World Cup Roster Announced

Bob Bradley, U.S. men's national team coach, announced today the 23 players that he will bring to South Africa for the World Cup. This comes on the heels of a 4-2 defeat to the Czech Republic last night, but that game saw many presumable starters not even dressing. The final match of the send-off tour, this Saturday in Philadelphia against Turkey, will feature players that will be in South Africa. Let's break down the squad.

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan, Marcus Hahnemann, Tim Howard

No surprises here, Howard will be the starter in South Africa. Guzan and Hahnemann will battle it out for the backup spot, but hopefully it won't matter. Hahnemann had a very good year with Wolves in England, so I believe he has the upper hand over Guzan, who has had very limited playing time behind Brad Friedel at Aston Villa. 

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein, Steve Cherundolo, Jay DeMerit, Clarence Goodson, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector

Again fairly predictable selections. The biggest questions will be how the starters shake out when June 12 rolls around. Captain Bocanegra will start, but outside of that nothing else is a given. Onyewu got his first match time in seven months, and it showed. He wasn't terrible against the Czechs, but his performance was less than stellar. Bornstein continues to look overmatched on the left side giving up fouls in bad spots for the U.S., but again it reamins to be seen how the back line will be arranged.

Midfielders: DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Stuart Holden, Jose Torres

The midfield of the U.S. is probably its deepest position. The trio of Dempsey, Donovan and Bradley are some of the most consistent players on the team. Joining them in the 4-4-2 will probably be Ricardo Clark. The rest of the subs are capable players, but given the strength of the midfield, they may not see too much playing time at the World Cup. A player such as Stuart Holden may get some minutes, however, if Dempsey or Donovan move into a forward position.

Forwards: Jozy Altidore, Edson Buddle, Robbie Findley, Herculez Gomez

After the injury of Charlie Davies, this position received the greatest amount of attention, as everyone speculated as to who Bob Bradley would use to replace him. Now that we have that answer, debate will continue over those selections. Buddle and Gomez have not had much national team experience, but their recent goal-scoring escapades (Buddle with L.A. Galaxy in MLS and Gomez with Puebla in Mexico) gave them a shot at the team. Findley has played recently with the senior team trying to replicate the pace of Davies, but without any success. He didn't even get any playing time last night, with playing time instead going to Eddie Johnson and Brian Ching, along with Buddle and Gomez. Johnson was nonexistent, but Ching was arguably the best player in the second half along with former teammate Holden. He showed his normal ability to hold the ball up for his teammates, but he also showed creativity in the final third, something the U.S. typically lacks. And as far as pace goes, he's not the fastest, but he certainly wasn't slow out there, especially coming off of his hamstring injury. If all else fails, Donovan and Dempsey are capable of moving up from the midfield.

Two games remain for the national team, against Turkey and Australia, before their match against England kicks off their World Cup campaign.