The USA announced their roster for the Cuba match, to be played at RFK Stadium on 10/11/08.  With advancement to the next round close to a sure thing, Bradley has taken a few more risks (well...I'd be happy to debate anyone on how "risky" they actually are) and called in some younger players.  I, for [.

No Cooper.  No Adu.  No Altidore.  Really?  To the disappointment of many American fans (myself included), Bob Bradley continues to call up players like Brian Ching, Eddie Johnson, Frankie Hejduk, and Eddie Lewis over younger players.  The most common excuse given by supporters of Bradley's strategy is the experience argument.

Stuart Holden will not be able to watch team mates Brian Ching and Dwayne DeRosario in qualifying tonight because he's playing at the same time/photo from MLSNET

Major League Soccer is one of the strangest football leagues in the world. While some European oriented fans ridicule MLS for the time of year it is played those of us who understand world football and weather patterns do not really understand how MLS can be played when these people's beloved English Premier League is played.

  Eddie Johnson and Brian Ching celebrate a goal against Barbados, the only game which a current US striker has scored a goal in the last 14 months for the national team. Bob Bradley's tenure as United States National Team manager has gone about as well as can be expected: A CONCACAF Gold triumph, several [.

I guess Nate Jaqua really likes being around Joseph Ngwenya because he is about to move to the same Austrian league (link via SBI). The club that Jaqua will now call home is SCR Altach, who currently stand in eighth place (out of 10).
Jaqua is another quality player leaving Houston, meaning the team is starting to look a bit lost up top.

Bob Bradley named the squad that is going to face Guatemala in the upcoming World Cup qualifier and while looking through the roster the question that comes to my mind is - don't we have a better team then this? Hasn't the time for Eddie Lewis, Frankie Hejduk, and Pablo Mastroeni come and gone? Who is being looked to as the main goalscorer - Landon Donovan?

US vs. Barbados
5p ET/2p PT
TV: ESPN2
Internet: ESPN360
Text call: Matchtracker
The US is less then an hour away from starting their long road to South Africa and Bob Bradley has released his lineup. Needless to say, there are a couple surprises. First of all, Guzan will start in goal instead of Tim Howard.

US 8-0 Barbados
Anyway you look at this, it was a great way for the US to start their World Cup run. This was the expected result and the team lived up to it, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. With that in mind, here are the player grades:
Starting XI
Brad Guzan (GK) - What a boring way to up your international appearance numbers.

Interestingly no Freddy Adu called into this squad even though four other returning Olympians from the US side are called into the squad. The numbers are caps and goal in World Cup qualifying.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa: 2/2 SO), Tim Howard (Everton FC: 3/2 SO)
DEFENDERS (6): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes: 13/1), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96: 15/0), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC: 1/0), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew: 11/1), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 8/0), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 2/0)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen: 2/1), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC: 1/0), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 1/0), Eddie Lewis (Derby County: 19/3), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids: 10/0)
FORWARDS (4): Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo: 7/4), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy: 21/8), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC: 8/2), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC: 8/8)

What are everyone's thoughts about this squad?

As goes Washington, so goes Houston.We got the following from one of our correspondents in Houston who wishes to be anonymous:

There's alot of talk still inside the office about RICARDO CLARK going to Europe, Bobby Boswell had anoffer from Europe but he wants to stay and the Dynamo are getting rid of Patrick Ianni who makes more than 100,000 per year, so with Ianni out and possibly going to a team in California, the Dynamo are willing to give a good salary increase to Boswell, he is 3rd on the list for defenders that might leave to Europe.

The Dynamo arrived in Hawaii over the weekend in preparation for the Pan-Pacific Championship this week. The Dynamo Web site has an update on what they've done, especially how Brian Ching is doing his best Lord of the Manor bit.
Canoeing the length of the island, soccer ball in hand?

US coach Bob Bradley has released 10 players from camp ahead of their second leg match against Barbados. Most of the players are MLS based, so this is not much of a surprise, however I kind of thought he would keep Guzan around in case Howard is still having back issues (plus if Guzan still wants to move to England, he needs more international caps).

