USA's Copa America Roster Announced (Finally)

Here it is, the US national team's Copa America roster:

GOALKEEPERS- Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Kasey Keller (Borussia Moenchengladbach)

DEFENDERS- Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Bobby Boswell (D.C. United), Dan Califf (Aalborg BK), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Drew Moor (FC Dallas), Heath Pearce (FC Nordsjælland), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)

MIDFIELDERS- Kyle Beckerman (Colorado Rapids), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Benny Feilhaber (Hamburger SV), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Justin Mapp (Chicago Fire), Lee Nguyen (PSV Eindhoven), Ben Olsen (D.C.United) 

FORWARD- Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Herculez Gomez (Colorado Rapids), Eddie Johnson (Kansas City Wizards), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)

Talk about a thorougly disappointing group. There's getting experience for young players and there is leading lambs to the slaughter. No Landon Donovan, no Clint Dempsey, no chance. (OK, clearly I overreacted a bit. After calming down I offered a more reasonable take on this squad so if you're reading this be sure to check out the more in-depth post on the team.)

On the bright side, one name on the list that I called was Eddie Gaven and managed 16 of the 22 names. Some of you thought I was crazy. Little did I know that Gaven would be just one of the big surprises on the squad.

Comments

[Chicago Real Estate Blog]

A black eye on the face of US Soccer. Donovan can stay in LA with his house, his dogs, his B actress wife. This coward can't get up for ARGENTINA? Disgrace.

[Dave]

were DOMMED!

[Erik]

Terrible, Argentina is going to wipe the floor with us.

Why no Beasely or Gooch - they are basically trying out for jobs and could have used the exposure.

[David]

I thought it was going to be a 23-man roster.

Was I wrong, or am I miscounting? That's only 22 names, far as I counted.

??

[Jasen]

Landon wearing the armband is a disgrace.

[Kevin]

Just copied my post from the other comments section.

I'm surprised Gooch isn't on that list because he really doesn't have a team. Other than that no huge surprises though I would have liked to seen Spector and Simek but they need some time off before there long season.

Here is the lineup I would most like to see:

---------Guzan-------
-----Demerit----Conrad----
-Wynne---------------Pearce
------Clark---Feilhaber---
-Nguyen---------------Mapp
------Davies---Johnson----

This is probably not the best roster but I want to see what Pearce, Wynne, Nguyen, Davies, Mapp can do against solid competition. Lets face it with that roster there is no real need to play guys like Twellman or Califf who will have no impact in 2010. I only put Johnson out there with the hope that he gets some confidence on the NT level.

[Memphis Rookie]

I do like to see Eddie Gaven and Herculez Gomez on the roster. I know Eddie has been off as of late, but maybe this will wake his scrawny behind up, and Herculez deserves the call, IMO.

However, the whole roster does look sketchy. How well can we really do in the Copa with these guys?

[Nicky]

Donovan said he would go.
Bob took another route.
So lay off him.

[toucan]

WOW, so LD really didn't want to go play with the big boys huh? Herculez Gomez? Well , at least he may spice up our forwards. I know we have been over this before many many times, but it is an absolute disgrace that our best player will not go to represent our country in one of the oldest soccer tournaments in the world, against some of the best players in the world. Maybe it's not his fault, maybe it is, but the outcome is a shame.

[Colin]

It looks as though we aren't going to Copa to compete, but just for some long distance friendlies.

[sublicon]

what would be funny, is if this squad did really well.

[Memphis Rookie]

I agree with Colin, it does look that way. But I thought this was the more important tourney. Hmmm. Does BB really think this team is the best choice given all the circumstances?

[h4]

Bruce once said most MLS players are interchangable - that's what we'll see. A lot of pressure on guys to step up. There's a lot of pressure on unproven players to be creative.

[DCM]

This squad is most certainly at best a B- squad when viewed through rose tinted glasses.

I honestly hope they find a way to score in one of the matches, but at this point I don't see how/where it is going to come from with this group of mids & forwards.

