Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Bruce Arena's training roster for Poland

Next Wednesday the US will play Poland in Germany. The Bruce has released his training roster for the match. This is an official FIFA international date, so teams do need to release players for the games.

Here is the roster:

Goalkeepers (2) – Tim Howard (Manchester United), Kasey Keller (Borussia Moenchengladbach)

Defenders (7) – Gregg Berhalter (Energie Cottbus), Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Todd Dunivant (Los Angeles Galaxy), Eddie Lewis (Leeds United), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Jonathan Spector (Charlton Athletic)

Midfielders (6) – DaMarcus Beasley (PSV Eindhoven), Bobby Convey (Reading FC), Clint Dempsey (New England Revolution), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), Kerry Zavagnin (Kansas City Wizards)

Forwards (5) – Eddie Johnson (Kansas City Wizards), Brian McBride (Fulham FC), Pat Noonan (New England Revolution), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution), Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)

First thing about this roster is not to read too much into it. Yes, it would be best to have your name included, but if a name is not here, that does not mean they will not be in Germany. I think the best example of this is Eddie Pope. He is not in the lineup, but I think he stands a great chance of making it to Germany. My guess is this, Arena already has a good idea how Pope will play with the European based players and he wants to give Pope some time to train with his club team for the upcoming season.

However, I think Brian Ching and Ben Olsen should be worried about making the side. I think Olsen's chances are still better then Ching's, but I'm sure both would have enjoyed the trip.

The other big thing that stands out from this roster is the number of Kansas City and New England players present. Of the 9 MLS players, 6 of them are on one of those 2 teams. If, and it is a big if, all six of them made the final squad, those two teams would be without a lot of talent for close to 2 months of the MLS season. Just something to think about.

If you are looking for the actual US World Cup roster, look here.

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