MLS Players in the World Cup

As the Sounders and DC United prepare for their Thursday night MLS game I started to think about what the list of MLS players in the World Cup would look like.  The list is much smaller than it was in 2006 much due to the increasing number of Yanks leaving MLS to play in other countries.  Let me know if I missed anyone.  I just browsed through the whole list of World Cup rosters and picked these guys out.

Chivas USA
Jonathan Bornstein

Kansas City Wizards
Roger Espinoza (Honduras)

LA Galaxy
Landon Donovan
Edson Buddle

New York Red Bulls
Andrew Boyens (New Zealand)

Real Salt Lake
Robbie Findley

So watching Seattle Sounders FC and DC United going at it is exciting, I can’t keep my mind off the games that we’ll see tomorrow morning.  Don’t miss South Africa vs Mexico, coverage starting at 8:30am (central time) on ESPN and then France vs Uruguay at 1:30pm.  I’m so excited I might not sleep tonight.Православни икони

Final World Cup Squad Prediction

The final roster for the World Cup is scheduled to be announced today. After a friendly loss to the Czech Republic last night Bob Bradley should have his mind made up on everyone. The current list of 30 needs to be trimmed down by 7 to 23.  See my choices below.

Keepers
Tim Howard (Everton, England)
Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton, England)
Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England)

All the keepers get to go.

Defense
Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes, France)
Jay DeMerit (Watford, England)
Jonathan Spector (West Ham, England)
Steve Cherundolo (Hanover, Germany)
Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA, MLS)
Clarence Goodson (Start, Norway)
Chad Marshall (Columbus, MLS)

Onyewu and Pearce don’t make the cut.  They both were poor last night.  I imagine Chad Marshall might be more likely to get cut if he didn’t impress during the camp, but I’m only going off the game from last night.  I think Goodson got a spot with a good performance.

Midfield
Michael Bradley (Moenchengladbach, Germany)
Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland)
Ricardo Clark (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany)
Stuart Holden (Bolton, England)
Jose Francisco Torres (Pachuca, Mexico)
Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus, Denmark)
Robbie Rogers (Columbus, MLS)
Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England)
Landon Donovan (Los Angeles, MLS)

Bedoya, Beasley and Kljestan get the cut from the midfielders.  Here I assume Beasley will be where I’m wrong but he just hasn’t impressed me over the past couple of years.

Strikers
Jozy Altidore (Hull City, England)
Brian Ching (Houston, MLS)
Edson Buddle (Los Angeles, MLS)
Herculez Gomez (Puebla, Mexico)

Findley and Johnson get the cut.  Seems like everyone else thing Gomez was the one guy that definitely earned his spot last night that might not have otherwise been there.  Ching was on the bubble for me.

DC United Let Real Salt Lake In On The Fun

It was a crazy weekend for Major League Soccer.

Way to go DC United, now every team in Major League Soccer has a win.  Before this weekend Real Salt Lake was the only team without a notch in the W column.  I don’t know if you guys felt bad for them or what is going on.  And what was up with scoring the goal at the very end of the game like that?  Why not just give them the shut out as well?  Well done Robbie Findley, they should build a statue of you outside the stadium there in Salt Lake.  Quite a way to make an impression with a new team, 2 goals that lead to the first victory of the not-so-young-anymore season.  Sorry but that wouldn’t have been quite as impressive if you had been traded to someone like the New England Revolution and done that.  The should be setting up their teammates and winning games.  Real Salt Lake shouldn’t.

Too bad the Galaxy didn’t have Robbie Findley still on their roster for their loss to the mighty Columbus Crew.  Some recent acquisitions paid off in this game as well.  Alejandro Moreno scored the game winning goal for the Crew, and Edson Buddle scored a late consolation goal for the Galaxy.  Not worth anything really, but it was a goal and I’m sure Galaxy fans have to take what they can get.

Moreno’s old team, Houston Dyanamo have been hot this week scoring two big wins.  Well beating Chivas maybe can’t be considered real big, but they also went to Kansas City and took a one nil victory from the powerful Wizards, who also lost to the might Columbus Crew last week.

So the Crew and Dynamo win 2 games this week.  Dynamo fans probably expect a lot of this, and Crew fans will probably never forget this week.  The Wizards drop 2 games that a team so close to the top should expect to win.  DC United’s great run comes to a screeching halt.  But most importantly, the US is Gold Cup Champions!