October International Friendlies

The US has two friendlies coming up this month, facing Poland in Chicago this Saturday and Colombia in Philadelphia next Tuesday. The roster Bob Bradley called in is heavily European-based, with Heath Pearce and poster boy Brek Shea being the only two MLS players called in. They won't be with the team on against Poland, but will be available for the Colombia game next week.

The full roster is:

GOALKEEPER
Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, 16 caps)
Tim Howard (Everton, 55 caps)

DEFENDERS
Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Étienne, 83 caps/12 goals)
Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96, 64 caps/2 goals)
Clarence Goodson (IK Start, 14 caps/2 goals)
Eric Lichaj (Aston Villa, 0 caps/0 goals)
Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan, 56 caps/5 goals)
Michael Parkhurst (FC Nordsjaelland, 8 caps/0 goals)
Heath Pearce (FC Dallas, 32 caps/0 goals)
Jonathan Spector (West Ham United, 25 caps/0 goals)

MIDFIELDERS
Alejandro Bedoya (Örebro, 3 caps/0 goals)
Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 47 caps/8 goals)
Maurice Edu (Rangers, 16 caps/1 goal)
Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus, 35 caps/2 goals)
Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers, 15 caps/2 goals)
Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04, 0 caps/0 goals)
Brek Shea (FC Dallas, 0 caps/0 goals)

FORWARDS
Jozy Altidore (Villareal, 29 caps/9 goals)
Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC, 66 caps/19 goals)
Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC, 41 caps/12 goals)

The biggest news here is newcomers Eric Lichaj (LEE-high) and Jermaine Jones. Jones has been the object of many US fans obsessions since saying he was interested in switching from Germany and Lichaj is a young defender in England who just may grow in to an answer to the USA's lack of full back.

I do think it's kinda odd that no players based in Mexico got called up, it would've been nice to see Torres again. Unfortunately, I can understand not calling in Herculez Gomez. He's 28 and has no real future with the USMNT. He'll be too old for the next World Cup and isn't so good right now to warrant a spot on the 2011 Gold Cup roster regardless of age.

Some other folks I'd like to see at some point:

Hunter Freeman - Defender who MLS fans may remember. Plays with Clarence Goodson at IK Start now and is a pretty consistent starter. Only 25, may be a good piece for us with such an aging defense.

Justin Braun - The Chivas USA forward has a big body, but also brings more on the ball skill than you'd expect from a 6'3" white kid.

And then, as for (non-obvious) people in playoff races
Omar Gonzalez
Kyle Beckerman (I know we have about 800 CMs, but dude's been awesome this year)
Robbie Rogers

Tim Ream needs more than 25 games of good showing to get a callup, in my opinion. He's no better than Gonzalez was as a rookie, and he had to put up a season and a half of solid play to get capped.