Los Angeles Football Club names Bob Bradley as its first coach

LOS ANGELES (FOX 11 / CNS) - Former U.S. men's national soccer team coach Bob Bradley will be formally introduced to the public Friday as the inaugural coach of the expansion Los Angeles Football Club, which will begin play in a new arena in Exposition Park in 2018.

Bradley, who was named to his new job Thursday, coached the national team from 2006 to 2011, winning a CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2007. He is also no stranger to Major League Soccer having coached the then-expansion Chicago Fire to a league championship in the team's first season. He is also a former coach of the New York Red Bulls and Chivas USA.

Bradley began his coaching career in the early 1980s, leading the Ohio University Bobcats. He then worked as an assistant for current U.S. men's national team coach Bruce Arena at the University of Virginia before becoming a head coach again at Princeton. He re-joined Arena as an assistant in 1996 with D.C. United of the then-fledgling MLS league.

He joined the Chicago Fire in 1998 and won MLS Coach of the Year for guiding the team to the MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup in the team's inaugural season.

After serving as coach of the U.S. men's team, he went on to coach the Egypt national team and led teams in Norway and France. In October 2016, he became coach of Swansea City, making him the first American to serve as manager of an English Premier League club. But he was fired after less than three months.

Bradley's son, Michael, plays on the U.S. national team, serving as the team's captain.

Bradley will be formally introduced by the club this morning at a news conference in Exposition Park.

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