2010 FIFA World Cup: With US Soccer's Final 23 in Place, Selections Broken Down

US Soccer Men’s National Team coach Bob Bradley has whittled his 30-man provisional roster to the final 23-man squad set for the World Cup in South Africa this summer.

Eddie Johnson, Brian Ching, Alejandro Bedoya, Robbie Rogers, Heath Pearce, Sacha Kljestan , and Chad Marshall were the seven cut by Bradley today following last night’s 4-2 friendly loss to the Czech Republic.

Bradley’s selections were fairly straightforward, but some decisions were unexpected, and Bradley attributed that to a combination of situational planning and team chemistry.

“We go through many different scenarios as far as what we’d do in situations when the team is ahead, or behind, where you might get an injury or suspension,” Bradley said in a press conference Tuesday. “You have to take everything into account and try to have 23 players that can cover those situations as well as the right kind of chemistry to help each other as we move into the World Cup.”

Here’s an account of the cuts and inclusions by position, with quotes from Bradley on some of the reasoning behind his selections.

Forwards – Altidore, Buddle, Gomez, Findley

Up front, both Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez made the final cut. The two had combined for only four caps before last night’s friendly, but their excellent runs of form for their clubs this season helped book their ticket to the Cup, leaving out Brian Ching, who has been battling a hamstring injury for the last couple of months.

"Plain and simple, Edson and Herculez have had real good stretches, scored a lot of goals,” Bradley said. “Brian has been such an important player, but it’s tough when you have an injury at an inopportune time.”

Surprisingly included in the forward position was Robbie Findley. Findley was excellent in Real Salt Lake’s 2009 MLS Cup run, but his form in 2010 has dipped, and he has failed to impress many US fans—except Bob Bradley, apparently.

“We feel that Robbie still brings something special, especially as a reserve,” Bradley said. “His speed when he comes into a match, his willingness to try and run behind a defense; we felt that those are things that when we looked at everything our team had, we could still use some of those qualities.”

Jozy Altidore is expected to be the starter, and alongside him could be either of the three other forwards or Clint Dempsey, who can play either up front or in the midfield.

Midfielders – Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley, Feilhaber, Clark, Edu, Torres, Holden, Beasley

Rogers, Bedoya, and Kljestan were left on the outside looking in, while DaMarcus Beasley’s impressive performances against Holland and the Czechs, as well as a solid camp in Princeton, earned him a spot in the side.  The Rangers’ winger had nearly fallen off the US radar after a series of dismal 2009 performances for the internationals, but he showed the coaches enough to get him off Bradley’s bubble.

“DaMarcus obviously had fallen out of it a little bit, and he needed to make a renewed commitment to the team, a renewed commitment to doing things as a player that make his team better. We’ve seen that, and we feel good about the way he’s worked to make that happen."

Beasley’s inclusion was most likely at the expense of Bedoya, whose play for Orebro and showing against the Dutch in March nearly put him on the plane.

"Alejandro continues to move himself along. This was an important year in his career, he’s worked his way into the national team pool and we believe he has a really bright future.”

Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley will be certain starters if healthy, and if Dempsey starts up top, Stuart Holden or Beasley will battle for the other wing spot. Jose Torres and Maurice Edu will compete for the central midfield spot beside Bradley, but Stuart Holden could also slot in here if Bob plays Dempsey on the right.

Defenders – DeMerit, Bocanegra, Onyewu, Spector, Cherundolo, Goodson, Bornstein

Pearce and Marshall were the final cuts from the defense, but the biggest story for the US back line was the return of central defender Oguchi Onyewu, who made his first on-field appearance in a competitive match since injuring his patellar tendon in a qualifier against Costa Rica last October.

Bradley was encouraged enough by Onyewu’s performance last night to include the AC Milan man in his final 23.

"We've seen improvement in this camp in terms of how he moves around, so that was encouraging. His overall reactions in the game were good and on the ball, passing was pretty solid. Now all these things need to be moved up a few more notches…certainly after six or seven months there were a lot of good things."

Clarence Goodson also found his way into the squad, and while few fans of the Yanks know a great deal about him, Goodson could be crucial to the US success in South Africa with the injury troubles plaguging the US back four. Carlos Bocanegra is coming off of a hernia surgery, Jay DeMerit is battling vision and depth perception problems, and Onyewu still looks a little slow.

“We’ve watched Clarence a lot in the last few months. We’ve had him in some camps and we think he continues to get more confident. Certainly his ability in the air, both in defensive situations and attacking on set pieces has been a great plus. We feel that as he continues to get experience his play will get better and better.”

If all goes as planned, Bocanegra, DeMerit, and Spector will all start on defense, with the rest of the defenders battling for the final spot. Bocanegra and Spector can play a variety of positions on the back line, and their versatility will allow Bradley a lot of flexibility for who he chooses to start.

Keepers – Howard, Hahnemann, Guzan

Brad Guzan got the start in net last night, and the only true drama in this position is who will be Howard’s back up.

Guzan’s competition, Marcus Hahnemann, is the favorite as of now after a solid season in the Premier League for Wolverhampton Wanderers, but Bradley won’t show his hand as far as this position battle goes.

“Last night’s lineup would not be an indication of ranking. We realize we have three good goalkeepers, clearly Timmy has established himself as our No. 1 goalkeeper, Marcus over the second half of the season for Wolverhampton played really well, played all their games. As a veteran, as much as he would have of course loved to play last night, we still felt it was important for Brad to get that game.”

On Saturday, the final 23 for the US take on Turkey in their final friendly before leaving for South Africa. Coverage is on ESPN2 at 2 pm ET.