Head Coach Bob Bradley from Training in Seattle

You can't ask for better weather than we got during this morning's training session. A beautiful, clear day. And not too hot either. The guys were happy to get the travel out of their system and for those who flew in from South Africa, well, that's a lot of travel. Following the training session, Bob Bradley spoke to media, looking back on the Confederations Cup and forward as the U.S. tries to go for its third successive CONCACAF Gold Cup title. Here's what he had to say:

On fans' reaction to the U.S. performance in the FIFA Confederations Cup:
“People are excited. I think we all feel good that we got to a big tournament and the performance [of the team] got soccer fans going. It shows that they're behind us and it gives us motivation to keep going.”

On the team at the CONCACAF Gold Cup building on the progress of the U.S. in the Confederations Cup:
“All the players that have been put on this roster, the first thing they talked about was watching the games and how proud they were of the performance. When they get called into the national team you can sense they're excited about continuing to move this team in the right direction.”

On coming to Seattle to open the CONCACAF Gold Cup against Grenada:
“With everything that's gone on with the Sounders this year, we're thrilled to be here. The support they've had has been terrific and you can tell that there's a real buzz here for soccer. They’ve done so many things right in terms of their team, the way they've played and the way they’ve marketed the team that hopefully we can pick up on all that. The fans here have been great. Hopefully the Fourth of July brings out a good crowd and we'll be ready to go.”

On the progress of the U.S. team in the last few years:
“It's a combination of many things. For sure the continued development of Major League Soccer has been a very, very big part of what goes on with the national team. We've also had some guys choose to go to Europe and they've done well. We have at the moment a good mix of players with experience who have been in one or two World Cups and young players who have helped. When you put all those things together I think you can see why we've made the progress and hopefully we can continue to do so.”

On the return from injury of Steve Cherundolo, who last appeared for the U.S. on Oct. 11, 2008 against Cuba:
“It's great to have him back. He's been through part of a pre-season [with Hannover] but he obviously hasn't been playing matches. We'll need to be smart in terms of how we use him, but the idea is certainly to get him some games so that when he gets back to Hannover he's moving along well and that gets him back into play the qualifiers that are coming up.”