Bob Bradley called in 24 young MLS and Scandinavia based players for the camp running from January 4 to the match with Chile on the 22nd. Here's the squad: GOALKEEPERS: Dominic Cervi (Celtic), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire), Matt Pickens (Colorado Rapids), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake) DEFENDERS: A.J. DeLaGarza (Los Angeles Galaxy), Sean Franklin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles Galaxy), Ugo Ihemelu (FC Dallas), Zach Loyd (FC Dallas), Ryan Miller (Halmstads BK), Tim Ream (New York Red Bulls), Anthony Wallace (Colorado Rapids), Marvell Wynne (Colorado Rapids) MIDFIELDERS: Eric Alexander (FC Dallas), Alejandro Bedoya (Örebro), Sam Cronin (San Jose Earthquakes), Mikkel Diskerud (Stabaek), Jeff Larentowicz (Colorado Rapids), Dax McCarty (D.C. United), Brek Shea (FC Dallas) FORWARDS: Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), Justin Braun (Chivas USA), Teal Bunbury (Sporting Kansas City), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes) Alejandro Bedoya is the cap leader with a massive 6. He's followed by Nick Rimando, Marvell Wynne, and Dax McCarty with four a piece. Juan Agudelo is the leading goal scorer in the group with one. In total, there are 29 caps spread between the 24 players. Half of the players will be seeking their first caps. For a few snubs, I would have liked to see Kevin Alston make it, despite a weak showing against Man U in the MLS All-Star game, he was a solid player on a horrendous New England defense last season. The team is thin on fullbacks (as the US is on all levels) with just Wallace and DeLaGarza playing on the outside. Bobby Convey is another snub as he was as good as any fullback in MLS this past season. Much of Chris Wondolowski's success came from Convey's service out of the back. Injuries took a couple of players out of contention as well. Geoff Cameron is a versitle player for Houston Dynamo. He returned to action in August, but should be on the radar as he can play anywhere along the back four or in midfield. Ike Opara played 11 matches for San Jose before a broken foot (I think) shut him down.
And here's the Chilean squad: GOALKEEPERS: Paulo Garces(Universidad Católica), Raúl Olivares (Colo Colo) DEFENDERS: Lucas Dominguez(Audax Italiano), Luis Pedro Figueroa (Unión Española), Carlos Labrin(C.D. Huachipato), Paulo Magalhaes(Colo Colo), Eugenio Mena (Universidad Católica), Sebastian Toro (Colo Colo) MIDFIELDERS: Jose Pedro Fuenzalida (Colo Colo), Felipe Gutierrez (Universidad Católica), Fernando Meneses(Universidad Católica), Francisco Silva (Universidad Católica), Felipe Seymour (Universidad Católica) FORWARDS: Daud Gazale (Colo Colo), Esteban Paredes (Colo Colo), Edson Puch (Universidad Católica) That's 16 Chile-based players, all from Colo Colo and Universidad Catolica, with the exception of three defenders.
Eugene Starikov has been called in to the US Camp. Yevgeni, as he is known by the locals, plays in Russia for Tom Tomsk, where he's on loan from Zenit St. Petersberg. He was born in the USSR (back in the day when we had such a thing) and I'm not really sure how he get to be American, but he did attend Stetson University for a year before moving to Russia to play professionally. Starikov is probably also eligible for Ukraine (born in Odessa) and Russia. He has no caps at any level for any nation.
Justin Braun and Ugo Ihemelu have left camp due to injuries. Braun is a loss here because of his size and finishing abilities. Though, with Bunbury opting for the United States and some of the young players coming up in MLS (Will Bruin in particular), I'm not sure there would have been a long term future for Braun. Of course, scoring a goal against the Chileans would have given him some more consideration. Ihemelu, at 27, was more of a depth guy in this camp, which is really determining who are the depth guys in the player pool. Franklin, Gonzalez, Lloyd, Ream, and Wynne were all ahead of him at the start of camp and that's before you factor in DeMerit, Onyewu, Goodson, and Bocanegra. Heading into Saturday night, here's what I'd like to see for a starting XI: GK - Johnson DR - AJ De La Garza DL - Anthony Wallace DC - Omar Gonzalez DC - Tim Ream MR - Alejandro Bedoya ML - Brek Shea MC - Mikkel Diskerud MC - Dax McCarty ST - Juan Agudelo ST - Teal Bunbury Off the bench to start the second half, I'd like to see Cervi replacing Johnson, Starikov in for Agudelo, and Larentowicz for McCarty. I'm sure you'll see more, and I would anticipate Wondolowski getting his first cap and a shot at center back for Wynne.
