Thursday, October 02, 2008

No U.S. Roster Today

I was waiting on the announcement of the U.S. roster for the upcoming World Cup Qualifier against Cuba, but alas, Goff is reporting no roster today. He is also reporting a surprise naming to the roster.

OK, surprise naming? No Altidore, Adu don't count as surprises. Kenny Cooper not so much given the clamor to get him in the U.S. squad. Edson Buddle would be a surprise, but with the L.A. Galaxy on the bubble for MLS playoff qualifying, I can't see Bruce Arena giving the go ahead to have Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle gone (there goes some 60 percent of L.A.'s goal scoring). Knowing Bob Bradley, the surprise would probably be defensive, like a Chad Marshall of the Columbus Crew. The Crew are already in the playoffs and

To me a surprise would be Neven Subotic, the Croatian-American who has been getting lots of minutes for the German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. Subotic has appeared in all five of Dortmund five Bundesliga matches and has played 90 minutes in Dortmund's UEFA Cup match against Italian side Udinese as well as full time in two DFB Pokal (the German Club cup competition) matches. Subotic has been considering playing for Croatia as well as the U.S.

If the U.S. win against Cuba on Oct. 11 at estadio RFK, look for the long term veterans to be sent back to their clubs and Bob Bradley give a bunch of younger, lesser capped players a shot. A win over Cuba and the U.S. would clinch the next round placement in the Hexagonal. The next game would be October 15 against Trinidad & tobago in Trinidad before closing out this round of qualifying against Guatamala on November 19 in what will be a chilly Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Colorado.

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