Live The Pitch

U.S. soccer fans might not think this is the ideal squad taking the field on Saturday night against Grenada, but it’s filled with quality young players looking to get a shot at the full-team. The original roster for the USA had 15 players that currently play in the MLS. With the run to the FIFA Federation’s Cup Final, the U.S. should come out and take care of this team with ease.

Bob Bradley will surely have his hands full with this roster. The positives are that the U.S. will get Brian Ching back from a hamstring injury and Steve Cherundolo has recovered from his injury as well. Bradley has a great opportunity here to evaluate players on this big stage. One downfall is that there are seven players looking to earn their first cap with the national team.

The players that need to have GREAT performances are, Freddy Adu, Stuart Holden, Chad Marshall, and Heath Pearce. Freddy Adu in my opinion should have received at least a little playing time in the Confederations Cup. The U.S. is lacking creativity going forward and Adu can be the player for us to change that.

Here is the 23 man roster for the 2009 Gold Cup- http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_14942228.html

Concacaf  has also allowed the U.S. to expand its roster to 30 players due to the team having to compete in two tournaments almost back to back.  This allowed Bradley to bring in some of our big guns in case they are needed later in the tournament.   I don’t expect any of these seven to dress against Grenada, but if a team like Mexico is waiting, I would love to see Bradley playing most of these players.

The players who can be used are Jozy Altidore, Conor Casey, Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber, Sacha Klejstan, Jonathan Bornstein, and Brad Guzan.  I am not including any of these players in the first match but would be happy if one or two are included on the roster.