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When the U.S. Soccer Federation announced the roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup in the midst of the U.S.'s surprising run to the Confederations Cup final, the general consensus was that the lineup was thoroughly a "B" team. After all, the supposed "A" team had done enough work in upsetting then-FIFA No. 1 Spain, and giving newly minted top dog Brazil a run for its money, before losing 3-2 last week. On Wednesday, CONCACAF said it would allow the U.S. to add seven players to the already 23-man roster for the Gold Cup due to playing in back-to-back competitions barely separated by a week and, more importantly, over 10,000 miles. Thursday the USSF announced those seven players -- all members of the Confederations Cup roster -- upgrading the roster to a solid "B+."
Joining the mostly MLS-based Gold Cup roster are Jozy Altidore, Conor Casey, Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber, Sacha Kljestan, Jonathan Bornstein and Brad Guzan. In the official USSF release, it's noted that all seven players are eligible for the tournament but won't be present at each match. This could be a way to save these players from even more jet lag after the grueling trip back from South Africa by way of numerous stops in between. The U.S. opens the tournament Saturday against Grenada in Seattle, following it with a pair of matches on the East Coast against Honduras and Haiti.
These seven join Freddy Adu, Jose Torres, Luis Robles and Charlie Davies as holdovers from the Confederations Cup roster. For any given game the U.S. can only have 18 players in uniform.
It's hard to imagine a scenario where U.S. coach Bob Bradley would want or need to use these new seven players in the opening group stage. It's more likely they could be used should the U.S. advance into the knockout stages and a possible tilt with rival Mexico somewhere along the line.
At least adding these seven players to the roster gives Bradley some options, in particular Altidore, to perhaps give him a match alongside Brian Ching to see how the two players mesh up top or to give the Altidore-Davies pairing more time to develop. It's also good to see that Feilhaber -- after what seemed like two years in the wilderness after his stunning volley which gave the U.S. a 2-1 win in the 2007 Gold Cup final over Mexico -- was impressive enough last month in South Africa to warrant another look or two.
It's probably no surprise either that Bradley selected Kljestan, Bornstein and Guzan as all three played under him at Chivas USA and have gained steady selections since he became U.S. coach in 2007. That said, most U.S. fans at this point probably would rather see Adu or Torres get a look in the midfield over Kljestan, whose only contribution at the Confederations Cup was a red card in a 3-0 group stage loss to Brazil, while the other two youngsters never got off the bench.
In any event, after the U.S.'s eye-opening run at the Confederations Cup in June, the Gold Cup would seem, from a fan's standpoint, like a clear letdown. Just don't tell that to the players on the U.S. roster, because the internal competition to impress Bradley ahead of the next trip to South Africa -- the one that counts for real in 2010 -- might be more intense than the competition issued from the U.S.'s opposition.
More importantly, when the next World Cup rolls around, FIFA isn't going to allow the U.S. to expand its roster. A good showing at the Gold Cup might put a so-called fringe player on the radar for one of the final 23 spots, and it's doubtful anyone will mind the 24-hour-plus flight and numerous stopovers to reach South Africa come June 2010.
