USMNT Announces Confederations Cup Squad

Coach Bob Bradley and the USMNT will make the trip to South Africa in one week to take part in the 2009 Confederations Cup. Starting June 14th, the Confederations Cup is an eight nation tournament pitting the champions of each of FIFA's six confederations, the reigning World Cup champions and the tournament's host nation against one another. Teams were divided into two groupings of four back in November. The U.S. faces a tough test as they were drawn into the much tougher of the two groups featuring reigning Confederations Cup champs Brazil, reigning World Cup champs Italy, and reigning African Cup of Nations titleholders Egypt. Earlier today Coach Bradley named the squad of 23 who will be making the trip to Johannesburg.

The squad of 23 includes 5 MLS players, with the remaining 18 made up of players currently plying their trade overseas from the German Bundesliga to the Danish Superliga. As expected, many of the names released today took part in the recent round of World Cup Qualifying games. Missing is veteran Colorado Rapids midfielder, Pablo Mastroeni, who was removed at halftime in the teams win over Honduras Saturday night after looking noticeably winded. Not making the trip due to injury will be Houston Dynamo striker Brian Ching and Rangers midfielder Maurice Edu. Edu will be out of action for the next two to three months after undergoing knee surgery; leaving a gap in the U.S. midfield and opening up an opportunity for someone to grab the starting job next to Michael Bradley in the center of the park.


Goalkeepers (3):

Tim Howard (Everton FC)
Brad Guzan (Aston Villa)
Luis Robles (Kaiserslautern)

Defenders (8):

Carlos Bocanegra (Stade Rennes)
Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Leige)
Danny Califf (Midtjylland)
Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock)
Jay Demerit (Watford)
Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)
Jonathan Bornstein (CD Chivas USA)
Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)

Midfielders (7):

Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo)
Jose Francisco Torres (Pachuca)
Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
Freddy Adu (AS Monaco)
Damarcus Beasley (Rangers)
Sacha Kljestan (CD Chivas USA)
Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus)

Forwards (5):

Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC)
Jozy Altidore (Xerez)
Connor Casey (Colorado Rapids)
Charlie Davies (Hammarby)