US Roster vs Spain Announced!

US head coach Bob Bradley released his roster for the upcoming June 4th friendly in Spain.

GOALKEEPERS (3): Dominic Cervi (out of contract), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC)

DEFENDERS (9): Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Eddie Lewis (Derby County), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids)

FORWARDS (5): Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Nate Jaqua (out of contract), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC), Josh Wolff (out of contract)

Here is my assumption on what the starting line up will look like.

——–Dempsey——Johnson———

-Lewis——Bradley—-Edu——Beasley-

Pearce—Onyewu—Bocanegra—Cherundolo

——————–Howard——————

Noticing that Donovan is not there? I don’t think he will be ready. I think his groin injury is worse than previously thought, and since the Galaxy will be without Beckham this weekend, I see Donovan playing despite not being ready. This will prolong the injury and thus sideline him for the game against Spain.

I’m not sure I like that line up though. Again we see two defensive mid players in the center of the park. With that tandem, and no Donovan, I see it being very difficult for the US to transition into attack. Here is what I would like to see as the starting line up:

——–Dempsey——Johnson———-

-Lewis———Adu–——Beasley-

——–Bradley———-Edu———-

Pearce—–—Bocanegra——Cherundolo

——————–Howard——————–

I think this roster gives us at a least a chance in attack, but does leave us more exposed on defense. The only thing is, I would rather lose 4-2 or 5-2 and show that we can at least be dangerous against a top quality team than lose 2-0 or 3-0 and never have a quality chance on goal.

What about you? Thoughts?