“You feel this incredible, huge sense of emptiness,” says Michael Bradley.



He is settling onto a couch in the upstairs lobby of the Toronto FC training ground and turns his eyes toward the TV. In an alternate universe, this might have been the day Bradley and the U.S. men’s national team opened its World Cup. Instead, a few hours ago, Panama lost its opening game at the tournament. On the screen, England and Tunisia are kicking off.



In the wake of the U.S. men’s national team’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, there is no player who has borne more of the criticism than Bradley. The 30-year-old has been a regular for the U.S. men’s national team for more than a decade, playing every minute of the last two World Cups, yet he has also long been a polarizing figure in the team—a fact tied to his last name as much as his on-field performances.



Boos followed him from stadium to stadium in the weeks following the...