USA-Netherlands Roster Released, Pearce and Bedoya Get the Call

Bob Bradley has released his roster for the March 3rd friendly against the Netherlands.  It is as follows:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Tim Howard (Everton)

DEFENDERS (7): Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jay DeMerit (Watford), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Frank Simek (Sheffield Wednesday), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)

MIDFIELDERS (7): DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers), Alejandro Bedoya (Orebro), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Landon Donovan (Everton), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers), José Torres (Pachuca)

FORWARDS (3): Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Eddie Johnson (Aris Thessaloniki)


Not too many surprises here, considering all the injuries that Bob Bradley has to deal with.   It's good to see Frank Simek, DaMarcus Beasley, and Maurice Edu back to full health and in national team camp once again.

Those dying to see Robbie Findley with the full squad will likely get that chance this time around, though I think it will be a Johnson-Altidore pairing to start.

Robbie Rogers' performance last night obviously wasn't overly impressive, considering his omission from the roster.  Despite a strong game last night, Brian Ching did not get the call, though neither did his main competition at target striker, Conor Casey.  As far as that goes, however, I think that's a situation where Bradley has a lot better grasp on both Ching and Casey's abilities at this point, so he doesn't need to see them against the Netherlands to help his final decision.

The one name I was surprised to see was Alejandro Bedoya.  I was thinking that Freddy Adu would get a call after his solid play in Greece, but Bradley must have really been impressed with what Bedoya brought to the table in January, bringing in the Orebro midfielder instead.  Like most USMNT fans, all I have seen of Bedoya consists of his 30 minutes from last month's friendly against Honduras, but I'll trust Bob's judgement on this one.  After all, analyzing player performance is his job; I'm just some guy with a computer.

With the injuries to Benny Feilhaber and Ricardo Clark, we could see someone who typically plays on the wing (like Stuart Holden or Landon Donovan) slide into the center of the midfield.  Holden played centrally in his debut for Bolton and looked very good in doing so.  With that being said, I expect Torres or Edu to get the start alongside Michael Bradley.

As I eluded to in my USMNT-El Salvador post-match thoughts post from a couple hours ago, Heath Pearce gave his stock a big boost with his performance in Tampa last night, parlaying it into an invite to Amsterdam.  At this point, I'd say that if Bob Bradley takes 8 defenders to South Africa, 7 of those slots would be taken up by Jonathan Bornstein, Jonathan Spector, Jay DeMerit, Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, and Clarence Goodson.  That last spot is up in the air, with Pearce, Edgar Castillo, and Frank Simek in the mix.  So, although he was completely off the radar for the last half of 2009, Pearce could very well earn himself a spot in the World Cup roster with another strong showing next week and a solid start to the MLS season.

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I'll try to get a good preview of the Dutch team up some time over the course of the next week, so stay tuned for that if you're looking for some more info on the USMNT's next opponent.

The match will kick off next Wednesday at 2:30 on ESPN2.