Grant Wahl has the conclusion to a story we've all heard rumors about in the post-Confed Cup afterglow; Michael Bradley has been suspended four games by FIFA for "acts of misconduct". It appears that Bradley did in fact verbally attack the match official after the Spain game, unhappy about the late red card he received.

Luckily, Bradley's suspension is effectively over tomorrow. Despite his not being on the Gold Cup roster, those matches count towards his ban. The Confederations Cup final plus two Gold Cup group games make up the total of his actual suspension, with the last game held over in lieu of a six-month probationary period. Bradley with be under the microscope for through the remainder of World Cup qualifying, but won't miss any matches.

While I'm happy to hear that Bradley won't miss the Mexico match or any other qualifiers, I am disheartened to hear that the allegations are (in part) true. Bradley plays hard and with emotion, and though that's admirable for the most part, it's only good as long as it doesn't hurt the team. Verbally assaulting an official, no matter the validity of the card in question, is never something a team leader, which Bradley is, should do. Youth doesn't excuse stupidity; rash challenges happen, but carrying over emotion from the field to the tunnel is beyond the pale.

Hopefully Bradley has learned his lesson, and won't be making this mistake again; as I mentioned, at least the full scope of the allegations proved to be untrue, as there's no mention that Bradley physically assaulted the referee.