By Benson Petit-Clair
On Thursday, U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann released a list of 23 players selected for the FIFA World Cup tournament tournament that is scheduled to take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014.
Klinsmann, who named a provisional squad of 30 players on May 12, released the following seven players and placed them on a standby list: forwards Terrence Boyd and Landon Donovan, midfielders Joe Corona and Maurice Edu, and defenders Brad Evans, Clarence Goodson and Michael Parkhurst.
“It’s an exciting moment when you have narrowed the roster down as a coaching staff, and these 23 players that you’ve chosen can focus now purely on Brazil,” Klinsmann said. “We can go into more specific things about technical approaches, and about the opponents.”
“For the players, it’s very important to know that they are now part of it and they can relax and know they are on the list going to Brazil and taking it from there. After almost ten days of work right now, we thought the point has come to make the decision.”
2014 FIFA WORLD CUP – U.S. ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (8): DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Timmy Chandler (Nürnberg), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC)
MIDFIELDERS (8): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Julian Green (Bayern Munich), Jermaine Jones (Besiktas), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Sunderland), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)
The U.S. Men’s National Team was drawn into Group G along with Ghana, Portugal and Germany for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Prior to the tournament, the team will play three friendlies from May 27-June 7 in San Francisco, New York and Jacksonville, Florida against Azerbaijan, Turkey and Nigeria respectively.