. Robert Bradley briefly worked in the Procter & Gamble executive training program before entering the Ohio University Sports management graduate school in 1981 where he was ultimately named head coach of the Ohio University Bobcats' NCAA Division I soccer program. 

Bradley was only 22 when he was named head coach. He spent two seasons at Ohio before moving on to work as an assistant coach and scout for the University of Virginia. He spent two years working for the universities manager Bruce Arena before eventually taking a job at his former University, Princeton. 

Career:

Bradley's career in Major League Soccer began in 1996 when he was hired again as Arena's assistant, this time with the newly formed U.S. professional league named D.C. United of Major League Soccer. After two champion seasons with DC, Bradley became the first head coach of the Chicago Fire, an expansion team that began playing in 1998. Bradley took the newly formed ensemble to the MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup in its first season earning him the award for MLS Coach of the year. The Chicago Fire would go on to win a third trophy in 2000 in the Open Cup.

Bradley took a year off and resigned as manager of the Chicago Fire after the 2002 MLS season. He returned to New Jersey where he would become head coach of the MetroStars. Bradley began working with the team and the team's whole direction changed. For the first time in club history, the MetroStars earned a spot in the playoffs in 2003 after just one year of help from Bradley. He would stay with the MetroStars for another three years before he was fired in the 2005 regular season after the club suffered a series of back-to-back defeats.

After leaving the MetroStars, it didn't take Bradley long to find work. He was soon named the manager at Los Angeles club Chivas USA for the 2006 season. After the team had a rough year in 2005, Bradley managed to revive a Chivas USA team discovering talents such as Sacha Kljestan and Jonathan Bornstein along the way. He would eventually lead the team to a third-place finish in the Western Conference before losing to the Houston Dynamo. After U.S. men's national team's disappointing showing at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, U.S. Soccer named Bradley the interim manager on December 8, 2006. 

His first few years with U.S. Soccer proved successfully and after a series of wins including a 2-0 over Mexico, U.S. Soccer removed Bradley's interim title and officially named him manager on May 15, 2007. Bradley would go on to lead the United States to the 2007 Gold Cup Final, where it beat Mexico 2-1 for the second time in four months. During his first year as manager, Bradley built an impressive resume of 12 wins, 1 draw, and 5 losses and event undefeated for ten games over a period of five months. Despite his success and the Gold Cup victory, the U.S. didn't do as well in the following couple years.