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Bradley names U.S. roster vs. Spain

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U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley named his 24-man roster for the United States’ friendly against Spain on Wednesday.

Pablo Mastroeni was the new name on the Spain roster, with all 17 European-based players who played against England also being recalled.

Here is the list:

GOALKEEPERS– Dominic Cervi (out of contract), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC) ]

DEFENDERS– Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)

MIDFIELDERS– Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Eddie Lewis (Derby County), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids)

FORWARDS– Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Nate Jaqua (out of contract), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC), Josh Wolff (out of contract)

So what do I see the starting lineup being vs. Spain? Here’s one possibility:

USA Roster vs. Spain

———Johnson—–Donovan————

Beasley—————————Dempsey

———–Bradley—-Mastroeni———–

Pearce————————–Cherundolo

———Bocanegra—Onyewu————-

——————Howard——————-

If Donovan can’t go then I think Bradley will have to consider sliding Beasley to the right and starting Eddie Lewis to the left wing, with Dempsey moving to forward.

I know the clamor continues for Freddy Adu but I just don’t think he is seen as a 90-minute player for the national team just yet. He is a defensive liability and the team just isn’t equipped to pick up that slack. While I would like to see Adu get a start in one of these three friendlies, I think Argentina might be the safer bet than Spain.

Now, if we do see Adu start, I think it would have to be in a 4-2-3-1 like this:

—————–Dempsey——————-

Beasley———–Adu————Donovan

———–Bradley—-Mastroeni———–

Pearce————————–Cherundolo

———Bocanegra—Onyewu————-

——————Howard——————-

I would have absolutely no problem with this lineup, and probably prefer it to the above lineup, which is the lineup I think Bradley will use if everyone is healthy.

After Clark’s less than stellar showing vs. England, I could see Bradley going with a veteran presence in Mastroeni.

As for the forwards, let me state it one more time. Kenny Cooper and Jozy Altidore were not called in because of MLS commitments as well as because of what will likely be busy national team/Olympic duty for both this summer. It would be great if they were called in but Bradley can’t just ignore the fact that these guys have club games to play.

What do you think of the squad called by Bradley? What lineup would you start based on that roster? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Gotta get some creativity in the midfield. Not a fan of heath pearce, he played pretty poorly against england (although who didn’t?). I’d love to see a 4-1-2-1-2 system. Sitting back with two defensive mids against teams like spain just won’t work… unless john terry decides to become a US citizen in the next couple days.

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  2. ooops….that look a bit weirder when i posted it….just push spector cherundolo and Beasley Dempsey to the out side a little and you’ll get the idea

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  3. —-Adu—-Donovan—-

    –Beasley– –Dempsey–

    —Mastroeni–Bradley—

    –Spector– –Cherundolo–

    –Bocanegra–Onyewu–

    Bench:DeMerit,Hejduk,Johnson,Edu,Lewis.

    This is a line up i like and one that is very possible. Adu-good touch nice passer paired with donovan-quick(very quick) great finish. and of course Beasley with some Beastly crosses. IF his injuries dont hold him up…

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  4. kpugs- eek gad we both agree??

    id love to compete with these teams as well, but our depth of talent just arent up to par…. England’s squad are ALL on their off season, MLS ha players playing all year in several different leagues…

    we cannot always field our A-squad, therefore Bradley has to pick which games are most impt to do that… games against Mexioc and WCQ are the only ones right now… should Cooper and Jozy have been included?? i would have loved to see that combo…. i wonder what difference LD would have made allowing Demspey to push back up top (or keep him at right and put LD up top)…

    these are meaningless friendlies, and while id love to compete and possibly win all of them, its not feasible with how dispersed our team is…

    i agree with El Maestro that Bradley is looking to one thing… preparing us for making the world cup…. and having a large pool of players with experience who can come in and make the difference is MUCH MUCH better then what Arena used to do… Bruce used to keep the same starting XI with FEW changes… this caused a problem when someone got injured…

    also with the U23’s coming us, we didnt need to include players such as Jozy and Rogers…. players who will be making an impact in 2010…. its all preperation

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  5. I think hejduk is a decent player, but why is he here? Marvell Wynne, Jose Burciaga Jr., Jonathan Bornstein and michael parkhurst are all younger defenders who need national team experience, even if its just to train for a few days and be a part of the team. I would also say the same thing for older guys like Eddie Lewis and pablo mastroeni, why are players like Robbie Rogers, Arturo Alvarez, Eddie Gaven, sacha klesjtan and especially Kyle Beckerman not being given a chance. I understand its a long flight and its a pain for the MLS teams. I hope some of these guys are included for the Argentina game.

