US Squad Selection

Tomorrow Bruce Areana will be announcing the 23 man roster for the 2006 World Cup USA Squad on ESPN's Sportcenter. With that in mind, here is my prediction for this squad -

Goalkeepers (3) - Kasey Keller, Marcus Hahnemann, Tim Howard

Defenders (7) - Gregg Berhalter, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyewu, Eddie Pope

Mid-Fielders (9) - Demarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Clint Dempsey, Eddie Lewis, Pablo Mastroeni, John O'Brien, Ben Olsen, Claudio Reyna, Josh Wolff

Forwards (4) - Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson, Brian McBride, Taylor Twellman

I think that this is the best that we can get, the best team as a whole. I am not so jazzed about the forwards, I think landon would be better to play as a winger in the midfield and Eddie Johnson just has not shown anything like he did at the end of the first round of qualifying. Twellman might be able to handle the speed and pace, but he has shown countless times that unless he gets constant service, he gets very lost in the field.

I would have liked to have seen Jovan Kirovski stay in the hunt. His play with LA had been good, as has his scoring ability this season with the Rapids. When he was on the US Squad that played Grenada, he was able to cause alot of problems with his runs off the ball and his ablility to get into dangerous positions.

The Washington Post has a quick write up stating that Ben Olsen has been assured that he has a spot on the roster.

MLS Update

ESPN.com has realeased their Week 5 Power Rankings and DC United stayed on top after their 1-1 draw with West leading FC Dallas. DC controlled the match, Sala saved them from going home without any points.

Update for previous post.

In my report from the DC United/FC Dallas match, I claimed that Gros' off-sides call on his "goal" was a phantom off-sides call. Last night I was able to watch the highlights of the match and saw that he was off-sides. So i won't remove it from the original post, but I am sorta adding a retraction here now.