From today's game summary of the Liverpool-TNS Champion's League qualifier: "Zak Whitbread came on for Carragher after 54 minutes..." Too soon for the next WC, most likely, but with Whitbread and Spector likely to get more Premiership time, and Danny Karbassiyoon playing for Burnley, there is a nice crop of defenders coming up fast for the US.
Well, actually, the entire paragraph reads: "Zak Whitbread came on for Carragher after 54 minutes, and TNS were soon firing in their set plays to at last give Jose Reina something to do." See http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=186595&cc=5901 I didn't watch the game, and maybe this is just some sloppy writing or an unfortunate coincidence, but this seems to suggest that there was some correlation between Whitbread's insertion into the lineup and TNS's goal-scoring opportunities. In any event, good to see he's getting playing time and hopefully things work out.