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U.S. national team calls group in ahead of Mexico friendly

Landon_donovan_isi_photos

                                                                 Photo by ISI Photos

U.S. men’s national team coach Bob Bradley recalled 21 players from the team’s earlier camp for training ahead of the upcoming friendly against Mexico in Houston on Feb. 6.

Landon Donovan leads an MLS-heavy list of players who should make up a good portion of the roster that will face Mexico at Reliant Stadium in two weeks (But you should expect some European-based call-ups as well). Here is the roster:

GOALKEEPERS – Steve Cronin (LA Galaxy), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Will Hesmer (Columbus Crew), Zach Wells (D.C. United)

DEFENDERS –Dan Califf (Aalborg BK), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Ramiro Corrales (SK Brann), Todd Dunivant (Toronto FC), Clarence Goodson (San Jose Earthquakes), Drew Moor (FC Dallas), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Eddie Robinson (Houston Dynamo)

MIDFIELDERS –Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Justin Mapp (Chicago Fire), Pat Noonan (New England Revolution)

FORWARDS  – Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution), Jeremiah White (AGF Aarhus)

Bradley will add some European-based players to this group for the match, but it appears unlikely that Bradley will call in a full-strength squad. You may recall that he didn’t call in a full-strength squad against Mexico last February in Phoenix and the U.S. team beat a full-strength Mexico squad, 2-0.

What do you think of this group? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. where’s dempsey? timmy howard? gooch? bocanegra?

    What!!!! I was hoping for a full strength squad.

    anyway i will be there in person!!! USA!!!

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  2. Fred & My Three Sons,
    (everybody – doo, doo, doo, doo….doo, doo doo… 🙂

    Per the U.S. Soccer site. http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_4947972.html
    The U-23’s have March qualifying games as follows:”…selecting the team that will compete in CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualification from March 11-23, 2008, in Los Angeles, Tampa and Nashville. The U.S. will play their three games of the group stage in Tampa against Cuba on March 11, Panama on March 13 and Honduras on March 15…After group play, the top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals which will be played on March 20 at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn. LP Field will also be the location for the third-place and championship matches on Sunday, March 23. The two finalists will advance to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. ”

    Remember that U-23 qualifying in March are NOT FIFA dates… we have to qualify for the Olympics without the Bradleys, Adu’s, Subotic’s of the world…Once we qualify, IF WE QUALIFY you can expect a different roster for the Olympics. We can expect to see a 1 or 2 of the U-23’s against Mexico…however and regardless of the FIFA date against Mexico, to request a player from a European club for a ‘friendly’ in the middle of the week; when that player has to fly back to Europe for what may be an important league game is not good player management. BB needs to save his ‘demands’ for players.

    A demand like that can get an American put deep on the bench and that serves no purpose. So that is a long way of saying, don’t be surprised if fewer Euros are brought in for this game. For sure the Fulham boyz are probably out…except maybe EJ. Fulham might allow him to travel just for the workout. He will need the work if he is to help the Cottagers over the stretch run. So no Demps, no Boca. EJ maybe. Bradley? Sure he’ll be there…he is being marketed for a move. Feilhaber? Maybe, he too is being marketed…but would you start him over Edu or Clark in the middle? (yeah me neither) Convey? = could be… without Beez we suddenly become thin on the left and Convey will likely get the call. Or Adu could work the left. He plays at LM primarily for Benfica. However, I could also see BB going with Donavon on the left and move Sacha or Noonan or even Rolf at RM for this game. Howard –don’t think so…I think Guzan showed well enough over the last couple of games and Bradley will help his negotiating power to get him to Europe.

    Guess, we’ll see on the 5th.

    TK, great reads keep up the posting. (& despite the Kids on Big Soccer it still is the best place for finding out about rumours, etc.) BTW SBI Mafia you can catch many, many games streamed over the internet these days…this is how I follow the boyz in Eurolandia.

    Toodles all. USA!

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  3. Ok, I don’t believe the Landon story. The only news I can find is usnavysrchief reporting it on soccerbyives.net. I wish it was true though.

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  4. usnavysrchief,

    If that’s true, that’s huge! It seems unbelievable and believable at the same time. Ives would like to know about this I am sure. If you aren’t just pranking us, would you give us the exact address. I can’t find it through BBC.com.

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  5. I just read a blog on BBC.COM That states LANDON DONOVAN is heading to England for negotiations with an unknown Club. IS There anyway that is true??????

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  6. I was under the impression that Neven Subotic wanted to play for Germany (I think he has a German passport). I know he went through Bradenton, but if someone can show me the player actually stating that he wants to play for the US National Team, that would be significant.

    I think Bradley or Nowak previously tried calling him into camp and Subotic turned down the invite.

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  7. though i can understand altidore and adu missing out, i’ll be disappointed if a lot of the euro-based players don’t make it.

    i paid a lot of money for tickets assuming it’d be a full-strength squad since it is a FIFA international date. i know assumptions are assumptions, but i was really looking forward to seeing dempsey (back in texas), boca, gooch, feilhaber, etc.

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  8. hoya,

    Don’t waste your time! Obviously if Eric thinks the team listed by Ives without any other additions can beat the full Mexico squad, he is a little clueless. Kenny Cooper did himself proud with the few chances he was given on the USMNT. Now that I think of it, he may not have been called back because of his long layoff with that broken leg. That was a pretty serious injury.

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  9. Well Eric, why dont’ you give me a better alternative then? We have a very limited number of true target forwards in our player pool. Ever since McBride’s retirement this has been a huge hole. IMO Altidore and Ching are currently our best two options (if your not counting Demspey who clearly could help us much more either at a withdrawn forward spot or on the wings) and neither of them are really owning that spot right now. So if we have only two real target forwards to choose from right now we need to look for another option and IMO Cooper is that option. I have not seen him play lately so I cannot attest to his current form but hes young, 6’3” and was once a top reserve player at Man U (scored 17 goals for Man U’s reserves in ’04). He also scored a goal in his national team debut in early ’07. I think he needs to be given a shot and I just gave what I feel are some pretty good reasons why he needs a callup. Why don’t you explain to me why he should’nt be given look?

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  10. Kenny Cooper…… hahahahahaha! are you kidding me? top forwards in the US, what a joke. By the way everyone, the US will do just fine with the players they have, even if they dont go to European players. besides, its Mexico and dont forget their manager is Sanchez. come on theyve sucked since. but they do have good players.

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  11. I have tickets to this game and if we can beat Mexico (which I dont doubt), with mostly MLS players thats going to be great for US soccer. I heard that Hugo “A Thousand Excuses” Sanchez is going with his FULL squad.

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