Photo by ISIphotos.com
Jozy Altidore, Kenny Cooper and Freddy Adu headline a roster of 20 players called in for Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against Guatemala at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
Here is the squad:
GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan, Troy Perkins, Matt Pickens
DEFENDERS: Jonathan Bornstein, Sean Franklin, Cory Gibbs, Clarence Goodson, Drew Moor, Michael Parkhurst
MIDFIELDERS: Freddy Adu, Davy Arnaud, Ricardo Clark, Sacha Kljestan, Pablo Mastroeni, John Thorrington
FORWARDS: Jozy Altidore, Conor Casey, Brian Ching, Kenny Cooper, Chris Rolfe
Some of the new faces include MLS rookie of the year Sean Franklin, Chicago Fire midfielder John Torrington and Mr. Fan Favorite himself, Kenny Cooper.
Colorado striker Conor Casey also gets a well-earned nod after finishing the MLS season strongly. Casey and Rapids teammate Cory Gibbs join Pablo Mastroeni in the contingent of Colorado players who could play in front of their home fans.
What do you think of this group? Who are you looking forward to see play? We’ll save lineup projections for Monday. For now just share your thoughts on the roster in the comments section below.
Brad Guzan in goal
Jonathan Bornstein, Cory Gibbs, Clarence Goodson and Drew Moor in defense
Freddy Adu, Ricardo Clark, Sacha Kljestan, John Thorrington in the midfield
Jozy Altidore and Conor Casey up top with Chris Rolfe as a sub
Good to see Gibbs back with the Nats. My only hope is that we don’t go with the awful 4-5-1. I really wish the Nats could go with a 3-5-2 but thats just wishful thinking!
Maybe it’s just me, but this looks like a “reward” call-up for a decent domestic season for a lot of guys. We don’t need this game, so BB is trying to be the ‘nice guy’ and bring in a lot of guys to put on a US shirt without really expecting any of them to be in his long-term plans (Arnaud, Casey, Gibbs, Thorrington).
I’m disappointed to not see Davies, but BB knows he’s going to be in the mix, and if Casey bumps Davies so BB can give him a game for the USMNT in front of his home fans, I have no problem with that at all.
The only problem with that theory is that it means Cooper may be one of the ‘reward’ guys who got called up for having a good year, but being called in with this group means he may not be a part of the long-term plans.
————Altidore—Cooper—————–
–Adu——————————-Kljestan–
———–MAstroeni—Clark——————
–Bornstein—Goodson—Parkhurst—Franklin–
——————–Guzan———————
A possible lineup but really ya know who might have actually been nice to see this game? Bobby Convey. I want to see him back in form and an option, or atleasta back up plan.
What I want to see
——–Altidore-Rolfe———-
—————-Adu————-
—–Kljestan—-Thorrington—–
————-Mastroeni————
Bornstein-Gibbs-Parkhurst-Franklin
————–Guzan—————
What I expect to see
————Ching-Adu————-
Bornstein-Clark-Mastroeni-Kljestan
Gibbs—-Parkhurst–Goodson—-Moor
—————Guzan—————
Good for Johnny Thorrington. Hope he gets some minutes.
I’m excited to see how the MLS guys do in a International game. I want to see Jozy, Freddy, and Sacha step up and go big too. My only complaint would be the face that Marvell Wynne should be on this list of young guns.
I can live with this callup. Glad to see Cooper finally. Great to see a totally different back line, and glad that Altidore and Adu are there. Certainly Bradley is widening the potential pool of players bigger then Arena ever did. I hope this team shows well.
Looks like a good crop of players were brought in for this game and it will be interesting to see what line up BB comes up with. It seems like BB will rely on the experience of Mastroeni, Gibbs and yes Ching on this one. Ching did have one of the better performances when USA faced Guatemala in Guatemala and as we all have seen playing them we need a little experience on our side. To pull of the victory, because they definitely can pull this off with this team, the US is going to want to keep their cool, control the game, and not buy into the shenanigan’s that Guatemala incorporates into their game.
