The U.S. national team has called in a 19-player roster for a four-day camp in Colorado. The short came comes a week ahead the team’s upcoming World Cup qualifier against Guatemala on Nov. 19 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. The roster for the mini-camp is NOT the World Cup qualifying roster, or even the final qualifying camp roster. Veteran midfielder Pablo Mastroeni and MLS star striker Kenny Cooper are among the selections for the short camp.
Here is the rest of the group:
GOALKEEPERS: Brian Edwards (Toronto FC), Troy Perkins (Valerenga IF), Matt Pickens (out of contract)
DEFENDERS: Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Sean Franklin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Cory Gibbs (Colorado Rapids), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Drew Moor (FC Dallas), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution)
MIDFIELDERS: Colin Clark (Colorado Rapids), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Nick LaBrocca (Colorado Rapids), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids)
FORWARDS: Davy Arnaud (Kansas City Wizards), Chad Barrett (Toronto FC), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas)
Again, this is not the entire group that U.S. coach Bob Bradley will select his final roster from, with players whose teams lose in the MLS conference finals as well as some other European-based players being possibilities to be called in. in fact, a good number of the players on this initial roster won’t be on the roster vs. Guatemala.
What do you think of this group? What name surprises you the most? What player are you happiest to see get a call (besides Kenny Cooper)?
Share your thoughts below.
Ives, for the love of God, change your headline so people stop thinking this is the Guatemala roster. Apparently Honda award voters are the not the only clueless people on SBI today.
If this is the squad it’s not worth watching. Shoot, you might as well throw a David Beckham-less Galaxy team out there.
Arena, what about Kamani Hill? He plays as a forward and a right back. He might be one of the call ups that Ives was talking about. We haven’t seen him in a while and didnt do anything during his last two call (or,i should say, only two) call ups that was terribly disappointing.
Re: Drew Moor –
I don’t fully get it either, but you could at least guess that none of the fringe group called in is going to become a Nat starter before 2010, and that, therefore, if anyone did make a contribution to the team it would probably be someone at a position where we have injuries/weakness or someone who can be versatile and play more than spot at a decent level. To that end, Drew Moor, while not stellar, played at various backline positions this year for Dallas and demonstrated that he is versatile, at least by MLS standards. Maybe that gives him a slight edge over the pure-centerbacks like Conrad, Boswell, and E. Robinson.
Note that similar logic supports the inclusion of Bornstein (back, midfield, forward), Franklin (right back, center back), and Gibbs (left back, center back). Arnaud, too (forward, wing, even some center mid).
To recap:
>We’ll lose to Guatemala!
Oh wait, this ISN’T THE TEAM!
>Why didn’t he call in Adu/Altidore?
Oh wait, so far he only called in players whose season is over!
>Why didn’t he call in Marshall/Rogers/etc?
Oh wait, they’re in the playoffs this weekend!
>Why didn’t he call in Charlie Davies?
Oh wait, tonsil removal.
>Why didn’t he call in Joe Cannon, Marvell Wynne, Bobby Boswell, etc.?
Oh wait, we don’t know! Bradley sucks! We are smart! He is stupid!
Every game on the schedule is an opportunity for the regulars on the Nats to gel and get in sync with each other. It doesn’t make sense to me that only four of these guys (Kljestan, Ching, Cooper, and maybe Mastroeni) BB called up have a chance to make the WC roster. I understand that he might call some europe guys and semifinal losers later, but as people have already mentioned there is much better talent out there than the guys he selected. My confidence in BB is at an all time low.
how the hell does drew moor keep getting call-ups?
I’d love to see the defender of the year and the goalkeeper of the year here, but i think BB is waiting after the MLS Eastern clash between the fire and the crew before he can call one of them. Remember MLS cup is the same week as the game.
But, where charlie davies; the guy’s got 16 goals for harmmaby in sweden. More than Henrik Larsson.
Well it’s a little early to be thankful but I am thankful that the match I saw in Chicago had our A-team and I’m sure those in DC feel the same way.
Sorry Colorado but you got screwed. But hey at least BB called in plenty of home team guys……..
USA USA USA
i would really have liked to see a team that could beat guatemala and knock them out for sure of the hexagonal.
Biggest question mark in my opinion – Why Moor instead of Wynne? Is Wynne hurt?