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  6. All the people saying how Adu is basically Jesus.

    Guys, he is young and not playing regular football. He is better than any youth international this country has, hence his dominance in all those games.

    But you guys must be blind…he is not even close to being our best left mid, center attacking mid, or striker. And CAM is his true position. The fact that people are claiming at his age, as a benchwarmer in PORTUGAL of all places, that he is some kind of superstud is ridiculous.

    Wake up…he is slowly but surely fulfilling his potential. He has had enough of people rushing him to the limelight in his life. Don’t start doing it with the national team too. He should keep getting callups for experience but for anyone to even come close to suggesting he is one of our best 10-15 players right now just shows how ignorant posters on this blog are.

    Honestly, the more popular it gets, the less quality comments we see, and the amount of keyboard diahrrea in comments has exploded. Sometimes I wonder how such stupid people can even confidently comment.

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  7. Lloyd, first of all you are an idiot. Second of all since you have no idea how this game works, clubs and international teams try oh-so-hard to work together as much as possible. In this country we are extremely lucky, as it almost always works out without menace. You are obviously a genius, so you must think the constant club vs. country rows in Europe are fake. You obtuse fool. Wake up.

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  8. Brett, not that you’ll even see this, but the problem is that I DON’T agree with you.

    I expect us to compete against these teams, not to win. This is not expecting the improbable. That 2-0 loss to England could have been respectable, but it was a joke. I think you you get what I’m aiming at you’d agree.

    I don’t expect these wins…but as a selfish fan I expect us to at the very least play to win. And to be honest I love Bradley as coach. But I cannot stand the fact that he half-asses some of the biggest games we’ve seen in YEARS, for no real reason (given the European season is over). My contention isn’t that we SHOULD win, only that we should TRY to, and we don’t, that’s the bottom line.

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  9. You know what, I don’t blame Bob Bradley. I like the guy and what he has brought to the table. I feel no matter what team of Americans he would’ve fielded we still would’ve lost. That midfield England fielded, premier.

    One knock I do have though is that we, the U.S. national team, need to start fielding players that are playing and producing in their respective leagues and stop giving players a spot because they have been around. I think that would yield the best results.

    To start, why not let Jimmy Conrad play as a wide back? He scores beautiful goals on set pieces and plays solid defense. And Twellman, hear me out now, has produced the most goals over since 2002 than other other American striker has in their league. I just think we need to get him more minutes with the national team when he is healthy; it seems like the only chances he is given is when he is recovering from an injury or is ailing from an injury. I think he is a great aerial threat, maybe shades of McBride. After all, he is much better of an option than Wolff or Eddie Johnson.

    Those ar just a couple things that run across my mind……here is a tweaked roster from a couple days ago that I would love to see.

    GK: Howard

    D: Conrad, Bocanegra, Onyewu, Pearce

    M: Adu, Donovan, Bradley, Beasley

    F: Dempsey, Twellman

    Bench:

    GK: Guzan

    D: Spector, Cherundolo, Demerit

    M: Lewis, Edu, Mastroeni

    F: Altidore, Cooper

    But to make a lineup out of the current squad Bob has recalled, I would have to go with Ives second lineup…

    —————–Dempsey——————-

    Beasley———–Adu————Donovan

    ———–Bradley—-Mastroeni———–

    Pearce————————–Cherundolo

    ———Bocanegra—Onyewu————-

    ——————Howard——————-

    The only possible change I would make is maybe starting Spector instead of Cherundolo, all depending on how they do in practice.

