Paul Bravo

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Personal information
Paul Bravo
Full name	Paul Bravo
Date of birth	June 19, 1968 (1968-06-19) (age 39)
Place of birth	Campbell, CA, United States
Playing position	Midfielder / Forward
Youth clubs
1988-1989	Santa Clara University
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1991-1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997-2001	San Francisco Bay Blackhawks San Jose Hawks San Francisco Greek-Americans Monterey Bay Jaguars San Jose Clash Colorado Rapids	025 0(3) 019 (19) 031 (13) 135 (39)
National team²
1994-1999	United States	004 0(1)
Teams managed
2002-2003 2004-2005 2006-	Colorado Rapids (assistant) UCLA (assistant) Los Angeles Galaxy (assistant)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:47, 24 February 2007 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 7 December 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Paul Bravo (born June 19, 1968 in Campbell, California) is a former American soccer midfielder and forward.

1 Youth and college
2 Professional
3 National team
4 Coaching
5 References

[edit] Youth and college

Bravo played two years of college soccer at Santa Clara University and helped his team to the NCAA co-championship in 1989. While he left college early, he continued to work on his education and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Santa Clara in 1993.

[edit] Professional

In 1991, Bravo signed with the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League (APSL). He earned Rookie of the Year honors that season as the Blackhawks took the APSL championship. In 1993, the Blackhawks ownership moved the team to the lower division USISL and renamed the team the San Jose Hawks. Despite the reduced team costs, the Hawks folded at the end of the 1993 season. Bravo then remained in the San Francisco area with the San Francisco Greek-Americans, winning the U.S. Open Cup in 1994. In 1995, he moved to the Monterey Bay Jaguars. The San Jose Clash of Major League Soccer (MLS) drafted Bravo with the eighth overall pick of the MLS Inaugural Player Draft.

Bravo spent just a season with San Jose, and, despite the presence of Eric Wynalda, led the team with thirteen goals. He was an MLS All Star this year. On December 15, 1996, the Clash traded Bravo to the Colorado Rapids for Dominic Kinnear and a second round draft pick. Bravo spent the next five years with Colorado, and would retire with a club record 39 league goals (he added five in the playoffs). In November 2001 the Rapids waived Bravo, but as no team chose to offer him a contract, he retired from playing professionally. In his six-year MLS career, Bravo scored 52 goals and added 27 assists. He repeated as an All Star in 1998 and 1999.

[edit] National team

Bravo earned four caps for the United States national team. His first cap came in a December 11, 1994 tie with Honduras. He did not play again until April 22, 1995, a 1-0 loss to Belgium. In 1999, Bruce Arena called up Bravo for the 1999 Confederations Cup. He started the July 30, 1999 game against Germany, then earned his last cap in the third-place 2-0 victory against Saudi Arabia. The U.S. won that game on the strength of goals from both Bravo and Brian McBride.

[edit] Coaching

After retiring as a player, Bravo went into coaching. He began as an assistant with the Colorado Rapids in 2002. In 2004, UCLA hired Bravo as an assistant to its men's soccer team. On June 15, 2006, he became an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS.^[1]

Paul Bravo now plays for Hollywood United Football Club in Los Angeles, California.^[2]

[edit] References

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