I’m disappointed Houston lost, that means Ching will likely take away opportunity for someone else to prove that they are better the he is. I don’t think Ching is as bad as lot of people. However, he has had his chance – it is time for someone else to get a chance.
Speaking of other players who deserve a chance at forward. It is nice to see Conor Casey in camp. He could easily replace Ching as the prime target forward in the Bradley system if he could only stay healthy.
Wispy –
Word is that Charlie Davies is having his tonsils removed now that his season is over, so he’ll miss the Guatemala match. But he has probably done just enough to make the case that he is in the mix at forward based on a good club year and nice play in limited minutes with Olympic and full national teams. Hopefully he’ll get more PT next year and grab the spot behind Altidore – Donovan – Dempsey. Right now, Ching has that spot and Davies is right behind him, probably with his competition being Rolfe, Cooper, Johnson, and Rogers (if used as fwd).
USA 0 Guatemalos 1
Snoozefest.
Wispy
You’re right, It starts in November and ends in October.
Wispy, if I’m not mistaken, Davies is done with his season and recovering from having his tonsils out. He won’t be on the final roster.
Am I wrong that Charlie Davies finished his season last weekend? Or does he play again this weekend? Anyone?
Rolfe deserves a look…he’s in VERY good form right now…
Continued thoughts on keepers…
I hope that Hesmer gets some looks after the year he had since he is 26. Jon Busch is 32, and kind of short, so I’m not interested in him.
Cepero is 23, so we need him, Guzan (24), or Seitz (21) to grab the torch in about 7 years.
Modibo, I know right? When that kid scores Hell will freeze over…..
Joe Cannon is a classy keeper who lost out on the numbers game. Totally agree that there isn’t much point in calling him in, he’s 4 years older than Howard and not as good. Hahnemann still has a few years of top play left as the back up, so we should be lining up guys younger than Howard and build for the future.
Folks, again, this is NOT the roster for the game!!!! It’s a training camp to take a look at some of the MLS players. Probably only 3-4 players from this list will make it to the advance camp.
So, please stop calling for European based players until the final group is called.
Chad Barrett?!?
Seeing as the USMNT has already qualified for the next round I think this is a good roster. Time to see the young and unknown get into games with a handful of veterans and see what happens.
Murphy
Go to Youtube and check Columbus Crew vs Colorado Rapids somewhere in the middle of the season and you’ll find his goal,which was his first and it was pretty good.
Yeah Missing players I would like to have seen:
Joe Cannon (he helped keep San Jose close all season)
Marvell Wynne
Bobby Boswell
Stuart Holden
Santino Quaranta
Clyde Simms
Edson Buddle
Also note, that Bradley has previously said that he wasn’t going to call in players from any MLS team in the Conference Semi-finals, but those on teams that don’t make the MLS Cup will get consideration.
who is nick labrocca?
BB is I think also just being nice ya know? Some of these guys work their asses off and they get jack squat except for Honorable Mention and the occasional man of the match. I think Kenny Cooper might fall under that category. Anyways this is a once in a life time opportunity for some of these guys and BB realizes that so he wants to give them a shot. In other words, he’s thinking from his heart rather than his head.
This is such bull_hit. I dont care that i didnt get called in, but now Bob is throwing me aside to go back to his other BFF (bornstein)
Beckster,
There will be others that will play. I think Edu and Adu will be added later on. Bob B is just bringin’ in a few guys to see what the got.
Good to see Arnaud get a call up. I think he could surprise some people if he were to get some minutes.
Reis is a sieve.
Andrew, I think it is more like the “F” team. These are not international players with the exception of a couple. What is the point here? And why wouldn’t you have Bobby Boswell and Brian Carroll. We have seen enough of Ricardo Clark and I haven’t even heard of some of these other players. 2010 isn’t far away. Use this time to get all the midfielders who aren’t playing in Europe (Beasley, Edu, Convey, Adu etc)and who are better than this crowd in and playing. Our best talent is abroad and we should focus on it.
NOOOOO, no more rico clark.
Kljestan and Bradley should have that locked down. with Edu
Voodoo…
My first thought would be Ching and then possibly EJ….
Greg-
“What a slap in the face to the MLS keepers who busted their tails all year, only to have a guy who has not played in months get a call.”
Does Dom Cervi ring a bell? BB likes to call in out-of-contract GKs. Why? Who knows? Maybe he is trying to help them get a gig. It worked for Cervi.
