With the real regional competition beginning this Wednesday for Africa, Bob Bradley and the USMNT’s every move will be analyzed and broken down from here to infinity until after that looming stage in ‘10.  Make no mistake about it, this is where the hard work starts…in a manner of speaking.  It was never really a question that the US would walk through to this point.  Any 12 year old in AYSO could tell you that the United States has at least advanced to a level where CONCACAF offers little to no resistance to the American’s attempts to qualify for for the quadrennial finals of the World Cup.  An honest observer would tell you that for a long time it has really been only Mexico that has offered any true challenge.  Now, let’s not get caught up in believing the US hype here and think this will be a walk for the Americans (who have dominated the series recently with an 9-2-2 in the last 13 meetings).  For whatever reasons you decide to believe, the US has had Mexico’s number recently.  But there is an electricity surrounding this game…it’s different from a lot of the meetings in recent past.

The rivalry had begun to feel a little stale due to the number of times the teams have played recently coupled with the fact that most all of these games have been played here in the States.  But this meeting is far from an also-ran.  There has been real fan pride lash-out on a lot of sites that are discussing the upcoming game.  Mexico seems to be on an upswing after a run of bad news.   And the US roster came out today after a long delay.

The roster looks like this:

GOALKEEPERS: Tim Howard, Brad Guzan

DEFENDERS: Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Frankie Hejduk, Heath Pearce, Dan Califf, Jonathan Bornstein, Marvell Wynne

MIDFIELDERS: DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley, Sacha Kljestan, Jose Francisco Torres, Ricardo Clark, Robbie Rogers

FORWARDS: Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Brian Ching, Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies

This roster will make up the game roster apart from two more omissions.  Of course, every time Jozy Altidore is included in a US roster these days the blogosphere explodes with people clamoring for him to start.  And the opposite holds true for Brian Ching, with his detractors coming out of the woodwork in spades.  It will be very interesting to see how Bradley chooses to deploy his troops this time.  I suspect the US will take the field looking something like this:

GK: T Howard

RB: F Hejduk         CB: O Onyewu            CB: C Bocanegra      LB: H Pearce

RM: L Donovan       CM: S Kljestan     CM: M Bradley        LM: D Beasley

ACM: C Dempsey

F: B Ching

This line-up will play in Bradley’s favored 4-5-1 with Dempsey pushing forward at times and Ching falling deep into the midfield to receive the ball at times.  The two spots that are difficult to call are the left back, the trouble spot in the roster, and the possible positions of Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan.  I believe Bradley will use Donovan on the right wing due to his use there at Bayern Munich as of late.  I could see Johnathon Bornstein being used at left back instead of Heath Pearce (Bradley shows an odd preference for him there), but Pearce has put in the most quality minutes there recently.  In a game of this caliber I just can’t see him giving the nod to Bornstein considering his recent length of time out of the National Team picture.

The issues I have with this roster are ones that I’ve had with the National Team rosters in general since Bradley took over (that’s for another post), so none of these inclusions or omissions come as a surprise.  I expect Robbie Rogers (due to his form against Sweden) and Charlie Davis to be the final victims of roster trimming before Wednesday.

I actually expect a close match due to the degree of competitiveness that the Mexican team is bringing on this particular occasion, combined with their close shaves in qualifying prior to this.  I think they’re out to prove something this time.  In the end however, I think the cold weather of Columbus and the cool preparation of Bob Bradley are going to have us in a position to win come late in the game.  I believe we will weather an initial storm early in the game after the Mexican’s get their legs warm, and then jump on them after half time.  We will probably own most of the second half, but we will surely drop off late in the game and be forced to bunker in.  I suspect Jozy Altidore will come on in near the 45 minute mark if we’re down or in a deadlock.  If we’re up late, I don’t expect to see him at all.  I just don’t see Bob Bradley having the confidence in him to give him the starting nod, but that also is the subject of another post.

My prediction – 2-1 US wins in a nail-biter by hanging on through the 96th minute (lots of fouls and lots of cards will give us a good hunk of stoppage time.)