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U.S. Men’s National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann announced his provisional 30-man roster on Monday afternoon, which will ultimately be trimmed to 23 players by June 2, ahead of next month’s World Cup.
Most of the pillars of U.S. soccer all made the initial cut, including Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Tim Howard and Jozy Altidore, but the biggest surprise has to be the omission of Eddie Johnson, who helped the team throughout numerous qualifying matches and had been a fixture (often off the bench) in Klinsmann’s rotation.
Johnson, currently on D.C. United, helped the team reach the qualifying hexagonal and then scored the game-winning goal against Mexico last September in a match that clinched the US’s spot in this summer’s festivities.
While not necessarily surprising, 18-year-old Julian Green, who recently made his USMNT debut, got the nod as did veteran striker Chris Wondolowski. In total, there are nine holdovers from the 2010 World Cup, and assuming they both make the team, Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley will be competing in their fourth World Cups, respectively. The initial roster is composed of a league-high 15 players from the MLS, four from England's Premier League, four from Germany's Bundesliga, along with a host of representatives from other international leagues.
The squad heads to Palo Alto for their pre-World Cup camp beginning this Wednesday. The team then has three pre-tournament friendlies before kicking off against Ghana on June 16 in the fabled Group of Death.
Klinsmann will use the camp along with two of three exhibitions (the final tune-up against Nigeria is June 7th, after FIFA mandates rosters be finalized) to determine the final roster. Speaking of, here are the 30 players vying for 23 spots in Brazil.
Roster
Goalkeepers: Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, Nick Rimando
Defenders: DaMarcus Beasley, Matt Besler, John Brooks, Geoff Cameron, Timmy Chandler, Brad Evans, Omar Gonzalez, Clarence Goodson, Fabian Johnson, Michael Parkhurst, DeAndre Yedlin
Midfielders: Kyle Beckerman, Alejandro Bedoya, Michael Bradley, Joe Corona, Brad Davis, Mix Diskerud, Maurice Edu, Julian Green, Jermaine Jones, Graham Zusi
Forwards: Jozy Altidore, Terrence Boyd, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Aron Johannsson, Chris Wondolowski