Plus, he apparently was not interested in available veteran MLS keepers (Joe Cannon types), as evidenced by his selection of Brian Edwards instead. So, really it’s not the Pickens call that is taking anyone’s place.
Howard and Guzan are established enough as the only GKs for meaningful matches. It seems BB is using this camp for younger prospects.
Who else should he have called instead (given the apparent requirement that the player’s season is over)?
SJE – J. Cannon: solid year, but old. not a future prospect needing USMNT camp to further his development.
NER – M. Reis: over 30 and not 100%
LAG – Cronin/Wicks/Saunders: train wrecks
CHV – D. Kennedy: injured?
CHV – Z. Thornton: maybe 10 years ago
DCU – Z. Wells: lost his job
KC – K. Hartman: like Cannon, but not nearly as good.
DAL – R. Burse: failed to beat out sala
HOU – C. Waller: who?
Still playing in MLS: Hesmer, Busch, Cepero, Rimando/Seitz.
in Europe: D. Cervi, T. Hall, A. Brown (is Brown injured?)
this is a very odd roster. Stuart Holden should have been included, as well as Marvell Wynne.
Nice to see Gibbs get a call; does anyone care to comment about how he played down the stretch in Colorado?
Ko’d…
Cooper and Arnaud play on the wings alot for their clubs and both have a very good cross. I’m also just making up random lineups like this:
——————-Cooper———————
—Clark——–Kljestan———–Arnaud—
————-Mastroeni——Clark———–
—B’stein—Goodson—Parkhurst—Moor—-
Who does Edson Buddle have to blow to get a look on the MNT?
you guys do realize columbus players will and chicago players wont make because mls cup and i d be willing to bet that this will not be the game day roster. its just four a 4 day camp. after the camp 10 guys will leave and about 10 euros would come in.
Isaac…
A 4-3-3? This isn’t the Netherlands.
I bet Bradley makes 4 (maybe more, if there are injuries) more selections, and they will be starting XI-type players.
The way the game go might be close but i expect a Guatemala victory. They’ll be motivated by the fact that this is a C-team at best and they want the next round, BAD. However alot of the players on our team will be motivated because for alot of them Bob Bradley had his back turned to them. They’ll wanna do they’re best and draw his eye. So who knows , the best i can think of for this team is 1-2 loss though.
For all of those calling for Marhall or Rogers, they are still in season, hence they weren’t called in.
Also, why does everyone hate on Brian Ching? He is the most consistent forward in the entire U.S. player pool (exluding Dempsey and Donovan since they don’t always play forward).
Also, Bradley clearly could call in some Eurpoean based players for the game, this is just camp, so he isn’t going to call in in-season European based players.
Changes I would make…Reis for Edwards, Conrad for Goodson, Holden for LaBrocca, and Buddle for Arnaud. Possibly also Wynne for Moor, but I like Bornstein and would like to see what Franklin could do playing a more natural wing back position, and those are both big speed guys and Moor is more of a physical presence as well.
Andy – I’d rather see Convey get back in the groove with Reading, and Adu should be here for the match or I’ll riot. But you are totally right on about Buddle, I’d rather see him than Arnaud.
He only called up one Kenny Cooper? What is wrong with Bradley? I would have called up at least 5 Kenny Coopers, I’m sure SBI readers will wholeheartedly agree with me.
Maybe this:
————Cooper—Ching—Casey————
———–Clark—Kljestan—Mastroeni——-
—Bornstein—Goodson—Parkhurst—Moor–
——————Perkins——————
Pickens selection is a joke. What a slap in the face to the MLS keepers who busted their tails all year, only to have a guy who has not played in months get a call. I do not care if it is so he can get training, I do not care if he is on the verge of a move. He was not good enough to be the third keeper at QPR, and is not as good as Busch, Cannon, Reis, or Hessmer for that matter. Why reward him?
Dang, I was hoping to see Alexi Lalas in there. He’s not busy, right?
Glad to see Sean Franklin on the list.
As a DC fan I was secretly hoping for Quaranta to get called in.
Maybe this is the Rutgers in me talking, but I expect LaBracca is going to impress with this call up.
Wow if we are bringing in a team like this BB may as well bring Feilhaber back, it isn’t like he has other commitments unless playing reserve football counts.