Here's a link to an article that contains the U.S. National Team's squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago. The squad looks very similar to the recent one that was called up for the Guatemala game and I still would like to see some different players included. I don't really know what is accomplished by including Brian Ching, Eddie Lewis, and Frankie Hejduk.

Guatemala vs Cuba - Eliminatorias Sudafrica 2010
Originally uploaded by BLOGARJONA Estos son los resultados de ls Concacaf del día 10 ya que todos los los estan buscando:
Suriname 0 - El Salvador 2 (2010 World Cup qualifier, Septiembre 10, 2008)
United States 3 - Trinidad & Tobago 0 ((2010 World Cup qualifier, Septiembre 10, 2008)
Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey y Brian Ching anotaron para las barras y estrellas.

Brian Ching is not the answer: Ching scored twice, but one was a deflection off of his back from a Pablo Mastroeni shot (yes, you read that right). You can score two goals by accident if you play ninety minutes up top against Barbados. I mean, Eddie Johnson even scored in a ten-minute cameo. Ching just wasn't at the same level as the rest of the US attack and you could see it when at lot of the attacks broke down once the ball was played to him.

The USMNT has been hitting the training field hard this week in preparation for Saturdays match against Cuba.  After the first day of training, new man Torres had this to say: "The first day was good. I was really nervous because I didn't know what to expect. Everyone has treated me really well. I started to [.

I think week 11 was one of the more memorably weekends in the 2008 season. It was a long and stretched out week with games every night from Wednesday all the way to Sunday. Thought that Wednesday night game was washed out in DC, it showed us something that this was going to be one [...]

U.S. coach Bob Bradley has announced the roster that will face Guatemala in a World Cup qualifier Wednesday, and Dynamo forward Brian Ching is on it. The roster: GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton FC) DEFENDERS (6):...

Here is Jack Bell's article from the New York Times that reviews each player's performance in the game with a rating scale of 1-10, which is commonly done in soccer. To begin, I believe that Jack's ratings vary a bit too much. Its usually pretty rare that players on the same team get a score of 3 and also 8.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

With three points in the bag after last week's 1-0 road win against Guatemala, the U.S. men's national team heads into the next set of World Cup qualifiers knowing that two wins could all but lock up advancement into the Hexagonal round.

Another away qualifier, another dimly-lit stadium, another ugly performance against a weak opponent...another three points! Despite struggling in their first two away qualifiers of the group stage, the USMNT will return home with a pair of 1-0 victories to show for their efforts.  This time, it was a Clint Dempsey goal (from the run of play!

Well all right. My first pirate-inspired headline. So...how bad was the Houston Dynamo's loss to Gamba Osaka? First, there's the score to consider: any time your bunch gives up six goals, you couldn't have had a good night. I don't think Pat Onstad can remember the last time he let in six...assuming it [.

Watching the Turks today rip the spleens out of the Croatians has restored my faith in the anything-can-happen aspect of this wonderful sport. I was watching with my sons and when Semih Senturk fired that equalizer all three of us let out loud LOUD screams of surprise and amazement. Not having a dog in that hunt, we felt terrible for the Croats, amazed at the Turks and, speaking for myself, are those Turks straight out of central casting or what?

The news that Ben Olsen would be out 4-8 weeks, just days after his inspirational return to the pitch, is naturally heartbreaking. But after discussing his Dick's sporting Goods commercial, we wondered how he felt he would be after his surgery. Would he still have the moves that he casually announced to Brian Ching and Christian Gomez?

Hey, hey - here we go now. Well, not just yet, some telenovela is on. "No quiero verle nunca mas!" spits the heroine. Oh, ok, it's over now. Bring on SuperLiga! Post predictions quick!
Ha, the announcers know all about the Houston/Pachuca history.
"Houston wants revenge," they say. I've picked Pachuca to win, however, so I predict a heartbreaking 2-1.

This report comes a freelancer to ESPN, who talked to Atlanta Silverbacks coach Jason Smith.
Funny how the two success stories referenced making the USL to MLS switch are ex-Sounders: Brian Ching and Maykel Galindo.

Sebastian Le Toux, striker, Seattle (Wash.

A couple of defensive mistakes from the New England forced them to come from behind in both regulation and extra time, but the Revs fought back both times and eventually took the match to penalty kicks. Once there the team fell behind again, but this time came back and after 8 rounds emerged victorious 6-5 to claim the SuperLiga Championship.