Altidore Ching
Adu Clark Mastroeni Klejstan
Bornstein Gibbs Parkhurst Franklin
Guzan
Wednesday…
correction – “i yelled as loud as anybody at bob bradley for NOT including youth in his rosters…”
i yelled as loud as anybody at bob bradley for including youth in his rosters. this roster is good in the sense that it gets some young guys into camp, but it just seems like another way to justify bob’s current scheme. no one (at least no one rational) was asking for bob to play a full team of youngins, instead i just wanted to see maybe 3 or 4 young guys brought into camp to gain some experience. maybe see wynne over hejduk, altidore over ching, freddy coming in as a 60th minute sub. this is an incredibly young roster and when they don’t crush guatemala everyone will say this is proof that the veterans are the best. i like the idea of fielding a roster of only young guys, but i dont like the undeserved confidence and justification it will give to bob bradley’s and others out there who consider the US as a current favorite to advance out of the group stages of the world cup.
——————Guzan——————
–Franklin–Parkhurst–Gibbs–Bornstein–
——–Mastro————Clark———-
—-Kljestan——————Adu——–
——-Altidore———–Ching———-
where’s marvell wynne?
Posted by: bond | November 17, 2008 at 12:03 AM
***************************
Ditto!
where’s marvell wynne?
Hard to call. It all depends on what BB uses for a formation. Last few games, its been a 4-5-1, single striker. With the decent crop and variety of different styles of strikers he has brought into camp, it would be a waste to deploy one person up top. I think its time to try out a new target forward ahead of South Africa….
mikeK – that was hysterical ! 😀
should be Rico and Pablo as D center mids with Adu and sash on the wings . . .you guys know the drill by now!
Do people not remember how good Gibbs was leading up to 06? With BB’s history of sticking with veterans, I think we see a line-up like this:
——Ching—-Cooper(altidore)————
–Adu—————————-Sasha K.——————–Rico————————————-Pablo M.——————-
–Johny B.—Gibbs—Mikey P.—Drew M.—-
——————-Guzan——————-
Davies got his tonsils removed, or something equivalent.
This team could use him, lacks a true speedster.
Posted by: eric | November 16, 2008 at 11:11 PM
_____________________________________________
You’re absolutely right about Davies having his tonsils out, but tell me — what is equivalent to having one’s tonsils out?
Davies got his tonsils removed, or something equivalent.
This team could use him, lacks a true speedster.
MasterShake- He got his career going playing negative soccer in New York. Even though he’s billed as a forward for the Red Bull, he played what’s defense in real life because New York turtles all the time.
Villareal also made an offer for the left post, but the Metro are holding off for more money.
=D
Where is Charlie Davies? That guy that scored 14 goals…lol did I spell his name wrong? His season was just over.
NO REAL OPTIONS AT LEFT WING.
wait.somebody remind me..where did Jozy Altidore get his professional soccer career going? i kind of forgot..
DAMN YOU BRYAN….you stole mine…
altidore ching
adu mastroeni thorrington Kljestan
bornstein franklin parkhurst goodson
guzan
I know we said wait until Monday for lineups but this one just came to me.
————-Altidore—Cooper————-
—-Adu—-Mastroeni—Clark—-Kljestan—
–Bornstein–Goodson–Parkhurst–Franklin–
——————Guzan——————–
My prediction:
—-Cooper—–Altidore—-
—————————
—Klestjan—–Adu——–
—————————
—Clark——–Pablo——
-Bornstein-Parkhurst-Franklin-Moor
——-Guzan—————
Arnaud should not be in the national team picture.
Eric,
I doubt the fight will be between Torres in and Kljestan. Torres really wont be a central midfielder in my opinion. Kljestan has sealed his spot there for a while at the least. Rather, Adu and Torres might skirmish with eachother for playing time in that position.
Torres is probably the same place Bradley is- In the middle of a solid amount of playing time with their club. Most of this crop are European players not seeing much action, or MLS players who’s season is over.
We’re all such whiners – we got him, but no one’s called for the Cooper start yet! Sadly, I don’t know if you could get BB to start Adu in a 4-4-2 which would put both Jozy and Cooper on the field.
I totally forgot about Torres, but really wish he were included. Hopefully being left off is a sign of respect to Pachuca, that we’re not wasting a call up on a meaningless game, and playing with guys who wouldn’t normally be in camp. But I think it would have been valuable to let Torres and Kljestan compete directly head to head.