US Starting XI: -----------Wondolowski--------------- Shea---------Diskerud-------Bedoya --------Larentowicz--McCarty--------- Loyd-----Ream-----Gonzalez---Franklin --------------Rimando---------------- Good for Wondo, but I'd rather see Bunbury up there. USA Bench: GK Sean Johnson Ds A.J. DeLaGarza, Anthony Wallace, Marvell Wynne MF Eric Alexander F Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury
I'm interested to see what Jeff Larentowicz does in this group. He'll be in the destroyer role as that's just how he plays and how he went from Supplimental Draft Pick to MLS Cup champ and now getting a start for the National Team. He passes pretty well and has a strong shot from distance that I'd like to see tonight.
Kick off not too delayed as it goes at 10:12 EST. Chile starts and loses possession early. Sean Franklin is getting well forward as Bedoya prefers the middle.
2' - Bedoya, the most capped player on the team with seven now, picks up the first foul. 3' - Chile gets in the box, but quickly snuffed out by the US. Counter attack is blown dead despite what was begging for an advantage call. Both sides seem to be trying to figure out the opposition and themselves.
5' - Discussion of Larentowicz leads to Adrian Healy stating "He's forming part of a ginger ninja midfield with Dax McCarty." 6' - Dangerous free kick for Chile as Gonzalez takes down a Chilean just outside the box to Rimando's right. Set up for a cross, but strong kick gets past a diving Larentowicz, saved by Rimando.
8 - Free kick taken by McCarty looking for Gonzalez and a bit of volleyball breaks out before a Chilean clearance. Before that, I was noting that Diskerud is showing some bite defensively with a couple of tackles in the early going. Wasn't sure he had that in him before now. Set pieces will be a big deal as usual for the US. Chile is pretty small, while the US has Shea and Gonzalez at 6'4" and Ream, Larentowicz, and Diskerud are all over 6'. 13 - Dax McCarty with the shot from distance forcing a leaping save from the Chilean keeper. Corner is cleared without a shot by Chile.
14' - Shea looks for a give and go with Wondo, but Wondo takes a swift turn and gets space for a shot. Saved fairly easily by Chile. 16' - Chile with a speculative effort at best going well past Rimando to his left. For the record, I'm going with the ESPN3 feed and its skipping from time to time. Good times. Wish I had Telefutura so I could watch that and use ESPN3 for the audio.
17 - Francisco Silva picks up the first yellow of the match for taking out Brek Shea after a good touch around him. A Chilean assistant has been sent off by the fourth official after protesting the yellow. For what its worth, there didn't seem to be very much contact there.
20 - Another corner by the US sent too long by Dax McCarty. The Chilean keeper made a fairly aerobatic catch as it sailed beyond him. 21 - Diskerud sent in Bedoya, but he was taken out as the ball arrived. Crowd disproves of the non-call that would have given the US a very dangerous free kick just outside the 18.
27' - Paredes, the only World Cupper for either side, takes a free kick that bounces nicely into Rimando's grasp. 28 - Much more life to the crowd than usual for the January friendly. Good mix of US and Chilean supporters.
40 - Chile attacks down their right for the first time tonight. Loyd hasn't had much to do defensively until now. Cross goes across Rimando and beyond the goal. Gonzalez dives to save a corner.
44 - US with a lot of possession before a sub-MLS level first touch by Diskerud. Not sure what he was thinking there at all.
45 - First half if blown dead with no stoppage time. Dax McCarty and Alejandro Bedoya have a meeting of the minds with the ref. For changes I'd make, Eric Alexander in for Larentowicz, move Wondolowski to the right, replace Bedoya with Bunbury, and Agudelo in for Shea. Shift to a 4-3-3. I think we'll also see Loyd move to the right with Wallace entering or Wynne replacing Franklin.
A fire alarm went off which I had to handle, so I missed the second half. Final score was 1-1. Chile scored early in the second half. Juan Agudelo won a penalty which was taken well by Teal Bunbury to draw level. This inspired the Spanish announcer on TeleFutura to give US Soccer a theme to rival Deuce's "Don't Tread On Me." [video=youtube;iwqlziAnqSg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqlziAnqSg[/video]
