USA v Mexico at Azteca

Azteca stadium in Mexico City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jurgen hasn’t announced his rosters, and neither has de la Torre. It’s expected that much of the Mexican roster will come from the Olympic squad which is currently making a run at the Gold Medal. Unfortunately Jurgen doesn’t have that luxury and will not be able to call in new names who have shown well in a high level international competition. Instead it seems he will have to call in as many regulars as possible for a match at Azteca stadium, one of the most notoriously difficult stadiums for any team to play in. It’s well noted that the USMNT has never won a game at Azteca and it seems odd that the FMF would give them any more opportunities to do so, and shake a bit of the lore off of it, in something as unimportant as an August friendly. Then again these decisions always seem to come down to many anyway.

Any expected roster for a match of this level will surely involve every piece of the central core of the team who is available. As it is a FIFA date, that should be everyone, but I wouldn’t count on recent transfers coming in. Jurgen has shown a preference to let players settle in with clubs. That would likely mean Michael Bradley will be staying in Italy and Terrence Boyd will be staying in Vienna, along with any of the other USMNT regulars who may be looking for transfers (Dempsey, Bocanegra and Edu.) So that throws a bit of a wrench into the plan of calling in all the regulars.

GK: Howard, Guzan, (I expect Guzan to actually get substantial minutes as he’s the back-up for the rest of WCQ and could use a little just-in-case time with the team) Hamid (Many are calling for NYRB Meara, but if he’s losing his starting spot for club I don’t see why you call him in for this. Johnson and Rimando both make more sense with more sustained succcess)

D: Goodson(surprising he’s the first name in but I had CBs on the mind and he’s the only one we can really count on at all) Cherundolo, Lichaj(shocked he wasn’t called for WCQ), Johnson, Bocanegra (Because he’s about the only player who hasn’t commited to leaving Rangers yet), Parkhurst, (cause I don’t want Onyewu in camp again, he showed poorly since he came back from injury) Chandler (Yes I think he’s one of the best player’s in the pool so I will give him a call until he says no firmly. Many suggest waiting till qualifying, and I’m sure Jurgen knows the situation and will handle it in an appropriate way)

M:Jones, Beckerman, Edu, (I see these three starting with Bradley left in Rome.) Kljestan(although if he couldn’t get a call for WCQ why would he get one now that he’s not starting. He is scoring in UCL), Torres, Dempsey (unless of course he gets his transfer), D.Williams, Corona,(almost entirely because the space left by Bradley is gaping. I’m not sure Corona gets a call for a full strength game. He didn’t get any minutes in WCQ, but that’s not exactly unexpected. I think he sticks around like Jurgen has shown he likes to do with newly integrated players.)

F:Gomez, Altidore(even though Alkmaar may not be willing to give him up), Donovan, Young MLS Player To Be Named Later (Probably one of the younger players in the pool, I expect this to go to an MLS standout,not an Eddie Johnson or Kenny Cooper. Wondo is the only older MLS player whos really earned a look and I’m reluctant to even give him that.), Wondolowski (I hate giving it to him, I already feel like he’s to old to be playing for the USMNT, but his pace in MLS is so high that you have to call him in and see if you can make it work. Gomez did and has almost cemented the starting spot, so give him a bit more time. I don’t want him to take time from a younger player, but there’s not a clear player he’s taking time from.)

and for those who don’t want to read my ramblings

GK: Howard, Guzan Hamid

D: Goodson, Cherundolo, Lichaj, Johnson, Bocanegra, Parkhurst, Chandler

M: Jones, Beckerman, Edu, Kljestan, Torres, Dempsey, D. Williams, Corona,

F: Gomez, Altidore, Donovan, Young MLS PTBNL, Wondolowski

Donovan and Dempsey Back Together

UPDATE: I obviously just forgot to mention it because its become such a standard thing recently but we have another great midfielder plying his trade in Belgium and helping his team push through the Europa League who hasn’t gotten very much of a look from Klinsmann yet. Sacha Kljestan is exactly the type of player we thought Klinsmann would want but he refuses to give him a real look. The only possible reason I can think of for  this is that he doesn’t like Sacha’s little moustache. Its a real shame cause a team lacking connection between attack and defense (and therefore not scoring) could use a Sacha Kljestan (or a Benny Feilhaber, not to say Torres and Dempsey can’t do it, but the two outsiders seem to deserve a more serious look than they’ve gotten. Especially Sacha.)

We’ll finally get to see Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey together under Jurgen Klinsmann. It’s been a long time coming but they managed to line up a pretty good opponent for the reunion. Italy will announce their rosters Sunday, but here’s the US followed by my best guess at a potential starting lineup.

A few of the names we haven’t seen with the A team(or at least not in a while) are Brad Guzan who played well while Shay Given was out, Geoff Cameron and Michael Parkhurst who apparently impressed enough at Camp Cupcake to get a call up,
Jose Torres back from injury, and the new face of Terrence Boyd who has shown up big time for Borussia Dortmund 2 in the 2. Bundesliga. Im most excited to see Parhurst and Cameron who (due to the lack of Onyewu) split halves in this game alongside Bocanegra and hopefully one pans out. I’m most curious about Terrence Boyd obviously given that I’ve been hearing his name but haven’t had a chance to see any 2. Bundesliga games ever.
Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Tim Howard (Everton, England), Nick Rimando (Salt Lake)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Geoff Cameron (Houston), Timmy Chandler (Nuremberg, Germany), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Clarence Goodson (Brondby, Denmark), Michael Parkhurst (Nordsjaelland, Denmark), Jonathan Spector (Birmingham, England)

Midfielders: Michael Bradley (Chievo Verona, Italy), Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim, Germany), Jermaine Jones (Schalke, Germany), Jose Torres (Pachuca, Mexico), Danny Williams (Hoffenheim, Germany)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Alkmaar, Netherlands), Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund, Germany), Edson Buddle (Los Angeles), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles)

I expect something of the 4-4-2/4-3-3 formation we’ve been getting lately but it’ll be interesting to see whether having Donovan and Dempsey together changes that shape (along with not having Brek Shea who has become a mainstay and gaining Jose Torres who was a starter before his injury) It’ll be interesting.

Howard
Dolo Bocanegra Cameron/Parkhurst Chandler
Bradley F. Johnson
Donovan Torres
Dempsey
Altidore