Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
The United States Men’s National Team has been on fire in both World Cup qualifying and the Gold Cup, which they won yesterday. Now, coach Jurgen Klinsmann has to figure out which players to take from each assignment and somehow mesh them to make a perfect international squad.
With the 2014 World Cup just a year away and the remaining qualifiers to be played in the remainder of this calendar year, players from both sets of squads are hoping for a place on the final roster that will partake in the world’s most prestigious soccer tournament in Brazil.
Here is a line-up we could see that can possibly start to represent the red, white and blue next summer:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Goal Keeper: Tim Howard
Defense: RB-Brad Evans, CB-Omar Gonzalez, CB-Matt Bessler, LB-Damarcus Beasley
Midfield: CDM-Michael Bradley, CDM-Geoff Cameron, LM-Clint Dempsey, RM-Graham Zusi
Attack: ST-Jozy Altidore, ST-Landon Donovan
Most of this projected line-up partook in the WC qualifiers while some also played in the Gold Cup. These players have all played against quality opposition and made the right decisions in timely matters. Most of the roster from the recently ended GC tournament played well also, but the quality was nowhere near the level of teams that play in WC qualifiers.
There will be a friendly match against Bosnia later on in August, which will give us an idea of the combination of players Klinsmann will use for the WC qualifiers and perhaps the finals next year. This will not be an easy decision as almost every single player he fielded this year overall had great runs wearing the national colors.
