Michael Bradley scores for Roma in return from injury

Michael Bradley had been out since since August 26 with a quadriceps strain, but he made his return to the Roma team today in fantastic fashion -- with a goal.

Bradley started next to Alessandro Florenzi and Panagiotis Tachtsidis in the midfield, a pair of 21 year olds who had fewer than 10 Serie A appearances combined. That put a lot of the onus on Bradley to bring some calm and control to the match, which he did. Bradley also showed the same work rate and better discipline than he did in his lone other match with Roma so all in all, it was a good showing for the American.

Admittedly, the goal and solid performance came against Atalanta, but a good showing is still a good showing. It is also good to see after a shaky opening match for Roma back in August.

Bradley exited the match after 72 minutes, which is important for the United States as they look forward to the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. It is not quite 90 minutes, but it was a good step to being able to play major minutes for the U.S. against Antigua and Barbuda. With reports leaking out over the last two weeks that Bradley was struggling for for fitness, today was a gift for the U.S.