The Oranje have announced their roster for the match against the US about a week from today. G: Maarten Stekelenburg - Ajax Piet Velthuizen - Vitesse Arnhem Michel Vorm - FC Utrecht D: Edson Braafheid - Celtic John Heitinga - Everton Joris Mathijsen - Hamburg Andre Ooijer - PSV Giovanni van Bronckhorst - Feyenoord Gregory van der Wiel - Ajax Ron Vlaar - Feyenoord M: Ibrahim Afellay - PSV Otman Bakkal - PSV Wout Brama - Twente Nigel de Jong - Manchester City Demy de Zeeuw - Ajax Orlando Engelaar - PSV Arjen Robben - Bayern Munich Stijn Schaars - AZ Alkmaar Wesley Sneijder - Inter Milan Mark van Bommel - Bayern Munich Rafael van der Vaart - Real Madrid M/F: Ryan Babel - Liverpool Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool F: Klaas Jan Huntelaar - AC Milan Eljero Elia - Hamburg Plenty of established talent as one would expect the Dutch to bring, but also some new players as 8 of the players brought in to camp have fewer than 10 caps to their credit. Those players could be looking for a real shot to show that they're worth the price of plane fare to South Africa and should be hoping to get a chance to compete for those roster spots.
As for the US roster, its likely to be announced after the El Salvador match on February 24. Here's what I would project: The definites (10): GK - Tim Howard, Brad Guzan DF - Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein, Jay DeMerit MF - Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Stuart Holden FW - Jozy Altidore The probables (5): GK - Marcus Hahnemann DF - Chad Marshall, Clarence Goodson MF - Kyle Beckerman FW - Brian Ching The wild cards (9): GK - none DF - Edgar Castillo, Michael Orozco MF - Maurice Edu, Robbie Rogers, Alejandro Bedoya, Jose Francisco Torres, DaMarcus Beasley FW - Eddie Johnson, Freddy Adu Lots of players out injured for this one who are likely World Cup roster players: GK - none DF - Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo MF - Benny Feilhaber, Clint Dempsey, Ricardo Clark FW - Charlie Davies I realize I have a couple of wild wild cards with the Greek loanees, Johnson and Adu. A strong match against El Salvador by Robbie Findley will put him ahead of Johnson in my opinion. However, Eddie Johnson at his best is better than anyone other than Davies and Altidore and he has been getting some minutes with Aris. Adu meanwhile has been excelling since moving to Greece and is well worth a shot against the Dutch.
There's a good chance at a loss, but with the way Donovan, Bradley, and Torres have been playing, you'll never know. It will be live at 2:30 pm EST on ESPN2 and Galavision.
Great, so it's on Saturday? (thank again agoo) Holland are one of my favorite teams though together with Germany, love their style of play the way they attack pretty much non-stop.
Awful performances over the summer were compounded by a lack of playing time and injuries with Rangers through the fall. He played brilliantly in December, but injured himself again and hasn't played since the break.
And here's the US roster: GOALKEEPERS- Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Tim Howard (Everton) DEFENDERS- 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- DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers), Alejandro Bedoya (Orebro), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Landon Donovan (Everton), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers), José Torres (Pachuca) FORWARDS- Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Eddie Johnson (Aris Thessaloniki) Looks like I had 5 wrong from my projection. Most surprising of the predictions that I had was Kyle Beckerman, but I still haven't seen the second half of the El Salvador match. Heath Pearce was tough to predict, but made it after a brilliant performance against El Salvador. Again, I haven't seen the second half, but everything I have read put him as man of the match. Overall, its about the best we can do, given our injury situation. I'm hoping to see Torres, but for some reason I doubt it.
I'll be getting to watch this and offer my thoughts some time this week. Its been a rough week for me since I got back, but it should be calming down at some point soon.
2-1, Netherlands. USA poured it on in the last 20 or so, but hardly saw the ball in the first 70 minutes. Or so I've read.
the US wasn't terrible, but wasn't good either. findley killed every attack that came his way which really held the US back from being dangerous. it really didn't help at all that he was mostly playing on the same side as donovan and killed anything donovan would try to get going in his few touches. other than that, torres was disappointing and bornstein made a couple of mistakes(one very costly one on the penalty and another that could have been a penalty).
