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The 22-man roster for the U.S. Men's friendly versus Slovakia on Saturday, Nov. 14, has been announced.
Goalkeepers: (3) Brad Guzan, Troy Perkins, Marcus Hahnemann.
Defenders: (9) Carlos Bocanegra, Johnathan Bornstein, Steve Cherundolo, Chad Marshall, Jimmy Conrad, Clarence Goodson, Johnathan Spector, Heath Pearce, Frankie Hejduk.
Midfielders: (6) Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Benny Feilhaber, Sacha Kljestan, Dax McCarty, Robbie Rogers.
Forwards: (4) Jozy Altidore, Conor Casey, Jeff Cunningham, Eddie Johnson.
A number of regulars are not available due to the MLS Conference Championships, notably, Landon Donovan, Brian Ching, Ricardo Clark, and Stuart Holden.
The two significant Mexican League-based players, Jose Torres and the eagerly-awaited Edgar Castillo face each other that Saturday with playoff implications on the line, and have not been called out of league.
Overall, despite some freak outs on the soccer blogosphere, this is a pretty solid call-up.
Here's my projected starting lineup:
Goalkeeper: Guzan.
Defense: Spector/Cherundolo, Marshall, Bocanegra, Bornstein.
Midfield: Dempsey, Klejstan, Bradley, Feilhaber.
Forwards: Altidore, Casey.
I know, you're thinking, "what are you smoking, Chil? And why wasn't Freddie Adu called up?"
Note that with the unavailability of players who had significant starts in the World Cup Qualifying Round due to playoffs (listed above) or injuries (Charlie Davies, Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit), we're filling six slots with likely 2010 starters (Bornstein, Bocanegra, Spector/Cherundolo, Dempsey, Bradley, Altidore).
Brad Guzan is an excellent goalie (and only 25 years of age I'd like to add) who may take Brad Friedel's job away at Aston Villa. Guzan's clean sheet against Egypt in the Confederations Cup enabled the 3-0 miracle that allowed us to advance out of group play and eventually reach the final.
Tim Howard has played a ton of games for club and country this year, and deserves his rest. This is an opportunity to give our No. 2 goalie time to work with the back line.
The back line is solid. Bocanegra and Bornstein can both play left back. We have a good, serious competition at right back between Spector and Cherundolo. Since both Gooch and DeMerit are out, I expect Bornstein at left, allowing Bocanegra to play center back.
The only question is who pairs with Bocanegra in the middle? I give the edge to Columbus' Chad Marshall, the two-time MLS Defender of the Year, who just finished his season.
How much does this roster versus Slovakia mean? With the World Cup only seven months away, you'll see it means plenty.
It's interesting that Bob Bradley called up nine defenders and only six midfielders.
In an ideal world, the likely back line for the World Cup would have been Bornstein/Bocanegra/Castillo at left back, DeMerit and Onyewu in center, and Spector/Cherundolo at right back, and two backups for center.
Oguchi Onyewu's patellar tendon tear in the last minutes of the Costa Rica qualifier threw a wrench in this equation.
Now, we have to find a pair with chemistry in the middle. That's what's going on with the nine defensive back callup. Right now, we're naked at left back, with Bornstein holding the role, Bocanegra starting at center back, but backing up Bornstein, and Castillo unproven. We have an unfilled center back partner for Bocanegra, and a good competition at right back (Spector/Cherundolo).
The makeup of the USMNT back line for the World Cup currently depends on this: Who will have good chemistry with Carlos Bocanegra? Marshall, Goodson, and Conrad have all been called in for this purpose. They're all big, solid center backs.
Jay DeMerit, the starter in the Onyewu-DeMerit pair, is expected back soon from his eye injury. Still, his return to play at Watford will be between games for the 'Nats and no one will get to play with him until March.
The U.S. central back pair is wide open at this point. Carlos Bocanegra is a dependable option, but any duo that can replicate the DeMerit-Onyewu aerial dominance can win the job.
Will Onyewu be back and in form? His injury is supposedly a six-month recovery. That puts him returning in mid-March, 10 weeks to get in form before the World Cup.
Playing time will be crucial, and that will only happen if AC Milan loans him out somewhere. Tough sell for a short time. Provided that he recovers, I do expect him to make the WC roster, but not to start.
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