Now that we've all calmed down a bit lets examine the ins and outs of the 30 men who will begin camp on May 17.
Goalkeepers: Easiest calls of the lot. Howard, Guzan and, Hahnemann are miles ahead in class from every other keeper not named Brad Freidel in the player pool. Howard will be the starter on June 12, but who backs him up is the only question.
Defenders: Interestingly I'd thought that Clarence Goodson had all but wrapped up the 4th center-half spot, but Chad Marshall gets the call for one final push. Goodson still with a leg up on Marshall though considering Marshall has only played one full game with Columbus in several months while Goodson is starting and playing full matches consistently in Norway. Elsewhere Onyewu returns to the Nats for the first time since October, and DeMerit and Bocanegra return after successful stints with their clubs. Spector and Cherundolo are pretty much locks to head to South Africa, and Bornstein and Pearce will head up the left. I'm still expecting Bocanegra to man the left against England (please) as Bornstein has struggled with Chivas USA thus far, and Pearce has been playing more in midfield for FC Dallas. I really expected an extra outside back such as Edgar Castillo or Frank Simek instead of the 5th center-half.
Midfielders: Here's where most of the surprises come from. Robbie Rogers, who is struggling mightily at Columbus thus far this season and Sacha Kljestan, who isn't exactly struggling at Chivas USA, but seemed to have played himself out contention last summer, are the mind-numbing inclusions here. Perhaps a bit of a surprise to some is the inclusion of DaMarcus Beasley, who hasn't seen the field of late while at Rangers, but his 90 caps and World Cup experience put him here. The exclusion of Freddy Adu its a little bit surprising to me at least, he's played well the last couple of weeks in Greece and I though it would merit at least a call into camp. All the other regulars are here as well: Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley, Edu, Clark, Feilhaber, Torres, Holden. Also note...who thought that in 2010 that Freddy Adu would be out of the picture and Alejandro Bedoya was in the picture?? Atta kid Ale.
Forwards: Up top all of the hoopla has been about the exclusion of Charlie Davies. The decision has armchair managers everywhere in an uproar about Bob Bradley's snub. First of all, it's in Bob's best interest to bring the best players available in to camp. Davies wasn't left out because he wasn't good enough, that is for sure. The fact of the matter his that he hasn't yet been fully cleared medically from Sochaux, and therefore not released to camp. Its a sad ending to a journey where Davies has been always positive and strong. His glory will come in the World Cup, just not this one. Brazil 2014 has best watch out. Otherwise, Jozy Altidore and Brian Ching are pretty close to sure things. Robbie Findley is only in camp to simulate the speed guys that England will probably throw at us on the wings (Aaron Lennon and Theo Walcott), and so the final two spots will be up in the air between Johnson, Gomez, and Buddle. All three of them merited call-ups as they're all on hot streaks at the moment. Let's hope these streaks can continue. I keep hearing about the great Conor Casey snub, and let me say, that Ching, when healthy is the better hold up man that Bob Bradley loves. AND Casey has thus far only scored from the penalty spot on the season. Truth be told, he hasn't performed well since his brace @ Honduras.
My June 12 starting 11:
-------------------Howard
Spector-----DeMerit-----Onyewu-----Bocanegra
--------------Bradley------Edu
Holden--------------------------------Donovan
------------Dempsey-----Altidore
No comments:
Post a Comment