Column: Soccer fandom a family affair

I never knew that Jeff Bradley, a Yankees beat reporter at the New York Daily News when I was covering baseball for the New York Post, grew up a Red Sox fan until he told me that Friday.

I knew Bradley was a fan of well-played ballgames, fresh angles and games that ended early enough to allow time to tell stories with an original flair. That’s how it goes for those who belong in a press box.

Bradley’s a fan again, but the spills hurt way worse now than when Jim Rice bounced into a double play or Carlton Fisk failed to throw the runner out at second or Carl Yastrzemski made a rare misplay on a ball off the Green Monster.

The past two World Cup soccer tournaments have turned Bradley’s stomach inside-out worse than any Red Sox near miss — and there were plenty of those — ever did.

Jeff’s brother Bob was head coach for Team USA in the World Cup four years ago. Jeff’s nephew, Bob’s son, Michael is a star midfielder this time around, playing in his second World Cup. Nobody feels pressure more intensely than a family member.

“The thing that’s been weird for me as a journalist is you’re always taught to be so objective, and I always felt like I was an objective sportswriter,” Jeff said Friday by phone from the New Jersey Turnpike. “The fan in me never came out.”

All that changed when Bradley was working for ESPN the Magazine and among his assignments was World Cup soccer.

“I went right to ESPN and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ My heart was into every game, every pass,” he said. “Every game is 90 minutes of hell when people you love are involved and they’re under such intense scrutiny. In many ways, it’s ruined me as a sportswriter. When a coach screws up, I sympathize with him because I picture my brother in his situation. If a player is a goat, I think about what that would be like if that were my nephew.”

It hasn’t ruined him. It’s made him even better. When Jeff isn’t watching a match, gnawing his fingernails raw, he can soak in the enormity of his nephew’s place in the soccer world.

“Michael’s made us all really proud,” Jeff said. “He’s incredibly competitive, turned professional at 16 years old, even though he probably could have gone to any college he wanted to because he’s very smart. He speaks four (foreign) languages. When he went to Holland to play, he learned Dutch. When he went to Germany, he learned German. When he played for two clubs in Italy, he learned Italian. And he speaks pretty good Spanish from his high school days.”

He’s a proud uncle until the match starts. Then he’s a nervous wreck in a room full of jittery relatives.

“When Michael scored that huge goal against Slovenia that saved the U.S. from elimination, in that moment there’s euphoria, but the path leading up to that moment, when they were trailing 2-0, about to be eliminated, the emotion you ride as a family member makes you sick,” Jeff said.

Jeff’s son Beaux is heading into his junior year in high school.

“I looked at Beaux (during a match) and thought he was going to be physically sick he was so nervous, so into the game,” Jeff said. “I’m a 100 percent fan when I’m watching. We root and pray, lot of praying during the game. Every time he touches the ball, it’s, ‘Please make a good pass.’ You fear that this is going to be the turnover that leads to a goal for the other team and that it might be the goal that turns the game around.”

Jeff, also brother of Scott Bradley, a big-league catcher for nine seasons, sees a lot of similarities between baseball and soccer. Jeff played both sports in high school and was a JV baseball player at North Carolina and a “glorified batboy” for the varsity.

“You hear people say that soccer is low-scoring and nothing ever happens,” Jeff said. “It’s like you’re watching a pitcher’s duel and every time a guy goes to a three-ball count or any hitter’s count, you think, ‘Oh man, this is bad,’ every time the ball is turned over, especially in certain parts of the field. Your heart is in your throat and you’re thinking, ‘Don’t let him be the goat.’ “

Michael Bradley plays the role of hero so much more often than goat that Toronto FC of Major League Soccer signed him in January to a contract that pays him an annual salary of $6.5 million, which is even more than sportswriters earn. (By the way, Jeff’s latest piece, a fascinating one on how deadened bats have changed college baseball and left major-league scouts frustrated, can be found leading the Scorecard page of the Sports Illustrated with a cover shot of Kawhi Leonard eyeing a throw-down).

I’ve often wondered and don’t know enough about the sport to answer my own question: Does soccer translate well to TV?

“I would tell you this, soccer is very similar to baseball,” Jeff said. “If you appreciated the nuances and the way the game is played, you love to watch it. If you don’t appreciate the nuances of baseball and just want to see home runs, maybe not. But a real baseball fan will defend his sport. Ball gets hit in the gap and you see the relay from the center fielder to the shortstop to home plate and the guy’s safe by a little bit, you see that play and say, ‘That was a great relay.’ Someone might say, ‘What difference does it make? The guy was safe anyway.’ It was still a great relay. You defend it.”

The analogy for soccer?

“You could see a string of four or five passes leading to a scoring chance and the scoring chance goes over the bar,” he said. “The soccer fan appreciates that the build up to the play was really pretty.”

Bradley noted another similarity to baseball: “All around the world it’s a game fathers pass onto their sons. It’s not here yet, but it’s coming. Fathers and sons talk about lineups for the weekend game while they’re eating breakfast. Maybe after dinner they’ll kick the ball around.”

He has followed with enthusiasm the growth of soccer in Kansas City, where Sporting KC has become wildly popular.

“Electric atmosphere, people wearing jerseys, kids knowing the names of all the players by heart, singing the songs,” he said. “Soccer has grown organically here and I don’t see that stopping any time soon.”

If Team USA, coming off Monday’s 2-1 victory against Ghana, can find a way to defeat Portugal in a Sunday match that kicks off at 5 p.m., that won’t do anything to stunt the sport’s growth.