USMNT loses meaningless game 2-4 to Czech Republic; 23-man roster announced

Okay I agree, the game wasn't completely meaningless. As Lexi Lalas reiterated about a thousand times during last night's warm up friendly against Czech Republic, the only purpose for this game was to give Bob Bradley one last look before trimming the roster down to 23 men. For some players, this would be their chance to prove to Bob that they belong on the roster (Gomez, Buddle). For others, it just confirmed that they have no business wearing a USA jersey (Pearce). For some it was to see if they were fit enough to belong on the roster (Gooch, Ching, Holden). As it would turn out, this match served only to reaffirm what most of us already knew going into it (for the most part).

The Bad:

• Defense. I don't know if Bob Bradley just doesn't know how to coach them up, because the last two years we have had just absolutely ridiculous lapses in defense where the opposition is given goals. It is hard to expect last night's backline to fend off a potent Czech offense, but the performance was beyond bad.
• Jonathan Bornstein and Heath Pearce - See above.
• Did anyone see Eddie Johnson last night? No? Me neither.
• Not feeling great about Gooch's health. He looked tentative. I am not at all confident. Him not being in great condition for South Africa would be a huge blow.

The Good:

• Both "Flash-In-The-Pans" - Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez both received invitations to the USMNT training camp in New Jersey for being awesome for their respective clubs. They made the most of it last night by scoring on a header (Gomez) and being outright disruptive to the Czech's defense (Buddle).
• Stuart Holden - Another guy who was nicked up, to see him play a solid 75 minutes before getting gassed is great news. He is definitely a guy we will need.

As I said before, last nights game would only reaffirm what we already knew... for the most part. This was confirmed when Bob Bradley released the official 23-man roster to the public this afternoon:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan, Marcus Hahnemann, Tim Howard
Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Bornstein, Steve Cherundolo, Jay DeMerit, Clarence Goodson, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector
Midfielders: DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Stuart Holden, Jose Torres
Forwards: Jozy Altidore, Edson Buddle, Robbie Findley, Herculez Gomez

We knew the last left back spot was going to come down to Bornstein or Pearce. Bornstein wins the position basically because he doesn't suck as much as Pearce.

For the final center back sub both Chad Marshall and Clarence Goodson were pretty bad on defense, but Goodson wasn't as bad as Marshall. And he played a major role in both US goals.

The center mid sub spot goes to Jose Torres, who clearly deserves it over Klejstan. I was a little surprised neither Bedoya nor Rogers made the cut. I figured we would need one of the two as a wing sub, but I'm guessing Beasley and Donovan's fitness as wingers were enough to convince Bradley to take the risk of adding a luxury forward...

And this is where Bob Bradley surprised me. I figured we would be taking either Buddle or Gomez as our 'flash in the pan' hot striker. Apparently we are taking both. I don't just like this move, I love this move. They both earned it.

The biggest surprise of all is leaving off Ching (whaaat???), and going with Robbie Findley (who? and whaaaaaat?). While my dislike for Brian Ching is known by all who know me, I'm shocked Bradley didn't pick him. He always picks Ching. Instead he chose Robbie freaking Findley who I know absolutely nothing about. I guess the reports of him impressing the players and coaches at the training camp are true.

So there it is. A few surprises, but overall it is the roster we knew we would have all along. This squad will get their first test as a unit this Saturday afternoon when they face Turkey in the second-to-last World Cup warm up friendly. It will be a much better performance than what we saw last night.