Monday, February 09, 2009

U.S. Roster for Mexico Qualifyer

The U.S. Men's National Team will face Mexico in the opening match for both teams in the final CONCACAF World Cup qualifying campaing. The game is vitally important to both teams who are looking to secure three points at the start of the 10 game campaign this year. The twenty man roster was named over the weekend. Here is the list:

GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton FC)
DEFENDERS: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Danny Califf (FC Midtjylland), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS: DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca)
FORWARDS: Jozy Altidore (Xerez C.D.), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF) Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Bayern Munich)

To a certain extent the line-up picks itself. Here is who I think that Bradley will select:

------------Donovan---Ching----------------

Beasely----Kljestan----Bradley-----Dempsey

Pearce----Bocanegra-----Onyewu------Hejduk

-------------Howard-----------------------

Bench--Guzan, Wynne, Califf, Clark, Torres, Altidore, Davies
Scratched: Bornstein and Rodgers.

However, were I selecting the side, I would make the following changes to the starting line-up:

Torres in for Beasley: Torres is getting lots of playing time at Pachuca and Beasley is not getting minutes for Rangers. Simply selecting a form player for a non-form player.

Wynne for Hejduk: Wynne has more speed, more stamina and more of a chance to make it to the World Cup. He nees the experience and unlike the Sweden friendly, Wynne will be backstopped by Gooch and Boca.

Depending on the status of the game in the second half, look for Altidore to come on as a super sub and Ching to step aside. Torres will come in when Beasley runs out of gas at around the 60th minute.

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