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LiveBlog: USA Roster Announcement

May 2nd, 2006 | By: Daryl | 69 Comments »

It’s live on ESPN SportsCenter but it’s even liver here at World Cup Blog. We’re making history with a LiveBlog of Arena’s roster announcement.

7:04 p.m. Jersey numbers as follows:

17 Beasley, DaMarcus
3 Bocanegra, Carlos
6 Cherundolo, Steve
11 Ching, Brian
13 Conrad, Jimmy
15 Convey, Bobby
8 Dempsey, Clint
21 Donovan, Landon
12 Gibbs, Cory
19 Hahnemann, Marcus
2 Hejduk, Frankie
1 Howard, Tim
9 Johnson, Eddie
18 Keller, Kasey
7 Lewis, Eddie
4 Mastroeni, Pablo
20 McBride, Brian
5 O’Brien, John
14 Olsen, Ben
22 Onyewu, Oguchi
23 Pope, Eddie
10 Reyna, Claudio
16 Wolff, Josh

6:54 p.m. That final list in full:

GK: Keller, Howard, Hahnemann
DEF: Lewis, Onyewu, Hejduk, Pope, Cherundolo, Conrad, Gibbs, Bocanegra
MID: Donovan, Dempsey, Reyna, O’Brien, Olsen, Beasley, Mastroeni, Convey
FOR: Wolff, McBride, Ching, Johnson.

ALT: Meola, Reis, Armas, Klein, Noonan, Ralston, Albright, Berhalter, Dunivant, Zavagnin, Casey, Rolfe, Twellman.

6:52 p.m. Apologies for the minor technical meltdown. I literally choked when I saw Ching’s name.

6:45 p.m. Wow. The Big Soccer leak was way off. Ching and Conrad the massive surprises, Twellman must be in shock.

6:41 p.m. Wynalda: probably to the semis. I’d take that.

6:41 p.m. alternates Meola, Reis, Armas, Klein, Noonan, Ralston, Albright, Berhalter, Dunivant, Zavagnin, Casey, Rolfe, Twellman.

6:40 GKs as expected. Keller, Howard, Hahnemann

6:39 p.m. Lewis, Onyewu, Hejduk, Pope, Cherundolo, Conrad(!), Gibbs, Bocanegra

6:37 p.m. No Twellman! Wolff, McBride, CHING!, Johnson.

6:36 p.m. Bruce speaks: “Landon important.” You heard it here first.

6:35 p.m. Donovan, Dempsey, Reyna, O’Brien, Olsen, DMB (the soccer player) Mastroeni, Convey

6:30 p.m. “SportsCenter’s exclusive announcement is next.” Shouldn’t that be co-exclusive? WCB demands respect!

6:27 p.m. In the comments section:

I am filling the time by putting together the worst ever US Team with World Cup experience. Would like nominations.

G: Meola.

D: Jim Windichman (remember him?)

M: thinking…

F: Bruce Murray, Roy Wegerle

6:20 p.m. Maradona’s handball? Why show the worst moment in World Cup history?

6:17 p.m. If we’re going to look ahead to the 2007 NFL draft, will Bruce announce the 2010 World Cup roster?

6:15 p.m. I hope Bruce really does wear a tux. It would add to the sense of occasion.

6:12 p.m. Finally P.T.I. is over, but I’m starting to think it’s going to be more like 6:45 p.m. for the roster.

6:09 p.m. Back To P.T.I. and John Daley.

6:06 p.m. McNair, Harrington, Young. More NFL to come. Can’t wait.

6:01 p.m. Bob - DMB in the house…just not the soccer one. Hallo to Euler from the Brazil blog, who got the two confused earlier.

6:00 p.m. We’re underway, but the pecking order looks like baseball, draft, soccer.

5:56 p.m. One last segment of Pardon The Interruption to go (that show is LOUD) and then we’re there.

5:45 p.m. Roster leak? Over at Big Soccer, someone is claiming to know already:

A friend of mine who is producing the WC06 media kits for US Soccer was apparently accidentally CC’ed the final roster in an email this afternoon.

This may or may not be true. We have a team of World Cup Blog forensic scientists working on it right now. Go here if you want to see (the alleged roster, not the scientists) but remember Big Soccer’s initials are BS.

5:30 p.m. Apparently John Daley has gambled away $50-60 million over the course of his career. I wonder if he knows Wayne Rooney?

5:00 p.m. Jim Rome will return tomorrow. Ah well.

4:55 p.m. Highlights from the comments section: Evan- [the roster announcement] will probably come after the Budweiser Hot Seat, but before the Coors Light Six Questions Six Pack…or maybe after the Pardon The Interruption segment, brought to us by Guinness.

Which beer company will present Arena’s announcement?

Place your bets now.

4:30 p.m. Jim Rome is away, so someone else is presenting his show today. Maybe he was so angry at soccer being on SportsCenter he resigned. A great day for American soccer. 90 minutes till we find out.

4:00 p.m. T minus 2 hours and counting. I’m anxious to see how SportsCenter treat the roster announcement. Will it be lavished with attention? Or will it be baseball, baseball, NFL Draft, 2005 Jump Rope Championship, and in other news Bruce Arena?

3:00 p.m. Sports Center starts in 3 hours. Does anyone have any names they strongly do or don’t want to see tonight?

Tags: Bruce Arena, LiveBlog, Soccer, US National Team Roster, USA

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 69 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Rick | May 2nd, 2006 at 5:48 pm

Those 8-1 odds for the US seem very, very optimistic.

