Robbie Findley, Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez have been chosen to try and solve the U.S. team need at forward after all three were named to the USA 23-man World Cup roster.
Veteran striker Brian Ching did not make the squad in the most surprising omission, while wing options Alejandro Bedoya and Robbie Rogers also missed the cut.
Here is the full squad:
USA World Cup Team
Goalkeepers– Tim Howard, Marcus Hahnemann, Brad Guzan
Defenders– Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit, Steve Cherundolo, Jonathan Spector, Clarence Goodson, Jonathan Bornstein
Midfielders– Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Stuart Holden, Maurice Edu, Ricardo Clark, DaMarcus Beasley, Benny Feilhaber, Jose Francisco Torres
Forwards– Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Herculez Gomez, Edson Buddle, Robbie Findley
What do you think of the selections? Which snub was the most surprising? Which selection did you not see coming?
Share your thoughts below.
Why Findley?…c’mon Coach Bradley, what has he done for the USMNT lately?…or ever, for that matter!!
I was at the game in Ct. and most of the players were very gracious with the kids that waited for autographs after the game. My 11 year old son was so very, very happy to get signatures from his heroes Donovan, Dempsey, Howard, Bocanegra, Torres, Beasley, Gooch, Altidore and Clark.
He missed getting ink from a few of his heroes… Coach Bradley, Michael Bradley, Holden, Feilhaber, DeMerit, Cherundolo, and Spector.
Thank you so much guys… you really made a great night even better for my son. These are memories that he’ll cherish the rest of his life.
After leaving the team buses and walking to our tailgating area, my son continued kicking his ball around until the parking lot cleared…that was about midnight. You guys have created a monster. His goal is now to play for the USMNT. Look for him in 2018.
NOT* I CANNOT SPELL THIS WEEK, LOL 😀
DUDE, ARE YOU SERIOUS ? PIERECE DID NOT DO GOOD EITHER. HE WAS EVEN MUTTERING UNDER HIS BREATH IN THE GAME WHEN HE MADE A MISTAKE
A Healty Davies* I meant to say nto Jones again. lol.
Bornstein over Pearce? WTF, Bob has to pull his head out and stop giving Bornstein the LB spot. He is shaky in defense and is poor in offense. Good god!
Bradley is picking players for the 2010 World Cup not the 2014 Cup. He has to worry aout next month not four years down the road.
Findley might not even be still be playing then.
The US may not even qualify for 2014 so it is beyond stupid to pick players to ready them for Brazil.
Whatever the reason, Bradley is doing it for South Africa not Brazil.
Onyewu is clearly not in form….Altidore also overrated.
Feilhaber is simply awful.
Hejduk would have been better than Cherundalo also.
I THINK THE GAME LAST NIGHT WAS HORRIBLE. WE DID NOT GET REVENGE. WE SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST BEAT THEM 3-2. I AM NOT SURPRISED GOMEZ SCORED ON PETER CECH GRATZ TO HIM. :). FINDLEY BETTER PROVE THAT HE CAN DO SOMETHING. FREDDY ADU WOULD HAVE BEEN A WAY BETTER OPTION THEN FINLEY. ARENA NEVER GAVE FREDDY A CHANCE AND BOB DID NOT EITHER. TO BAD CASTILLO, JONES, AN IN 100 % FORM ADU AND A HEALTHY JONES. WE COULD HAVE WIPED THE FLOOR WITH ENGLAND. THE SKY WOULD HAVE BEEN THE LIMIT AND WE WOULD HAVE BEEN SITTING ON CLOUD 9 WINNING THE GROUP. :D. I BELIEVE THIS U.S.A. TEAM WILL GO FAR. GO U.S.A.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i believe that against turkey he will put gomez up top with altidore they will blend very well together
I actually expected Ching to get some minutes alongside Altidore.
I think this definitely means Dempsey is on the wings for this one.
Wouldn’t make since to bring 5 strikers.
Agoos or Pope…Hell, what about Frankie?
Findley is old
True, Bob definitely will regret not having a Bedoya as a sub on the wing…. I mean, If Deuce is up top, then we only have 3 wing players: Beas, Donovan, and Holden…what happens then when we need another sub..or if all 3 are playing and 1 gets hurt??
like both points.
interesting idea that goodson could start over onywu or demeritt to cover tall boy.
