The roster for the USMNT friendly vs. South Africa next Wednesday (Nov. 17th) was just announced, and according to Steven Goff's blog, Logan Pause has made the final roster. Let's take a moment, a pause if you will, and say Congratulations Logan!
There is also a nice piece here, directly from the Fire's website. Follow me after the break for the rest of the roster...
GK-Brad Guzan, Dominic Cervi
D- Clarence Goodson, Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein, Eric Lichaj, Nat Borchers, Tim Ream, Gale Agbossoumonde
M-Alejandro Bedoya, Eddie Gaven, Brian Carroll, Logan Pause, Robbie Rogers, Mikkel Diskerud
F-Robbie Findley, Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury
It's great to see Logan included. He has had a handful of callups before, but it will be interesting to see how he plays with such young players surrounding him. Although the MLS regular season was a disappointment for Fire fans, this is a bit of good news, especially during such a slow period for news. Some of you may be wondering why there are some any unrecognizable names. I admit, I was surprised that we didn't see a few of the familiar faces we normally see during friendlies. MLS players like Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle are still in the MLS Cup playoffs and European players like Stuart Holden, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, and Brad Friedel all play a substantial role with their respective teams. The English Premier League players are on very limited call as their odd schedule this week had every team playing a mid-week game in addition to the regular weekend matchup.
Despite its limitations, I am a fan of this lineup. While it's always fun to watch the veterans play, hopefully some of these players will be the future of US Soccer. Players like Teal Bunbury and Chicago's own Eric Lichaj chose the US over the chance to play for Canada and Poland respectively. It's great to see players actively choose to play for the USMNT when there are other options out there. It shows how far US international soccer has come despite the occasional Giuseppe Rossi. I am excited to see what the young talent has to bring to the table, especially against a more experienced South Africa team. Juan Agudelo looked fantastic in the Red Bull's last playoff game and given the US shortage of viable strikers not named Jozy Altidore, we will get a look at international players that we will most likely rely on to represent this country down the road in future USMNT competitions
Congrats to all the call ups, especially our very own, Logan Pause. We know you will make us proud!.