After a strong training camp along with their two goal loss in a friendly against the Czech Republic, Bob Bradley announced on ESPN’s Sports Center the 23 players that will get their plane tickets for South Africa in this summer’s World Cup.
Bob Ley gave out the roster and there were some surprises who got on and those who got cut. The biggest surprise getting cut was Brian Ching of the Houston Dynamo. You would think someone like Ching who is good in the air to be a target player during dead ball situations at the net would be an advantage. The pleasant surprise was Herculez Gomez after having that nice season with Puebla of the Mexican First Division & shared the golden boot for top scorer. Now signed with the current CONCACAF Champions League winners Pachuca, he joins his teammate Jose Francisco Torres. Even Real Salt Lake’s forward Robbie Findley being added to the roster was a surprise.
Some players who made it easy for Bob Bradley to make his decision for this team is Los Angeles Galaxy forward Edson Buddle. After everything he went through in his career, battling some personal demons & has completely turned everything around truly earned his spot for South Africa. His nine goals to start this MLS season for the Los Angeles Galaxy was honestly a no brainer and if a National Team coach was going to refuse someone that was having a great season before the World Cup, there would’ve have been an uproar.
While it was nice to see Oguchi Onyewu make the team, another surprise and maybe a need for height was to see Clarence Goodson make the roster. Let’s not forget that it was Goodson in the second half against the Czech Republic who headed the ball towards Gomez for the equalizer. But if he does make a starting eleven in any of the three group matches, he has to concentrate a bit harder to find the attacker or the trailer and put a stop to the opponent’s chances.
As we all know Ricardo Clark will provide some bite in his defensive game & can score that surprising goal whenever he gets a chance at the offensive end of the ball. The qualifying goal down in Trinidad & Tobago should be fresh in everyone’s memory of the quality that Clark brings to the National Team.
Those who were left off the roster along with Ching are Alejandro Bedoya, Eddie Johnson, Sasha Kljestan, Chad Marshall, Heath Pierce & Robbie Rogers. Is this the best 23 players that Bob Bradley has picked to make a nice run out of the group stage for this summer’s World Cup? That will be the topic for discussion among our pundits all over the country.
While it’s sad not to see Charlie Davies on this team, once again those who were screaming bloody murder have to understand that we should all be thankful he survived that car crash and survived his many surgeries. He did show some great progress thru his intense re-habing, the reality had to sink in that he wasn’t going to make this roster no matter how hard he trained to get there. There will be another qualifying cycle and I believe that Davies will make it to Brazil in 2014, if the USA can qualify for that World Cup.
2010 USA World Cup Roster by Positions
Goalkeeper
Brad Guzan
Marcus Hahnemann
Tim Howard
Defenders
Carlos Bocanegra (Captain)
Jonathan Bornstein
Steve Cherundolo
Jay DeMerit
Clarence Goodson
Oguchi Onyewu
Jonathan Spector
Midfielders
DaMarcus Beasley
Michael Bradley
Ricardo Clark
Clint Dempsey
Landon Donovan
Maurice Edu
Benny Feilhaber
Stuart Holden
Jose Francisco Torres
Forwards
Jozy Altidore
Edson Buddle
Robbie Findley
Herculez Gomez