Posted from United States

By Rick | May 2nd, 2006 at 5:55 pm

I wonder about the decision to leave Berhalter off the squad. I mean, my gut feeling has been that he makes me a little nervous, that he doesn’t seem to do well in big games, but I don’t really have specific evidence to back that up. But I have no idea what Arena’s thought are on this.

Posted from United States

By Bense | May 2nd, 2006 at 5:56 pm

Twellmann, Berhalter and Armas being the biggest surprises…

Posted from United States

By Jay | May 2nd, 2006 at 5:58 pm

Now… when will the jersey numbers be released?

Posted from United States

By Karl | May 2nd, 2006 at 6:03 pm

I’ll forgive the Ching choice if he scores 5 goals in the first 4 games of the world cup.

Posted from United States

By Razzle | May 2nd, 2006 at 6:06 pm

If they gave me 8-1 for Brazil I’ll put my money on it. 8-1 for USA is still a losing proposition.

I saw Ching play in Houston and … tell me why was he picked again?

Posted from United States

By Rick | May 2nd, 2006 at 6:10 pm

Overall I think this is a great roster, a good mix. Fine attacking options with McBride, Wolff, Beasley, Donovan, Dempsey, Johnson, and Convey. Lots of midfield skill, too, and our best defending options ever.
Conrad is a real puzzler to me, though. I like him, and I know he had a great year, but he looked SO overmatched in the last game. It seemed obvious that he was in over his head. Hopefully he won’t get in too many minutes in Germany. I feel about the same for Ching.

Posted from United States

By daryl | May 2nd, 2006 at 6:10 pm

Jersey numbers posted

Posted from United States

By Rick | May 2nd, 2006 at 6:11 pm

What’s with the page not found error?

Posted from United States

By Evan | May 2nd, 2006 at 6:12 pm

My friend was in Vegas before last Christmas…he called me and asked for a tip based on the odds. I told him to put down money on the Czech Republic at 20-1.

I wish Greenberg had asked why Ching and not Twellman…oh, and I liked how Bruce subtly said the names of players that Greenberg mispronouced louder than others. “Well, ONYEWU is…”

Reyna must be the most unglamorous #10 in the tournament.

Posted from United States

By Bob | May 2nd, 2006 at 6:21 pm

Sure, but Reyna is the best #10 the US has ever had. Not saying much, but the team is hugely different when he is healthy and playing well.

Twellman must be devestated right about now.

By Wendall | May 2nd, 2006 at 6:34 pm

How many teams named Colorado is the US going to be playing at the World Cup that could have justified Brian Ching’s inclusion? I was never really a fan of Twellman either but I think he’s the better choice out of the two. Oh well, let’s hope he scores a ton and proves us all wrong.

Posted from United States

By Lish | May 2nd, 2006 at 7:02 pm

No Twellmen?! Being from New England I may be biased, but what about his 2005 MLS performance made him NOT the better choice?

By the way, nice blog. Hope you don’t mind my dropping in.

By chuck | May 2nd, 2006 at 8:53 pm

Welcome, Lish. Stick around…

Bob, RE: Reyna. Hey… He’s the first American “bloke” to captain a premiership team, so IMHO, that’s alot!

ALL — anyone else catch the Bruce’s discussion on the GKs? He basically said Hahnemann would come in if something happened to Keller, meaning Tim Howard is basically the #3 option at keeper.

Posted from United States

By jack buosi canada | May 2nd, 2006 at 11:27 pm

Ha how do you justify the number 4 world ranking by FIFA what a joke. you played NOBODY and when you face any type of competition you get hammered 4th has to be embarassing to you how can you possibly live up to it cant wait for the USA ITALY game Oh MY GOD HIDE YOUR HEAD ITS GONNA BE A DISASTER FOR AMERICANS CANT EVEN BEAT JAMAICA AND MOST OF CENTRAL AMERICAN TEAMS
YOU ARE BEYOND DEAD MEAT

Posted from Canada

By jack buosi canada | May 2nd, 2006 at 11:31 pm

OH YOU LOST 4 1 TO GERMANY ITALY BEAT THEM 4 1 HA HA CANT WAIT OUCH LOL

Posted from Canada

By daryl | May 2nd, 2006 at 11:46 pm

You’re right Jack, being ranked 4th is really embarassing. I’d much rather be ranked 84th.

Enjoy the World Cup.

Posted from United States

By Chuck | May 3rd, 2006 at 9:38 am

Hi, Jack. Welcome.

There’s no need to blame us for the ranking FIFA has given us — we’re right there with you on the over-rated sentiment.

Here’s the funniest part, concerning the rankings. At the time we played Germany, we were actually ranked fifth! After the 1-4 debacle, we wound up moving up a spot into fourth.

Go figure.

Posted from United States

By Andrew Foley | May 3rd, 2006 at 9:45 am

How come Jeff Agoos wasnt on the team?

Posted from United States

By William | May 4th, 2006 at 8:01 am

Mr Bruce, earnestly in hoping we’ll need to see those that can confidently hold and distribute the ball in the face of all offensive ;and come usa shine

By Ashton Taylor-Taylor | May 8th, 2006 at 1:36 am

I can’t believe Freddie Adu isn’t picked. I mean no disrespect to Wolff or Johnson but it seems Arena is opting for a pretty conservative line up one must say.And where the bloody hell is Clint Mathis as well?

But, yeah apart from the FIFA ranking this team would need to play its guts out if its to outscore Ghana, Italy or Czech Rep.

On the other hand, USA is doing relatively well at the moment so I do fancy their chances. But, I’m abit pessimistic about the attack or offense whatever you guys like to call it.

Posted from Australia