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  10. Okay, aren’t there any other available forwards Bob Bradley can call in? Josh Wolfe and Eddie Johnson sucked against England! How many chances does Eddie Johnson get? He’s just not that good. I don’t understand why he’s still getting so many chances. If the idea behind these games (England, Spain, Argentina) was to test the men’s team against top talent than why not bring in our best forwards and see if they can score against these teams. Not bringing in our best players for these games is the same STUPID thing Bob Bradley and the U.S. Soccer Federation did in Copa America which is to put out a team with no real hopes of winning. Welcome to America where soccer takes a back seat to the dollar and lining the U.S.S.F’s pockets.

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  11. let’s all take a minute to send a great big middle finger to mr. rossi. i’m sure being on the fringes of the italian squad is just SO MUCH better than leading the line for a top 20 national team, jackasss

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  12. BB is BA(Arena) all over again….no imagination and a preference for pet players who haven’t done squat and are fat cats…no wonder Rossi wants to play for Italy!!

    If we’re going to lose to England, Spain and Argentina lets go down with all guns blazing away!! Let the young guys play with hunger and passion!!!

    With a young Donovan and DMB in 2002, the USMNT played fearlessly in the World Cup!

    The line-up that I wanna see:

    GK-Howard, Guzan, Seitz

    Starting Back line: Spector, DeMerit, Orozco (the rising star…)and Pearce

    Subs Back line: Dolo, Parkhurst, Gooch (too slow, but… ) and Subotic (give him a shot!!!)

    Starting midfield: DMB, Bradley, Donovan, and Freddy

    Subs midfield: Edu, Rogers, Klestjan, Holden

    Starting forwards: Jozy, Dempsey

    Forward subs: Cooper, Davies

    Other options: Bornstein, Cervi, Renken, Flores, Alvarez, Zizzo, Feilhaber (when he gets his head straightened out)

    Coach: Klinsmann, Quieroz, Hiddink….anyone else but BB and Nowak!!!

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  13. Yeah, the Wolff thing is absolutely perplexing.

    If I’m in charge, which would be after a dark day for soccer in this country, heres my first choice eleven at the moment.

    ———–Cooper————-

    Beasley—-Donovan—–Dempsey

    ——Bradley—Feilhaber—–

    Spector————-Cherundolo

    ——Bocanegra–Onyewu——-

    ————Howard————

    Yes, that’s Feilhaber in there. If Josh Wolff and Heath Pearce can make it in, why not Feilhaber, who’s a better player that both of them. Get him some playing time at some level because we need help in CM right now. Bradley is doing great in Europe but people who are saying he should play attacking midfield obviously do not understand the nature of why he scored 3 zillion goals this year. Bradley might have a talent for late-run tap ins and serve as a decent ballwinner, but his possession and passing skills pale in comparison to Reyna, O’Brien, and Feilhaber.

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  14. Ok, I’m convienced now that Josh Wolff has nake pictures of Coach Bradley or something. Why the hell else will this scrub be in the US Team!?!?!?!? Either that or Bradley has sick sense of humor.

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  15. For once I would like to see the lineup and go, man, we have a chance tonight.

    It has been a long time. (See WC2002 and multiple Mexico games)

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  16. I am against both line up of yours because I rather see Jaqua and EJ up top. They are true strikers unlike Dempsey and Donovan. Yes Donovan is killing it in striker position for LA Galaxy. My thoughts are that he is doing it in MLS and the US midfield is not going to give services like he receives from Beckham. So let Donovan run the midfield and let him create oppurtunities for our real strikers. Also 3-5-2 should be used by Bob I just do not see why he has not applied it yet with this team.

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  17. Ives, are you sure you didn’t accidentally post this on BigSoccer? The amount of handwringing and sky-is-falling posts in here is just pathetic.

    Get some perspective, people! Bradley has to be extremely careful to manage not just a soccer team, but relationships with dozens of clubs, the press, numerous FAs, and then last, AND LEAST OF ALL RIGHT NOW, the fans. You.

    Bradley doesn’t give a flying frack what you all want, which is to put our A team out there at all costs and run them into the ground for, what? A chance at beating an elite team in a situation that has zero meaning in the grand scope of things? Get over it.

