The U.S. men's national team's World Cup fate rests heavily on the next eight days with matches against Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. Bruce Arena's squad needs to get six points from six to surely punch a ticket to Russia next summer. They can't afford a slip-up, or else they're looking at playing in the fourth-place playoff against Syria or Australia, or even worse -- missing out the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
Here are the 26 players Bruce Arena called up to the team for the two matches, Friday in Orlando against Panama and Tuesday, Oct. 10 at Trinidad and Tobago:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Atlanta United FC), Tim Howard (Colorado Rapids), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (9): DaMarcus Beasley (Houston Dynamo), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City/ENG), Omar Gonzalez (Pachuca/MEX), Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana/MEX), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG), Jorge Villafaña (Santos Laguna/MEX), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United/ENG), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
MIDFIELDERS (10): Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas), Juan Agudelo (New England Revolution), Paul Arriola (D.C. United), Alejandro Bedoya (Philadelphia Union), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC/CAN), Benny Feilhaber (Sporting Kansas City), Dax McCarty (Chicago Fire), Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund/GER),
Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy)*FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC/CAN), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes), Bobby Wood (Hamburg/GER)
(*Zardes backed out of the squad due to an injury he picked up on Saturday night playing for his club.)
Not a whole lot of surprises there outside of Fabian Johnson not being in the squad.
Arena appears to be going with his main guys, and Gyasi Zardes is back into the fold as well as Chris Wondolowski, who is in for the injured Jordan Morris.
It's almost as strong a team as it's going to look on paper, and the Americans also get back DeAndre Yedlin, who had missed the last two qualifiers with a hamstring injury.
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