Klinsmann selected a 22-man roster to play in the match, choosing exclusively North American-based players (with one exception, a reserve player from Germany--more on him later) in order to be fair to the European-based players' club teams and not burden their squads with undue travel and fatigue in what amounts to an important, but unnecessary match.
The squad Klinsmann chose is below:
GK - Bill Hamid (DC United), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENSE - Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake), Matt Besler (Sporting KC), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Clarence Goodson (San Jose Earthquakes), Michael Parkhurst (Colombus Crew), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC), DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla (MEX)), Michael Orozco (Puebla (MEX))
MIDFIELD - Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Maurice Edu (Philadelphia Union), Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake), Graham Zusi (Sporting KC)
FORWARDS - Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders), Julian Green (Bayern Munich Reserves), Eddie Johnson (DC United), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)
On Monday, Mexican club Puebla declined to release Beasley and Orozco for the match, however. Klinsmann's squad was reduced to 20, and is now very short of defenders, with just 6 defenders now available.
Crucially, Puebla's decision leaves the US squad without any left backs.
Left back has been a tough spot for the US to fill since Frankie Hejduk's admirable performance in the 2002 World Cup. After first converting winger Eddie Lewis to play the role, the US has also tried Jonathan Bornstein and Edgar Castillo, never with much success. But in last year's World Cup qualifiers, former PSV and Manchester City winger Beasley embraced the role and was the US's most surprising player. Beasley should expect to feature at left fullback in the upcoming World Cup, but not tonight.
Castillo, the most likely back-up for Beasley, plays for Club Tijuana in Mexico. Tijuana won a CONCACAF Champions League semi-final against Cruz Azul last night, and Klinsmann chose not to select Castillo for the friendly out of respect for Tijuana's involvement in the competition. Puebla has no such match, and therefore Klinsmann rightfully assumed Beasley and Orozco would be allowed to play.
The Mexican team consists of 22 players, all coming from the Mexican League. Two of these players (defender Rogelio Alfredo Chavez and attacking midfielder Marco Fabian) were pulled from Cruz Azul's Champions League squad to play for their country. And yet Beasley and Orozco will be the players missing from tonight's match.
The lack of sportsmanship shown by Puebla here is disappointing. Klinsmann used stronger words in an interview with Univision.
"We got notice today from Puebla that they don't release DaMarcus Beasley and Orozco, which we'd planned on and we are very angry, very angry about this," Klinsmann said. "The Mexican clubs release all their players for this very prestigious friendly. For us, [with the] World Cup coming up, it's very important. And [Puebla] doesn't play in the CONCACAF Champions League, which we have a lot of respect for, but they don't release two players which are very important to us--it makes us upset."The US will likely be forced play versatile defender Parkhurst in Beasley's role, or play one of the squad's two specialist right backs, Yedlin or Beltran, on the left. But seeing how the US manages this defensive handicap is only one reason to watch the match tonight (kicking of at 11 pm ET).
The other is to get a first look at German-American starlet Julian Green. Green has been very impressive in the Bayern reserves this season, and has been tipped to eventually make the jump to Bayern's first team by Bayern superstars Arjen Robben and Bastian Schweinsteiger in an interview with SI.com.
"He's got great potential, so I think you can be happy about the fact he chose to play for the US." Robben said. "He's a great talent. He already trained with [Bayern's first team] several times, and you can see he has potential. He's quick, he's got very good dribbling and can score goals."
"First, I think he has a good personality, that's for me always important," Schweinsteiger said. "And second he's very quick--without the ball and with the ball. He plays a little bit like me. I'm not as quick as him, but at the beginning of my career I was playing on the left side outside, like his position now, and would come in and shoot with the right foot. He's done that a lot. He's young, but he's fresh and dynamic. It's good for the US now, absolutely."18-year-old Green's choice to play for the US ahead of his native Germany is a major coup by US soccer fans. Born in Germany to a German mother and an American GI father, Green's decision comes after the US missed out on many other talented European-based players who chose to play for European nations ahead of the US.
New Jersey-born Italy striker Giuseppe Rossi was perhaps the biggest name missed, but Stuttgart/Bosnia striker Vedad Ibisevic, who played high school and collegiate soccer in St Louis, Missouri, also would have provided serious competition to Jozy Altidore up front. Utah-born Serbian defender Neven Subotic of Dortmund could have been a much more important player than either Rossi or Ibisevic for a US team who has suffered with a suspect defense in recent years.
Times have changed. The US has already captured similar German-based players with American military backgrounds in Danny Williams, Timothy Chandler and Terrance Boyd since Klinsmann was hired. And after securing Icelandic-American striker Aron Johansson last year, Green is further evidence that Klinsmann, Sunil Gulati, and the US Soccer Federation has made securing these young talented players with dual citizenship a top priority; a strategy that should pay dividends over the next decade.
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