Bradley's 30: How did "the formula" do?

Well, a few minutes after I made public my preferred 30-man training camp roster, Bob Bradley did the same with his. Not surprisingly, there was a lot more interest in his list than there was in mine.

There are 3 differences in our lists. The first is at striker, as Bob Bradley called Robbie Findley into camp at the expense of an apparently still injured Charlie Davies. Bradley also did not call Conor Casey or Freddy Adu into camp, going instead with the two midfielders Robbie Rogers of the Columbus Crew and Sacha Klejstan of Chivas USA.



Those last two differences are minor. Conor Casey was only on my list because he fit into my "formula", and Rogers probably fit in just as well. I took Casey because he had seen more minutes during qualifying, Bob took Rogers because he is a better playing with a brighter future. I have no problem with that move. Freddy Adu and Sacha Klejstan are both midfielders who have seen limited time with the national team, but are very different players. Adu, somewhat of a fallen star, has the higher potential but has thus far failed to live up to it. He plays in a more competitive club environment, but was not likely to make the final 23 anyways. Klejstan is also not likely to make the final 23. He plays in the weaker MLS, but sees more consistent playing time.

The Charlie Davies decision is the big one. The reality is that none of us know how healthy he really was. He was reported to be in full training with Souchax for a couple of weeks, scoring goals and taking tackles. Then again, all those reports were coming from Davies himself. His fitness was surely not what it was last fall before his accident, but then again neither is Oguchi Onyewu's. In the end, Souchax did not grant medical clearance while AC Milan did. Right now we don't know exactly why, and maybe we never will. What is clear is that there might be some interesting club-national team politics at play. Souchax has to let Davies go if he is healthy, so the US has some recourse if they don't agree with the Souchax decision. Last week FIFA published an article about Davies in which a club doctor was quoted as saying Davies wouldn't be ready, but US Soccer denied the diagnosis and FIFA effectively printed a retraction of the previous article.

In the end all we know is that US Soccer did not think it was worth pressing Souchax to release Davies, and they are probably right. At best he would have been a super-sub, seeing action in one or two matches. At worst we would be bringing a guy into camp who is clearly not ready, risking injury, and then cutting him in two weeks anyways.

The South Africa campaign will be about 23 guys, not one. It would be nice if Davies were one of those 23, but it is not the end of the world that he isn't.