The one thing i fear absolutely the most is seeing Bornstein on the left wing and Gibbs as a left back. It makes me shudder to think what that Loco Rodriguez kid could do to that left side. Heath Pearce got abused that day….whats gonna happen to little scrawny Jonny Bornstein?
i’d like to see gibbs again
Ok how about this
–Bornstein–Goodson–Mastroeni–Moor–
Actually thats probably a likely back four…
You stole my phrase, CD – cement boots. And no one wears ’em like Conner Casey wears ’em. Sorry, he’s tough enough, but WAY too slow after several major knee surgeries to ever be our guy. Even Ching could smoke him in a footrace, which I would love to watch.
–Bornstein–Gibbs–Parkhurst–Franklin–
works for me on the backline, and we know BB is going to give major defensive cover for Adu… M4L might have the rest…
I echo Isaac:
Where is Torres?
Would love for someone to post some rumor/speculation/information why he is missing from this group.
Maybe he is too offensive minded.
i am very interested to see what Franklin can do playing his natural RB position
back four somehting like this maybe even
–Bornstein–Moor–Parkhurst–Franklin–
Then again maybe Franklin and Moor could switch and Moor could give us one of those kickass crosses again…..and then lose Carlos Ruiz on a free kick…Pablo has to start because his marking ability is pretty good on set pieces and it will allow Ruiz no space on that sort of thing.
I wasn’t too excited about this match but now I am. It will be nice to see this new lineup and see what they can do.
Hopefully Sean Franklin won’t get the MLS rookie of the year curse after he goes to USMNT camp like it seems happened to Edu. I think Bradley fit Edu with some cement boots.
Goodson plays central defense.
Whoever starts in defense (my guess would be Moor, Parkhurst, Gibbs or Goodson, and Bornstein) it will be a back 4 that doesn’t have much experience playing together. My fear is that would lead Bradley to start 2 dmids (both Clark and Mastroeni?) to relieve pressure on them and that could stifle any creativity in our attack.
Anyway, Guatemala should be pleased with this list of US callups but, even so, their chances of advancing to the Hex are muy, muy, muy pobre…
AlohaDan,
Chings season is over right now and I think keeping him in shape for the Hexagonagal might be BB’s plan. Then again maybe he’s not worried about Ching. He’s a veteran and understands how to keep himself fit now. What to do….
Conor Casey has the quality, if not the production, to be part of the national team picture. There are no clear omissions among the call-ups, especially if end of domestic season is a requirement. It would have been nice to see Charlie Davies again, though, if only for the entertainment value.
Something like this maybe:
————Altidore—Cooper————–
—Adu—————————-Arnaud—
———–Mastroeni—Kljestan————
–Bornstein–Goodson–Parkhurst–Franklin–
——————Guzan——————–
Alot Adu’s good moments come when he’s out on the wing like up against Brazil at the U-20 tournament. Even against Holland in the olympics when he and Holden switched spots. Donovan is our playmaker guys, Adu can replace him when needed but I think Adu might do better on the wing. He finds places where his tiny body and great skill can get him. I say adu on the wing.
Well two will be cut. Guessing a keeper and one field player.
Probably one called in just to get camp oriented, kind of BBs method.
Or possibly Chinger. Looking at the whole squad I wonder if Ching is there soley to help out with BBs instruction points. He’s clearly the most experienced. Except for Guzan the other players don’t come close to Ching’s international time. Certainly between Altidore, Cooper, Casey, and Rolfe there are enough fwds.
Hopefully it’s like the classic Public Enemy jam – ‘The B Side Wins Again’. Just give me Jozy and Freddy, and lets start building the future.
Where does Goodson play. Stupid bio pages give me his favorite foods and music, but not minor details like center, left, or right defender. Reason I ask is I’d love to see a Drew Moor-less lineup, that guy has no future as an international.
Also, can’t we have a real winger on the team???
My guess…..
Altidore
Adu
Kljestan Rolfe
Clark Mastroeni
Bornstein Franklin
Parkhurst Gibbs
Guzan
Tough group to pick from…
Strong performances from MLS players this season, plus factoring the Euro crop
Where is Torres? we’re missing a left footed midfielder other than adu….maybe he’ll play on the wing.
I’m excited to see that Davy Arnaud got the call.
woohoo!