    Bradley has one single mission: to qualify for WCQ ’10. Everything he does with these three games is related to that. Do you think playing three games against vastly superior talent is going to do anything but help us against the technical disaster that is CONCACAF (besides Mexico)? After losing these three, we will annhilate Barbados, and then we will be off to the next round well prepared to DOMINATE.

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  18. Based on watching just the England game, I would:

    – Sit Wolf and R. Clark and replace them with on Donovan on offense and P. Mastroenni as the holding mid

    – Sit Beas, Eddie, Pablo and ‘dolo at halftime and bring on E. Lewis (for Beas), Adu (for Eddie), Edu (for Pablo) and one of the defenders (for ‘dolo) at halftime

    – For the last 15 minutes, bring on Jaqua and either Califf or DeMerritt to see what they can do.

    I know Bradley wants to win, but not giving significant minutes to guys that you need to evaluate instead of guys that you already know (Wolff, Johnson, R. Clark, etc) is pointless. After England scored the 2nd goal, BB should have used up his subs. They took the foot off the gas and we should have seen if any of the subs could have made it a game again.

    Color me frustrated!

    Sushant

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  19. “How do we seriously plan to make noise in the World Cup when we call up players from the Austrian league? ….

    But apparently, after all the work we’ve done, we’re not even close.”

    ——

    Do we seriously expect to “make noise”? Should we? I mean, I think we should go into 2010 with serious plans to get out of the group stages, and I don’t think it’s crazy to plan and hope for a quarterfinal appearance. But teams significantly better than us often don’t make the quarters. So, no, we’re not even close to being a realistic semifinals prospect in 2010. But we’re closer than we were in 1998. And, really, we’re closer than we were when the stars aligned in 2002, when we played great, overachieved, and still had to rely on South Korea as much as ourselves to get out of the group stage.

    Could our progress have been faster since 2002? Sure. Could it have been fast enough to make us a short-odds contender to win 2010? I don’t see how.

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  20. “hey! I play on an amature team, and of american nationality…how come I didnt get a call up??”

    Because Freddy Adu is 1,000-10,000 times better than you. And he’s substantially better than all but five to fifteen guys in the national team pool.

    Lord knows there are better coaches than Bob Bradley, but it never fails to amaze me that people are indignant that he isn’t calling up our world-class players. We don’t have any world-class players. The guys who at this moment are the closest to that level are on the roster.

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  21. “What’s the use of a having two defensive midfielders if you can’t cover for a player like Adu?”

    Exactly, Dominghosa.

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  22. Hey Ives what do you think of something like this:

    —————–Johnson——————-

    Beasley———–Adu————Donovan

    ———–Bradley—-Dempsey———–

    Pearce————————–Cherundolo

    ———Bocanegra—Onyewu————-

    ——————Howard——————-

    I think Dempsey needs to be given a chance to play CAM. He has the qualites so why not give him a go. I know Adu is not capable of starting but maybe try this formation out in the second half.

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  23. I just hope that when the Nats come back across the pond to play Argentina they don’t do one of those “We’re trying to look at some different players” B Teams. I understand looking at different players, but why not look at them with the people they’d be playing with if they were to make it onto the qualifying roster? Hopefully, on the return home, they have more otpions to choose from just not at the expense of being competitive.

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  24. Anybody wonder if Bob Bradley is still “punishing” Kenny Cooper for his yellow card for celebrating his first career Natl. team goal vs. Denmark (January 2007)? I think he was subbed out after as well.

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  25. Ives: I *love* your proposed 4-2-3-1. I know many people have argued that Dempsey is not a true striker, but I think having Donovan and Adu on the field together is worth it, and may serve to create spaces that Dempsey can exploit. Adu, Beasley, and Donovan provide an awful lot of attacking speed and creativity. I think a friendly would be the perfect time for such an experiment. I do not want to see Wolf and Johnson up top again.

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  26. Still waiting on a Altidore & Cooper Tandem they are the only promising guys we got playing the position. Hopefully we’ll see them against the argies.

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  27. Adu doesn’t need to be a 90-minute player, he’ll have more of an impact as a 65-70-minute player than what he is now, a 20-minute player. The kid will have more chances to create something from the get-go and through most of the match than just the feeble 20 minutes he has seen. What’s the use of a having two defensive midfielders if you can’t cover for a player like Adu?

