TORONTO — Now that his father Bob Bradley is the first coach of the Los Angeles Football Club, Michael Bradley has a second MLS team to cheer for.
But the Toronto FC captain acknowledged it would be much simpler if his team didn't cross paths with the expansion side.
"If they could create a schedule next year where we could never play LAFC, I'd gladly take that," he said. "But I guess I'll have to settle for being LAFC's biggest fan for 33 games and not 34 games next year."
On a more serious note, the TFC midfielder expressed his joy that his father had found a coaching home.
Bradley Sr. has a lengthy coaching resume that includes being the first American to coach a Premiership team last season although his 2016 job at Swansea City lasted just 11 games.
While applauding the LAFC move, Michael Bradley made it clear that he felt his father had deserved better recently.
"I'm really excited for him," he told reporters after training Friday. "Nobody's been more angry or frustrated than me in this last stretch for him, in terms of the way things were handled at Swansea and just this idea that he isn't able to on a daily basis do what he loves — which is being on the field, coaching, trying to get the best out of players and teams.
"And so when somebody you're that close with is ultimately treated in a way that's so wrong, yeah, that's not easy to take. There was never any doubt for me that ultimately he was going to find a good situation where the vision of the club and the visions of the people there matched his drive and ambition to coach and to lead and to build something different. I couldn't be more excited for him."
The two Bradleys have never faced each other on different sides of the field but have worked together.
Back in 2004, the Bob Bradley-coached MLS MetroStars drafted 16-year-old Michael.
At the time, the New York Times reported that they were the first father-son coach-player tandem in the New York metropolitan area since Yogi Berra managed his son, Dale, on the Yankees in 1985.
Michael spent two seasons with the MetroStars before heading to Heerenveen in the Netherlands. Bob's next stop was at Chivas USA.
Father and son also worked together on the U.S. team, which Bob coached from 2006 to 2011. Michael is currently U.S. captain.
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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press