NP's 30 for May 11

One week from today, the picture will be clearer.  On May 11 Bob Bradley will release the preliminary camp roster for the 2010 World Cup.  The camp will be held on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, NJ on May 17 through May 23.  The thirty players selected represent the best players the US has to offer and will provide the anvil on to which Bob Bradley will hopefully pound his will against England, Slovakia, and Algeria.  Here is NP's best guess as to who these lucky thirty players will be.

GK (3): Tim Howard, Marcus Hahnemann, Brad Guzan

Lets be honest here, outside of the retired Brad Freidel, these three are the best keepers the US has to offer.  Howard has had another stellar season with Everton.  Hahnemann grabbed the starting job at Wolves almost single-handedly kept the club out of the relegation zone.  Guzan was Freidel's understudy at Villa all season, and when he did play he was solid.  The key to this will be who backs up Howard.

DF (9): Jonathan Spector, Steve Cherundolo, Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit, Carlos Bocanegra, Clarence Goodson, Jonathan Bornstein, Heath Pearce, Edgar Castillo

This list is also pretty much set except for the always vulnerable left flank.  Three guys get my call to battle it out.  Considering the three now play more in midfield than in defense, look for Bocanegra to man the left side against England.

MD (11): DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber, Jose Torres, Clint Dempsey, Stuart Holden, Alejandro Bedoya, Freddy Adu

Pretty straight-forward here and I expect there to be 10 mids on the final team.  Freddy Adu comes as a bit of a surprise, but he's playing well in Greece and it can't hurt to call him in and see what he can contribute.  At worst, he gets left off the roster. 

FW (7): Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, Brian Ching, Conor Casey, Herculez Gomez, Edson Buddle, Eddie Johnson

Lots of forwards here, but here are the battles.  Jozy is on no matter what.  Davies will come assuming he's match fit, which at this point should be no big feat for him.  Gomez, Buddle, and Johnson battle for the super-sub spot.  Ching and Casey battle for the holding striker role.

There they are, the thirty lucky players who will have a chance to lead the US to the promised land in the World Cup in South Africa.