US Announces World Cup Squad

U.S. head coach Bob Bradley watches from the sidelines as his team plays the Czech Republic in a warm-up game for the FIFA World Cup on May 25 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. The Czech Republic defeated the US 4-2. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Bob Bradley has named the 23-man roster that will travel to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The team departs for South Africa on May 30, and will play its opening match of the tournament against England on Saturday, June 12 in Rustenburg live on ABC at 2 p.m. ET.

The roster for the US 2010 FIFA World Cup contains some surprises as well as some expected names.

Only six of the 23 players have prior World Cup experience, though two others sat on the bench at the 2006 World Cup. For three, defenders Steve Cherundolo, midfielder DaMarcus Beasley, and striker Landon Donovan, South Africa will be their third World Cup.

But for 15 of the players this will be their first time on soccer’s biggest stage, and three of the forwards—Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, and Robbie Findley—have only three international matches between them.

The majority of the U.S. World Cup squad plays for overseas teams. Four—Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, Robbie Findley, and Jonathon Bornstein—play in the MLS, but Bornstein has played in 27 international matches.

“We feel the roster has a good balance of players who have been a part of previous World Cups, those who have gained great experience in qualifying and Confederations Cup, and some newer faces that have proved they belong,” Bradley said in a statement on www.ussoccer.com.

The team has great strength at some positions. Netminder Tim Howard won a Golden Glove at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and allowed less than a goal per game in 2010 World Cup qualifying.

Midfielder Landon Donovan has played in 121 international matches, scoring 12 goals of 19 scored by the team in the final round of qualifying. Team captain Carlos Bocanegra has played in 77 international matches.

The roster only lists seven defenders, and one of them is Oguchi Onyewu, who is coming off a serious knee injury, a ruptured patellar tendon.

With 55 international matches under his belt, Onyewu should feel right at home in South Africa, but one must wonder if his knee will hold up through the full length of the tournament.

The U.S. will play England, Slovenia, and Algeria in the first round of the month-long tournament.

2010 United States World Cup Soccer Team Roster
Player	Pos	Player	Pos	Player	Pos	Player	Pos
Jozy Altidore	F	DaMarcus Beasley	M	Jonathan Bornstein	D	Brad Guzan	GK
Edson Buddle	F	Bradley Michael	M	Carlos Bocanegra	D	Marcus Hahnemann	GK
Robbie Findley	F	Clint Dempsey	M	Steve Cherundolo	D	Tim Howard	GK
Herculez Gomez	F	Landon Donovan	M	Jay DeMerit	D
		Maurice Edu	M	Clarence Goodson	D
		Benny Feilhaber	M	Oguchi Onyewu	D
		Ricardo Clark	M	Jonathan Spector	D
		José Torres	M
		Stuart Holden	M