Like the chicks.
great point!
Davies at 75% > Findley at 100%
I’m not here to say “Fire BB” like many other have said but it is glaringly obvious that BB did not give some players a fair shake.
BB obviously needed 1 or 2 more matches to get a better feel for the chemistry amongst players.
Whatever they do in camp doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be good or bad in the game.
For example, Findley is said to look amazing in camp and beating defenders all the time.
As a counter example you could say this, D.Milito simply doesn’t have what it takes during practice to get by our[Inter] defenders.
This is exactly why you get more than 2 send-off matches. BB needed more matches to see if what was happening in camp translated onto the field.
Then the extra positive you take from having 1 or 2 more matches is that you have more, 1 or 2 more, matches to put his full 23 together and build perfect team chemistry.
Anyhow, it is what it is now and I can’t wait for saturday to see how we do!!!
Go USA!!!
Only one thing about CHing I’ll say… he is bad on the counter, he is a slow passer sometimes.
Robbie Findley, what a shock!
No Rogers is a surprise because he looked spectacular last night.
No Bedoya is even more of a surprise because he looked spectacular against a top team, the Netherlands.
No Ching is as big of a shock as including Buddle.
i think bornstein IS bradley’s daughter
Right on. The glaring thing that stands out about last night was that BB needed 1 or 2 extra matches to test his fringe players.
Ching made the whole team better in the 2nd half. During this 2nd half we had an extremely sloppy midfield and Ching was trying to make-up for some of this as well and Holden was getting tired.
If Ching and Gomez had the 1st half midfield, it would have been a different story.
Freddy will def be ready for the next world cup and that will be a thing of beauty
Dude Dolo sends alot of useless longballs while specs sends in beatiful crosses
ughhhhh
Last night clearly decided who would make the roster. Did you not see all the battles for spots?
Ever person that was subbed out was in direct competion with the person with which they were subbed for
The main core of guys already have played tons of games together last night was clearly an on the field try out for spots
Beas/rogers beas won
Buddle/ching buddle won
Johnson/gomez gomez won
Bornstein/pearce bornstein won
torres/kljestan torres won
Bedoya came in for Gooch cuz gooch was gassed and no one on the bench could play CenterBack so Bradley got Bedoya another cap for the Future
Bradley is def gonna play a 4-4-2
lol whoops, that was supposed to be in response to Rick
Is Pope injured? If he’s healthy he could be a nice addition to our back line.
probably 0…he won’t play. unless someone gets injured.
Whether you agree with the roster or not, none of the snubs did much to cement their roster spot. The biggest surprise was of course the Findley inclusion and the Ching exclusion. Ching has been injured as of late and his match fitness is certainly in question and rumor has it he tweeked something last night. Findley is a complete shock since he didn’t even play last night. He must have had an incredible camp. Bradley aleady new about 20-22 roster spots before last night. The only position i think that was up in the air was Pearce or Bornstein. Pearce played his way out of the WC spot. The two forward pairings were interesting and I think the standouts for both were the one’s selected.
Perhaps johnson would have been a better choice rather than findley because of his international experience and equal speed but Bradley like findley at this point to strecth the field.
Me too!!
just to add, the teams that try to beat mexico at their game (possession and pure technical play) are usually the teams that mexico beats (or comes damn close at doing so). note i am excluding the games played in mexico city, as the smog and altitude are totally different dynamics and alter the way both teams play.
mexico’s victories in mexico city usually come by way of sitting back and waiting for the altitude to set it . . . then coming full force on the team and overwhelming them with their endurance.
This shouldn’t come as a shock considering how Heath Pearce played. I thought last night some guys could play their ways into the 23 man roster but not play their way out of the 23 man roster.. which is exactly what Pearce did. He had a hand in giving up 2 goals last night. Bornstein had better crosses and is more dangerous on set pieces. He’s got better speed and is the future of U.S. soccer.
i will never get the “we did good, except we couldn’t finish”. IMO, finishing is difference between a B- player and an A player. your B- guys play well, but when it counts, they just don’t deliver. an A guy generally plays well, but when the chips are down . . . delivers and wins the game.
additionally, did anyone care to think that giving mexico possession was part of englands game plan? i mean hell, those bunch of midgits don’t have much of a chance to score against a team that almost double’s them in bulk. if i was capelo, i would tell the squad, “let them wear themselves out, and then look for a counter. after they have significant possession without a goal, they have a history of getting emotional and falling out of their game plan”
beating mexico 101, let them beat themselves with their emotional play. haven’t we learned that from all the games against the USMNT?
