US v. Scotland, May 26, 2012

Ok, with the fans still salivating over the Italy victory, it's time to start projecting the next roster. We will have three friendlies all in a row: Scotland, Brazil, then Canada, followed by the first match of WC qualifying. So the roster for the Scotland friendly will definately be the same as for the games when it counts. Expect a mostly Euro-based roster, with a few MLSers sprinkled in. But Klinsmann will lean heavily on the veterans.

G: Howard, Guzan, Rimando.

D: Cherundolo, Bocanegra, Goodson, Chandler, Johnson, Spector, Whitbread, Ream. (Onyewu if healthy.)

M: Donovan, Bradley, Edu, Jones, Torres, Williams, Shea, Beasley

F: Altidore, Dempsey, Buddle, Gomez

Question marks:
1) Beckerman - does he really have a place in this team? Sadly, I don't think so. Bradley has cemented himself as a starter. Edu, Jones, Torres and Williams would all seemingly have a leg up on Beckerman at center mid. But Klinsmann has played wild cards before.

2) Does Klinsmann go with age or youth at striker? Agudelo, Bunbury, Boyd and Wooten are all vying for Olympic spots. Will Klinsmann take one of them for the senior team? It's unclear at this point, but I'll go with no for now.

3) Do Gomez and Beasley make the squad? Both have World Cup experience, and are playing well in Mexico - I expect both of them to be with the squad come WC qualifying.

3) Is Shea still a midfielder? With FC Dallas moving Shea to striker, will Klinsmann try a similar tactic?

May 26 the team plays Scotland; May 30 Brazil; June 3 at Canada; and the June 8 Qualifier against Antiqua.


Seems like players 12 through 23 of the Full team would play Scotland; The starters play Brazil and Antiqua.

Canada can be handled by the MLS guys.

Not sure that's accurate. One exhibition after a long flight in a game without Ferreira. I would expect Castillo to be the second striker in a real game but we'll see if Ferreira misses time. The key is FCD and US both use one forward a lot and Shea is not that guy.

This will be one camp playing in all these games. WCQ tune ups.

Nice summary of the schedule, but you omitted the June 12 WCQ @Guatemala. That's the toughest, and most important game of the bunch. Win it, and we are almost certainly through, lose it, and a second slip up could be really troublesome.

If I was going to do much squad rotation, I might make sure my more experienced guys were fresh for that one.

A long way off, but if it was me I'd call in a large camp (around 30 guys) and have them compete to see who is in the best form leading up the the WCQ games.

GK: Howard + Guzan/Rimando as the #2 + Hamid/Johnson as the #3.

RB: Cherundolo + Chandler + Spector/Lichaj
LB: Chandler/F. Johnson + Spector/Lichaj
RCB: Onyewu + Goodson + Cameron/Parkhurst/John
LCB: Bocanegra + Ream/Whitbread

DM/CM: Jones, Bradley, Edu, Beckerman, Williams, Torres, Kljestan
RM: Donovan + Bradley/Rogers
LM: F. Johnson/Shea + Beasley/Rogers

CAM/WF: Dempsey + Torres/Feilhaber

F: Altidore, Dempsey, Buddle, Agudelo + maybe Gomez/Findley

I just want to see if you can out-possess and really take it to a team like Scotland.

It's important to fatten up just a bit and Canada is just the team against which we should do it.

With the amount of games in a short amount of time I believe we are going to have a fatter roster then usual but I think JK will only call guys up who he think might actually contribute during qualifying. My list is:

GK: Howard, Guzan, Rimando

DEF: Chandler, Lichaj, Cherundelo, Boca, Goodson, Ream,Whitbread, Cameron, Spector

Mid: Bradley, Edu, Williams, Jones, Beckerman, Torres, Davis

WG: Donovan, Johnson, Beasley

FW: Buddle, Dempsey, Altidore, Gomez, (Sapong?: depending on form and injuries)

The U-23s that he might use I feel would be:

WG: Shea
FW: Agudelo
FW: Boyd

Yeah the roster will more than likely be the roster we will see being used for the WCQ.

That was Bob Bradley teams...but in 2008, he played a strong lineup in all three matches before the WCQ.

yeah, but that was ahead of a two-legged series with Barbados. the Guatemala match on the road is far more difficult than that was.

Any ideas on roster size? I'm thinking 30 with our A guys only playing 1-2 of the warm up matches.

A little bit of an overreaction, imo. Last summer for the GC, we had 5 matches in the same time period. In those matches only three subs were permitted and the best 11 available started every match.
This year, three of these matches will have 6 subs. You probably will not see the same starting 11 every match, but will see the stars play a role in every match.
This is just a part of being a national team player.

These games are all here in US, and all in Eastern Time Zone, until the June 12 in Guatamala. (EDIT: Canada is in Montreal, so not in the US. But no time zone or oceans to cross.)

So it would be relatively practical to have a large camp and shuttle the game-day rosters a bit. Don't know how inclined JK is to do that.

*sigh* It kind of depresses me that neither Feilhaber nor Kljestan feature in most folks' roster guesses. Do we really have so much creativity and attacking skill that BOTH these players are extraneous to our midfield pool? Hard for me to believe, but of course it's not what I believe that matters.

swedust:

Isn't the moosehead match at BMO? Same difference, of course, in regards to logistics.

But, thats what they have to do. In 2014, we hope these guys go thru a cluster of games after the end of their season and still be strong for the fifth game. The spacing is pretty similiar and the intensity is much higher in each match.
Spain, in 2010, played their first 5 matches in 18 days during the WC.


In 2012, 5 matches in 18 days for the US with three of them being 6 sub matches, isn't too much.

Our team tends to exert more energy over the course of a game than Spain does. Spain still covers plenty of ground, but at slower speeds and usually with the ball.

That said, if Klinsmann plays his cards right we should be fine.

Well, in the Florida heat at the end of May, Scotland will only run for about 20 minutes anyway....

Based on this article (http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/7686878/jurgen-klinsmann-qa-leander-schaerlaeckens) today, looks like the question on what positions will Dempsey and LD play is somewhat answered:

Also:

Insert CD as CAM, LD as winger. What we were expecting. Although there is the odd chance Landon is one of those two strikers (doubt it).

So I am assuming this means we will play a 4-4-2 that looks like this

-------FW----------FW-----------
--LW--------Demps--------Donovan
-------------Bradley---------------
LB---------LCB---RCB------------RB


That is very interesting.......doesn't leave much room for Jones, Edu, Beckerman.