Aww hell. Bob Bradley, former USMNT coach, took over French second-division club Le Havre in November and got the team off and running towards promotion to Ligue 1. Heading into today, Le Havre trailed Metz by three points and six goals. To make it to a top European league for the first time, Bradley—who is almost certainly worthy of managing a top-flight European team, but hasn’t gotten his chance yet—had to have Metz lose and have his team win and make up that massive goal difference.
Incredibly, Metz lost and Le Havre scored three in the first half, added another in the 67th minute (which made the supporters lose their shit), before Ghislain Gimbert added a fifth in the 83rd minute.
Le Havre threw everything they could at getting a sixth, hitting the woodwork four times and coming oh so close to scoring through their keeper. The tiny margin that they missed out on is that much crueler for a goal they apparently earned which was incorrectly ruled not over the line.
If Bradley stays with Le Havre, he’ll have to wait at least another year before he makes it to Ligue 1. There are several Premier League openings (hmmm, Everton ... hmmm) and I hope he gets one. His work with Stabæk was enough—he took them from freshly promoted from the Norwegian second division to the Europa League in two years—and he got Le Havre, a midtable side for the past few years, to their best league finish in a decade. Assuming his ambitions are to see if he can hack it in the big leagues, there’s more than enough of a body work that shows he’s ready. Running a club like Everton or Sunderland is far different than raising a minnow like Stabæk up, but he’s an able man manager and someone would be smart to hire him.