Bob Bradley has announced the 24 man roster for the upcoming qualifiers against El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago. The group is almost identical to the group that visited Mexico earlier this month with a few additions, most notably Robbie Rogers and Robbie Finley.  The group also has MLS standouts Kyle Beckerman and Conor Casey. Take a look at the full roster, my thoughts follow after the jump.

Full Roster:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Tim Howard (Everton, England)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes, France), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jay DeMerit (Watford, England), Clarence Goodson (IK Start, Norway), Chad Marshall (Columbus), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan, Italy), Jonathan Spector (West Ham, England)

Midfielders: Kyle Beckerman (Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Borussia Moenchengladbach, Germany), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus, Denmark), Stuart Holden (Houston), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Jose Francisco Torres (Pachuca, Mexico)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Hull, England), Conor Casey (Colorado), Brian Ching (Houston), Charlie Davies (Sochaux, France), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), Robbie Findley (Salt Lake)

I think it is pretty clear now who Bradley considers as his core group so I will just focus my thoughts on some of the fringe players.

The addition of Robbie Findley and Conor Casey demonstrate that Bradley is still searching for the 4th striker.  Casey is a top MLS striker but he doesn’t look capable of transferring the form to the national team.  Granted, he hasn’t had much game time with the national team to get situated.

Finley is coming off a two goal performance against Chivas USA and will join the camp with a lot of confidence.  Additionally, he might get the chance to impress Coach Bradley in front of his home team fans.  Finley is a fast opportunistic striker. He is in the mold of Charlie Davies and is likely getting an audition to be his stand in.

Robbie Rogers in the group is a little surprising to me.  I think he showed some very good qualities at the Gold Cup but I think his deficiencies were more noticeable.  The US is still lacking depth on the left side with Donovan the only real option.  If Rogers gets in and plays well that will definitely be a boost for the national team and a huge sigh of relief for the fans.  If Rogers plays poorly, Bob Bradley’s hand might forced to call up Edgar Castillo.

Kyle Beckerman had a great Gold Cup and Bradley will like to see him play in more competitive matches.  Beckerman is a very good player but so are the rest of the midfielders on the list.  I think Bradley is looking at Beckerman as a third or fourth option should any of the top midfielders go down with injury before the World Cup.  Bradley just wants him familiar with the system.

Stuart Holden is getting another chance with national team and I think it is much deserved.  He did well in his limited time against Mexico and has the versatility and quality to be a real contributor to the national team.  If Dempsey continues to put in lackluster performances on the right side of midfield, Holden might be getting prepped to step in.

Share your thoughts on these call ups?  Are you excited to see some guys get another look?  Are you scratching your head about others?

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 7:17 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.