After one of the most difficult losses of Michael Bradley’s career, he sat alone.



He had been randomly selected for drug testing after the U.S. men’s national team was eliminated from the 2018 World Cup qualifying with a loss to Trinidad & Tobago on Oct. 10. He was quarantined in a small room inside Ato Bolden Stadium in Couva, Trinidad. In the intense humidity, it took Bradley three hours to produce a sample for drug testers.



So for those three hours, as the reality of the U.S. missing a World Cup for the first time in Bradley’s lifetime set in, he attempted to “figure out the best way to deal with it and move on.”



The solution came less than a week later. Back at BMO Field with Toronto FC, Bradley captained his club to a grinding 1-0 win over the Montreal Impact. It was the kind of victory many onlookers expected to see from the American team.



Asked if felt good to be back at BMO Field, a smile emerged from the...