    It’s tough to see Adu AND Alitdore starting vs. Argentina. The way Bradley does things, only one or none of those two will start.

    That’s too bad.

    Here’s hoping the Cooper-Altidore-Adu-Dempsey-Donovan-Bradley front six will develop enough together to do something in 2010.

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  28. Adu doesn’t need to be a 90-minute player, he’ll have more of an impact as a 65-70-minute player than what he is now, a 20-minute player. The kid will have more chances to create something from the get-go and through most of the match than just the feeble 20 minutes he has seen. What’s the use of a having two defensive midfielders if you can’t cover for a player like Adu?

    It’s tough to see Adu AND Alitdore starting vs. Argentina. The way Bradley does things, only one or none of those two will start.

    That’s too bad.

    Here’s hoping the Cooper-Altidore-Adu-Dempsey-Donovan-Bradley front six will develop enough together to do something in 2010.

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  29. There is potential for several US players to make good club moves this summer, but if that doesn’t happen, this is the weakest player pool the US has had since the 2000.

    How do we seriously plan to make noise in the World Cup when we call up players from the Austrian league? When our best option at left back is an occasional sub for a Bundesliga 2 side? Josh Wolff is still STARTING?

    It gets even worse if you watched the Toulon tournament where our squad looked completely out of their league and could barely muster a few shots on goal a game.

    If we are to begin advancing, the standard has got to be higher than this. With some of the ‘established’ players we have right now, I’d rather see Bradley take more chances, but I know thats a dream.

    But my real concern is the clubs our players are at. The only outfield players on our team who are regular starters on squads in European leagues of a higher quality than MLS are Beasley, Dempsey, Cherundolo, Onyewu, and Bradley. And only Beasley is at a club of any high regard on the world stage. People, especially with the Altidore discussions are always complaining that young players ‘dont go to a big club and sit on the bench’. Well…..our players aren’t playing at small clubs either! Szetela? Feilhaber? Spector? Zizzo? Might as well get some of our players some of the stardust at big clubs if not playing time.

    We always hear the tough talk from the Bradley/Nowak regime about ‘recent form’ and ‘must be playing with their clubs’ but truth is, they never seem to adhere to this rule except when it comes to holding back the most gifted young player in our ranks who still plays more at Benfica than other players Bradley caps regularly. One would hope that a pre-requisite for the US national would be regular appearances (at least every other game) for a top division team in America, Mexico, England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Scotland, Portugal, or a team in a smaller league that qualifies for Europe.

    But apparently, after all the work we’ve done, we’re not even close.

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  30. @FK PIRIN – Agreed with everything you said, except your last paragraph. Josh Wolff is not good enough, period. Nate Jaqua is still young so maybe you are right there.

    Bocanegra is technically “Out of Contract” also, but I haven’t heard anyone saying he must be terrible. Still, Boca has definitely proved his quality, which is not something you can currently say of Jaqua.

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  31. I’ve seen West Ham use Spector as a DM before. I think he would do a better job than Clark. Spain’s speed is going to give the US real problems. We’ll see how the back-line does against a world class striker.

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  32. If Spain is more technical, as everyone always describes them, then England then Bradley better start Adu. Clark and Wolff should not see the field.

    Also his son better play better then he did vs. England. Because his tackling and touch were God awful vs. England.

    Either way- we are going to get killed unless:

    A: Spain is still laughing about our England performance and shows up flat.

    B: we just out hustle them to earn a draw

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  33. I think an argument can be made for…

    Donovan

    Beasley Adu Dempsy

    Edu Bradley

    Spector Gooch Boca Dolo

    Howard

    By all accounts (I missed the England game because my job is hell), Beasley looked good, we need Donovan and Adu, Clark was bad (and Edu looks to be a rising star), Pearce was ok but Spector deserves a look. I know Donovan isn’t a classic lone forward, but with his speed and first touch, he can go on goal or hold up and dish to Beaz/Deuce/Freddie and give time for Michael Bradley and Edu to transition and get into the attack.

    I might also see starting Lewis at left back so he can get into the attack down that side.

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