It was a relatively slow news day in the soccer world on Monday, what with World Cup preliminary rosters set to be unveiled on Tuesday and the Europa League final headlining proceedings on Wednesday.
Here are some items to ponder as Monday winds down:
The U.S. 30-man preliminary World Cup roster will be unveiled on ESPN2 at 2pm. As it stands, we can figure that Edson Buddle and Brian Ching are among the selected (thanks to Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez and the Houston Dynamo PR department for (inadvertently) leaking that info to the masses).
Former England manager Steve McLaren has parlayed his success at Dutch champion FC Twente into a nice two-year deal to become the new manager at Wolfsburg. Will he bring along Costa Rican star Bryan Ruiz (since it's a safe bet Edin Dzeko is on his way to a bigger club)?
The Europa League Final looks set to go on as planned on Wednesday (ash cloud be damned). If you're wondering where you can watch it, DirecTV is showing the match, but that's about it as far as television options. SBI will be doing a live commentary on the match so you can always follow along here.
With the World Cup a month away, my colleagues at Fox Soccer have begun their World Cup previewing with a wide variety of info, including the first of their 32 team previews. They began the team previews today with North Korea.
I know some of you have asked me to name my own 28-man roster for next week's U.S. training camp. Here is the group I'd bring to Princeton:
SBI'S Proposed 28-man roster for USMNT Training Camp
Goalkeepers– Tim Howard, Marcus Hahnemann, Brad Guzan
Defenders– Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Jonathan Spector, Jay DeMerit, Clarence Goodson, Jonathan Bornstein, Heath Pearce, Chad Marshall
Midfielders– Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Stuart Holden, Ricardo Clark, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Jose Francisco Torres, Alejandro Bedoya, DaMarcus Beasley
Forwards– Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, Brian Ching, Edson Buddle, Eddie Johnson, Herculez Gomez
A few caveats to consider. If Torres has club duty with Pachuca, and if Davies isn't healthy, that could free up a spot for Freddy Adu, Robbie Rogers or Sacha Kljestan.
Chad Marshall might seem surprising, but he played a full 90 minutes on Saturday and was entrenched as a top four centerback just a year ago. Frankie Hejduk probably played himself out of the picture in recent weeks, though it wouldn't shock me if he wound up on the squad.
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The SBI MLS Power Rankings will come out Tuesday morning for those of you wondering where it was today. I had to take care of some equipment upgrading today as I get ready for the World Cup, which is fast approaching. As you might expect, there's plenty of shaking up in this week's rankings.
Also look out for the MLS Team of the Week, MLS Best XI, and the return of the MLS Rookie of the Week feature.
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What do you think of any of the above items? Did you like my 28-man projected camp roster?
Share your thoughts below.