USA World Cup/ Confederation Cup draws.

Tickets go on sale Tue. Jan 27th if you use visa or Wed. Jan. 28th through ticketmaster, us soccer, or crew stadium. j

Check www.ussoccer.com

 

The Confederation Cup roster has been announced:

GOALKEEPERS- Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, Luis Robles

DEFENDERS- Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein, Marvell Wynne, Jay DeMerit, Danny Califf, Heath Pearce.

MIDFIELDERS-Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Sacha Kljestan, Jose Francisco Torres, Benny Feilhaber, Ricardo Clark, DaMarcus Beasley, Freddy Adu

FORWARDS- Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore, Conor Casey, Charlie Davies.

 

I don't know, HD...it must be the sporadic flashes of talent shown by Cooper that scares Bradley away. I mean, if a player displays some skill while actually playing for his club, then you can acurately assess their ability. But hell, if a guy never plays for his club, then it is next to impossible to evaluate their talent, and for all we know, they could be the next Zidane! (at least in the mind of BB)

Injuries have revealed the lack of depth for the USMNT "A" squad, but hopefully it allows one of these younger guys to step up their game and show they belong. No better time for it than against Italy, Egypt and the No. 1 team in the world.

 

Casey has been in fine form for Colorado, although it would be nice for him to have a few International matches with his teammates before the Conf Cup. I'm actually disappointed he was injured while playing for Mainz in Germany. At the time, he was playing some splendid football and has not been the same since. He has been playing good football ever since the end of last season so an interesting call up to say the least.

 

I am hoping and praying the USMNT finds some of its identity in this tournament. Time for Bob to stop using every Tom, Dick, and Harry, and narrow the pool down to those who will provide the character of the team for our run to 2010.

The deck has been sufficiently shuffled, Bob. Now deal.

 

So no Ching and Edu, still injured - too bad. No Mastreoni (sp?).

Can someone explain the significance of this tourney to me. I dont know anything about it so I'm still thinking it's a good chance to get a look at the boys against great competition before our next qualifiers. Would a great result affect our FIFA ranking which could affect our world cup draw/grouping?

 

It's a a dress rehearsal for next year.

But more importantly a mickey mouse tournament that lets the host nation know what it needs to do to prepare for the big dance. Oh, and makes a lot of money for that racket known as FIFA.

For UEFA and CONMEBOL, its quite meaningless. But for us, CAF and AFC it actually provides a good litmus test. Unless you're Iraq, and you can't qualify for WC anyway. Because the winner of this competition doesn't automatically qualify for the WC.

Hence, mickey mouse.

 

No Chad Marshall, no Hejduk, no Robbie Rogers, TTL! It's GOOD to be the underperforming MLS Champs.