Breaking Down the Enemy

Bob Bradley finally revealed his list of the 20 men that will travel down to face Mexico on August 12th.
Three are back from the Gold Cup, and the rest aren’t much of a surprise. Those who were expected to make it, made it. Missing is Edgar Castillo(the player who switched National teams).

Goalkeepers

Brad Guzan(Aston Villa)
Tim Howard(Everton)

Defenders

Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes)
Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA)
Steve Cherundolo(Hannover 96)
Jay DeMerit(Watford)
Chad Marshall(Columbus Crew)
Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan)
Jonathan Spector (West Ham)

Midfield

Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo)
Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC)
Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus)
Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo)
José Francisco Torres (Pachuca)

Forwards

Jozy Altidore (Hull City)
Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids)
Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo)
Charlie Davies (FC Sochaux)
Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

The called up goalkeepers are no surprise. Timmy Howard will be the one to start, and is one of the players that should worry the Mexican side. Sure, he’s not the one attacking the goal, but he is tough to get past(especially with some of the finishing on the Mexican side). After his performance at the Confed Cup, his call up was already set in stone.

The expected defenders are on the list. Most of them play in Europe which has it’s advantages and disadvantages. The season is starting/just started for most of these players. The “Gooch” for example was in America for his preseason with AC Milan, and didn’t have a good time to be honest. The form held by this man, and possibly all the others can help the Mexican team because they won’t be in their top form. Somehow, many of these pull out a good performance, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this time around.

The midfield looks quite good for the US side. Holden made it as one of the participants in the Gold Cup, but he played well for most of it. Despite that, he probably won’t see playing time. Torres is also on there, but his time has been limited with Pachuca so far. Of course, one of the standouts is Bradley who scored twice against Mexico in Columbus.

Up top, Brian Ching found his way on to the roster. He wasn’t too impressive against Mexico in the Gold Cup final, and doesn’t seem to be doing too well. He’ll most likely watch the game from the stands. Jozy Altidore is an impressive player, who despite having limited playing time, seems to come up with the goods. And Mexico’s #1 enemy, Landycakes, is there. No matter what form Donovan is in, he always delivers against Mexico.

Again, there aren’t any surprises on the team. The players who were expected to make it, made it.

Predicted Line Up

————————Howard———————-

—–Spector—-Onyewu—–DeMerit——Bocanegra

—-Donovan——-Clark——Bradley——Dempsey

————–Davies———–Altidore—————