Olympic Roster: Over-age Analysis

Here she is folks…

2008 U.S. MEN’S OLYMPIC TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (5): Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Danny Szetela (Brescia Calcio)
FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Brian McBride (out of contract), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

Let’s start the coverage with the three over-age selections made by Peter Nowak…

Brad Guzan - Good choice. The squad needed a keeper with international experience and they got one in Brad. Thankfully with no interference from the club situation. El Guzano should provide a steady dose of leadership for what is shaping up to be a very young back line.

Michael Parkhurst – Interesting that out of all the available over-aged MLS defenders, Parkhurst would be the decision. Maybe it was his call on the basis of wanting to be put in the shop window for teams in Europe. Either way, Parkhurst should do, but I would have liked to have seen Nowak go after another over-aged defender that is angling for a transfer who goes by the name of Oguchi Onyewu. A better defender, a more imposing presence on an already somewhat young and scrawny team, and doesn’t appear to be stressed with club commitments. Oh well.

Brian McBride – Clearly the golden selection. What better way to strengthen a somewhat weak frontline (besides Jozy) then by adding the best forward in the history of your country? The answer is none my friends. It will be borderline glorious just to see McHead suit up in the red white and blue again on the world’s stage. I will be very intrigued to see how he does. If you go by his end of the year form at Fulham he should be a huge threat to defenses. Him teaming up with Jozy Altidore is similar to Shaquille O’neal teaming up with Chuck Norris for any kind of contest involving pure beastliness. The best part is defenses can’t simply key in on one of these two monsters in order to stopping the US in their own half; BOTH are huge threats to keepers and nets anywhere in Beijing. Don’t expect to see Jozy struggle again like he did in qualifying with McBride by his side.

Many more thoughts on the roster and the Olympics coming up later. Stay tuned…

Until then, what do you think of the roster overall?…Over-age selections?…Snubs?