There is a huge difference between watching a player from television or the stands as a fan and evaluating a player from a coaching aspect. From the Coaching aspect Ching just is not game fit. He has been out with an injury for several weeks and is just now coming back. While he did have one nice set up pass via a back heel to Gomez, that type of play will not work at the world cup level. He lacks the pace and or stamina at this point to help the US like the other players can. Ultimately this is the conclusion Bradley and staff came to.
Good point. Even when healthy he is very limited. Good in the air but slow afoot with the penchant for the unnecessary foul. Technically lacking too. I shudder if he has more than one touch on the ball. Remember he couldn’t cut it in England and moved back to Belgium. AC Milan will surely loan him to a lesser team.
LMAO!!! The Cone of Shame, CLASSIC POST!!!
Bigvic, that makes me really happy since I’m going to be in Amsterdam for one of the Dutch matches.
From Bradley on the US page. Seems to me Ching’s injury is what helped make the decision.
U.S. Men’s National Team head coach BOB BRADLEY
On his decision to take Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez:
“Plain and simple, Edson and Herculez have had real good stretches, scored a lot of goals. Brian has been such an important player but it’s tough when you have an injury at an inopportune time.”
Of course not a replacement for this World Cup, I’m not an idiot, but we clearly have a problem with depth at outside backs and while Braun has been called into camp once as forward, I think he may be a strong candidate to convert to outside back if he wants to play there.
It’s a good thing they don’t count goals scored by guys over 6’6″ at the World Cup. A lot of teams would win if the other guys didn’t have that player they were incapable of defending.
Thank you!!! Finally someone said it. I know the apparent vast majority of commenters on this board like to believe that Bob Bradley has no qualifications for his job, but can we please come off the thought that we know what this team needs more than he does?! If BB saw enough from Findley in training/club/otherwise to determine that he suits a particular need for this team, that’s good enough for me. Couple that with Bocanegra’s comments and I’m actually kind of excited to see if there is some chemistry there that can be exploited in the WC.
Word
Tried to post this last night but was too long. Trimmed it up, must share.
“So, I just got back from my first USMNT game live, ever.
So excited!
So awesome!!
It was great.
However, we had to hitchhike back because my phone didn’t work after the game and things got hairy, but all worked out in the end.
It is true when people say they can see more live than on TV. So true. I’ve always wondered when people who claim to have been to the game say someone did well at the game that everyone who watched on TV says sucked. But, it is totally true. We could watch the TV version on the big screen and had front row tix for the real action, and the camera misses tons.
With all that said, I want to give my drunken 23… after I pose 1 question.
Why didn’t Feilhaber get a look?!?!?!?!?!?!
Jozy, Buddle, Ching, Gomez
Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, Beasley, Torres, Clark, Edu, Holden, and Feilhaber/Rogers
Bocanegra, Goodson, Onyewu, Demeritt, Spector, Dolo, Bornstein
Howard, Hahneman, Guzan
Holden did well on the wing, well enough to earn a ticket. Then he played center mid and earned a chance to compete for the starting position.
Edu was the singular most dominating player on the entire field at center mid. Amazing. After tonight an Edu Holden tandem is something I would consider.
His defense was tight and his forward passing and through balls were spectacular.
What can I say, Rogers looked spectacular. I never thought I would argue to give him a shot… but after this one, he deserves one. Spectacular.
Torres booked his trip.”
At the game I was worried why feilhaber didn’t play… I’m still wondering…. have not read the top post from Ives yet….I want to be ready to soak in the final 23 on my own time. ha!
You read wrong. Until last World Cup, no team with an average age over 28 had won the World Cup. I think our team’s average age is very young–like 25 or 26.
Yeah I’ll take everything ChillPill (used to) own, thank you very much
“Size, mass and toughness are three things we lack up top IMO”
Jozy? and btw, size and mass are about the same thing anyway…
sweet post Janus, thanks!
over*
i really hope spector doesn’t start of cherundolo. That would really irritate me.