USMNT Projected Gold Cup Roster

I want to chime in on what I think the USMNT roster will be for this year’s Gold Cup, I have read a couple of these already and agree with a lot of what is out there. Bradley will probably call in 20 – 25 players for the entire tournament and 22 will probably make the final squad, here are my final picks:

Goal Keeper:



Tim Howard



Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, and David Yelldell – Howard is obvious but Guzan and Yelldell are complete guesses. Guzan is getting married this summer and might not want to play and Yelldell has only had one run with US but looked good, and he is getting regular minutes with his club in Germany.

Defenders:

Oguchi Onyewu, Eric Lichaj, Tim Ream, Clearance Goodson, Timothy Chandler, Steve Cherundolo, Marvell Wynne, and Anthony Wallace or Zach Loyd. The reason why Jay Demerit is not on my list is because I don’t think that he is going to be fully fit in time due to his most recent injury. The Last two on my list are interesting to me, Wynne has shown that he can be an effect defender while playing in the middle and has blistering pace, something that not many central defenders have. Wallace has got good pace and positioning, he could get involved in the attack more but that will come with time.

Midfielders:



USMNT Top goalscorer Landon Donovan



Stuart Holden would have been a lock but with the injury he is out for sure, unfortunate because he was arguably playing the best soccer out of our mids. With that said the mids are as follows: Jermaine Jones, Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, Jonathan Spector, Maurice Edu, Geoff Cameron, Benny Feilhaber, and Alejandro Bedoya.  Geoff Cameron and Jonathan Spector are the surprises here, Cameron got a call up to a January camp last year but had to withdraw due to injury and Spector has impressed with him club in the middle.  Cameron is a big body who can handle the ball and deserves a look and Spector has impressed with his late runs into the attacking area from a deep lying central midfield position. This looks to be the best fit for Spector, with good skill and touch on the ball, he only lacks the speed to play on the wings.

Forwards:

Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury and Herculez Gomez. Altidore is not doing the best of jobs in Turkey right now and Agudelo lost his starting spot to Rogers at NY, but both will make their way onto the roster. Gomez is a hard working striker who seems to always find himself in a good position to score a goal and Bunbury might just be the best point man we have. Unfortunately for Charlie Davies he misses out on the making the cut, he might be leading the league in goal scoring but half of them have come from the spot and that just isn’t the same as scoring from the run of play. He is getting back the confidence and the speed that got him noticed in the first place, but he just is not all the way there yet and Bradley will probably want him to stay with DC and continue getting game fit.