With so many untested & uncapped players things could get very ugly quite quickly with a very strong Argentina squad in game #1. I'm not sure about the Paraguay & Columbian squads, but it will be uphill battle for sure.

[DCM]

This squad is most certainly at best a B- squad when viewed through rose tinted glasses.

I honestly hope they find a way to score in one of the matches, but at this point I don't see how/where it is going to come from with this group of mids & forwards.

With so many untested & uncapped players things could get very ugly quite quickly with a very strong Argentina squad in game #1. I'm not sure about the Paraguay & Columbian squads, but it will be uphill battle for sure.

[Colin]

If this squad does really well, check the sky for flying pigs.

The US is too concerned with getting to the Confederations cup and not concerned enough with getting better in steps, by doing something at Copa as a step toward the next World Cup. We just want a good showing every four years, its not good enough.

[inkedAG]

I agree with Colin and this roster looks HORRIBLE! This was like the scab US squad that was gonna go in. Steve Shak was gonna be on that team! Bob, USSF, whoever...WTF are you thinking!!!!

[Brad]

I say we call for Bradley's head and Gulati's head if we get slaughtered. What an embarassment....

[Joamiq]

Whatever. I'm not going to complain. This is not all that different from what I expected. Even our best lineup would probably get wrecked by Argentina. But this roster can challenge Colombia and Paraguay.

There are guys here that I definitely want to get an extended look at. Any time that guys like Boswell and Olsen see, however, will be wasted time. And the roster does highlight our severe lack of talent up front.

The guys I hope to see get extended run:
D: Califf, DeMerit, Pearce, Wynne
M: Clark, Feilhaber, Nguyen (Gaven, Kljestan, and Mapp too)
F: Davies (maybe Gomez)

Really can't wait 'til the U-20 strikers are ready to move up to the senior team...

[SoccerTex]

Wow! This is disappointing, US Soccer really mailed this one in. Another opportunity for the rest of the soccer world to bash US soccer when Argentina gets done with this C-team. I don't even see anyone on this team who can score a goal on the international level, unless they're wide open and received a nice pass, or it's an open goal... Well, at least a bunch of these MLS guys will get an opportunity to see real quality soccer for the only time in their life when Messi, Tevez, and crew have them running around chasing their passes. Got the same question about Gooch and Beasley as another poster, why aren't they on the team??? they ain't got anything else to do. Of course in Gooch's case he might of thought it best to stop playing for the time being and send around his '05 Gold Cup tapes instead....

[ian]

COMNEBOL is never inviting us to the Copa again after we show up with that kind of crap roster

[philip]

Is Bradley going to try to make Hercules into a winger? As bad as it is--this roster could actually lend itself to a 4-3-3. If we are going down, might as well go down attacking. I see it like this:

............Keller..............
Moor.....JC....Demerit.....Pearce
..........Clark.....Olsen
...............Benny...........
........Lee...............Mapp
..................EJ....................

It isn't pretty, but I really think that if (and it is a huge if) Bob had at least a week with these guys, we might be able to get a result or two.

[Colin]

I'm ashamed. This is a competition, not a friendly, and we aren't playing Central African Republic or Andorra, we're playing in a prestigious South American tournament.

We should give our spot to a nation that wants it. Canada, are you interested?

[Andy]

What do you expect from the US and Bradley? The Gold Cup will finish days before the Copa starts, MLS is in full swing, Euro players can't play both tournaments because of pre-season training and neccesary rest, and we can't even use Under-20s because of the World Cup. What other kind of roster could we have had? Will it be pretty? No. Will it be great experience for a group of young and talented players pretty much across the board? Definitely. Quit whining about EVERYTHING!

[ag nigrin]

I am with sublicon on this one...wouldn't it be amazing if these guys prove everybody wrong and play comepetantly if not very well? Besides we lose basically nothing by experimenting with our younger players at this pretty meaningless tournament and help get them ready for 2010!