It is hard to say the Houston Dynamo stand in any sort of disarray following its shocking playoff loss to the New York Red Bulls. Two straight MLS Cup titles followed by posting the best regular-season record in the Western Conference make Houston as successful a team as their is in the league, with a strong roster and winning track record that hasn't been erased by one series upset.

With the big 8-0 lead leaving no doubt about the return leg to Barbados, a number of players have been excused by Bob Bradley for a break or to return to their MLS clubs.
10 new spots open up on the roster.
Brian Ching, Clint Dempsey, Steve Cherundolo, Landon Donovan, Brad Guzan, Frankie Hejduk, Maurice Edu, Sacha Kljestan, Pablo Mastroeni, and Matt Reis have been released.

Stuart Holden will not be able to watch team mates Brian Ching and Dwayne DeRosario in qualifying tonight because he's playing at the same time/photo from MLSNET Major League Soccer is one of the strangest football leagues in the world. While some European oriented fans ridicule MLS for the time of year it is played those [.

Eddie Johnson and Brian Ching celebrate a goal against Barbados, the only game which a current US striker has scored a goal in the last 14 months for the national team.

Bob Bradley's tenure as United States National Team manager has gone about as well as can be expected: A CONCACAF Gold triumph, several victories in the "old world" and thus far a smooth run in qualifying including an elusive win over Guatemala.

Here is an excellent article from Kartik Krishnaiyer on the MLS Talk blog that goes through the differences between the managing styles of Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley, and also provides some interesting thoughts on the recent callups that Bob Bradley has made for the U.S. National Team. For the most part, I agree with Kartik's column, but I disagree with the comments he made about Clint Dempsey.

The U.S. beat a clearly out of their depth Trinidad & Tobago Wednesday night, taking advantage of their opponents' obvious inexperience (and lack of leadership as ESPN commentator and former T&T goalkeeper Shaka Hislop pointed out numerous times) to comfortably win 3-0 in Chicago.

Some observations:
*Neither Brian Ching nor Eddie Johnson were particularly convincing (again) at forward.

This post is only tangentially related to the Galaxy, because of the presence of Landon Donovan in the US Men's National Team Player Pool. But I thought it would be fun to go through the candidates for player of the year and see what Galaxy fans thought about the choices. (I totally stole this idea from Luis Bueno over at Sideline Views who actually gets to cast a vote that counts in his capacity as a member of the media.

What a relief to see a USMNT game with multiple goals.  A good showing at home, and now that we have 9 points in 3 games, I hope that Bob calls in some younger players.  But before we get into that, let's talk about T&T. MIDFIELDERS Huzzah for Michael Bradley!  Finally an all around strong game from [.

Some match reports from several different outlets on Sunday's 8-0 US win over Barbados:
- Grahame Jones of the LA Times talked to Barbados goalkeeper Alvin Rouse after the match. I think he was the only one who stopped Rouse, who had one great save off an Oguchi Onyewu header but otherwise was helpless to stop the U.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

As you may or may not know, the 18-man MLS All-Star team isn't the only list of players selected with relation to the All-Star game. There is also a group of players known as "inactive" all-stars, who are considered the players who would also be all-stars if the MLS All-Star Game still had the same MLS-only format.

OK.  This is starting to get ridiculous.  Kenny Cooper is the topic of numerous transfer rumors and now tops the MLS Golden Boot standings with 13 goals in 19 appearances that's 5 more than Brian Ching and 13 more than Eddie Johnson since his move to Fulham.  It's silly (although not surprising) that Cooper hasn't been [.

While watching the US-Guatemala World Cup Qualifier this evening there were a few thoughts I wanted to share.
1. It's amazing what putting on the national team shirt does for a player like Brian Ching. When he's representing the Tang-colored Dynamo the guy plays a less than classy style of football.

Jeff Parke is injured. Gabriel Chicero is suspended. Just how will the New York Red Bulls continue their five-match unbeaten streak against Western Division leaders Houston on Sunday (3p, TF)? Adding benched Norway-bound D Hunter Freeman may be the answer. On August 13th, Freeman signed with IK Start of Norway, though he won't join the club until January.