Friday, November 09, 2007

USMNT Roster for South Africa Friendly

Bob Bradley released his roster for the November 17th friendly match against South Africa, in Johannesburg.

GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC)

DEFENDERS: Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Dan Califf (Aalborg BK), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege)

MIDFIELDERS: Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Eddie Lewis (Derby County)

FORWARDS: Josmer Altidore (New York Red Bulls), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

It is good to see that Freddy is getting a second straight call up for this match. Seeings how his level of play has on the rise ever since he was moved to Portugal, a place where you must fight for your job every day, instead of MLS where your job is secured, getting more USMNT callups is a good thing. I would like to see how he does in a midfield with Bradley and Feilhaber, I think that the three of them could do some really, really great things.

Look who finally got invited to the dance? Altidore is finally going to see what the senior level camp looks like and I bet he comes on in the second half of the match. Good for him.

As for the rest of the side, I have a feeling that this is beginning to be the same group that we will start to see on most FIFA dates. 11 of the 17 called up are already regulars, with Lewis and Dolo being the only two guys who are on the higher end of the age bracket. This should be the same type of squad that we see once the World Cup qualifying starts later next year.

This match is one of the better scheduled matches of this season. Playing Switzerland & Sweden were great choices and ones that I hope will lead to other matches in Europe. This one however, represents a great chance for the players and coaching staff to get a good away match, away from pretty much any USA supporters and in an environment that they are guarenteed to see at least once, and should see twice after this match. Having the FIFA Confederations Cup scheduled for 2009, the USSF will get a first hand account of the South African scene, even if it "might" look different in 2 years.

I will be at Summers watching this match early Saturday morning along with several other members of the US soccer blogosphere who will be in town for the MLS Cup. Hope to see many of you there.

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