Bob Bradley Is Not From California

As far as I know, he’s never lived there either. Why is this important?

Well, Bradley seems to be quite fond of Californians. Or at least their soccer skills anyways. Of the 20 U.S. men he called in for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Cuba and Trinidad & Tobago, more than 1/2 are from the Golden State. This is one of the strange things I noticed while perusing Bradley’s latest selections.

Here’s Bradley’s team:

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa: 2/2 SO), Tim Howard (Everton FC: 4/3 SO)
DEFENDERS (8): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes: 14/2), Danny Califf (FC Midtjylland: 2/0), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96: 16/0), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew: 12/1), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 9/0), Michael Orozco (San Luis: 0/0), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 3/0), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC: 0/0)
MIDFIELDERS (6): DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers: 17/4), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen: 3/1), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo: 1/0), Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers: 2/0), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 1/0), Eddie Lewis (Los Angeles Galaxy: 20/3)
FORWARDS (4): Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo: 8/4), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy: 22/8), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC: 9/2), Eddie Johnson (Cardiff City: 8/8)

I like the picks overall. Alot of people will decry the lack of our Double A Battery (Altidore and Adu), but Jozy needs to heal, and both players need time to ingratiate themselves with their new teams.

I’ll provide more thoughts on the roster and the upcoming games later, but here are just a few more of the strange things I noticed when perusing the roster:

• Michael Bradley turned 21 just days before the Olympics. No wonder he looked hung over out there the whole time.
• Only 7 of the players are from MLS, and none are from the table topping New England Revolution.
• Gooch and Guzan are tied for largest player on the roster with exactly the same height and weight.
• Beasley and Ching have the same birthday (May 24), but Ching is four years older. Special K and Guzan also have the same birthday (September 9), but the Guz is a year older than Klejstan.