U.S. World Cup Qualifying Roster Announced & U.S. Women's Olympic Team to Play Friday

The Galaxy's Landon Donovan will lead the U.S. against Guatemala.

Photo by Scott Varley.

Galaxy hotshot Edson Buddle - 12 goals in 15 starts this season - was overlooked yet again by U.S. Men's National Team Coach Bob Bradley today when he announced the squad for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Guatemala in Central America.

Instead, Bradley persists in naming striker Eddie Johnson to his squads.

Also dropped from the squad for the game were 12 players named to the Barbados roster including Rolling Hills Estates' John Thorrington, Freddy Adu and DaMarcus Beasley.

Here's the 17-man squad (with one player to be added later) with caps and goals (or in the case of goalkeepers shutouts) in parentheses:

goalkeepers Brad Guzan (Aston Villa: 2/2), Tim Howard (Everton FC: 3/2); defenders Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes: 13/1), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96: 15/0), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC: 1/0), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew: 11/1), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 8/0), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 2/0); Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen: 2/1), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC: 1/0), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 1/0), Eddie Lewis (Derby County: 19/3), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids: 10/0); Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo: 7/4), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy: 21/8), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC: 8/2), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC: 8/8).

On paper (or should that be computer screen?), the U.S. should have little trouble disposing of Guatemala, according to U.S. Soccer:

The U.S. is 10-4-5 lifetime against Guatemala and is currently riding a six-match shutout streak against the Chapines. The teams have met eight times overall in World Cup qualifying play, with the U.S. holding an unbeaten 4-0-4 mark in the series.

Notable: Donovan, who became the fourth youngest male player in history to reach 100 caps when he went 90 minutes on June 8 against Argentina, leads the roster with 21 all-time World Cup qualifying appearances. His eight career goals in World Cup qualifying are also a team best, tied with Johnson.

Quotable:

"We are excited to begin the next phase of qualifying," Bradley said. "There are no easy games, and we know that Guatemala is a very difficult team to play against at home. It's important that we start off the semifinal round in a positive way, and we are confident the work from the last 18 months has prepared us for the task."

Updated: Galaxy striker Carlos Ruiz, Guatemala's all-time leading scorer with 39 goals in 75 games, was also called up by his country for the game.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Women's Olympic Team plays its quarterfinal against UCLA's Kara Lang and the rest of the Canadian team at 3 a.m. Friday live on USA.

The U.S. and Canada have met four times this year alone, with two comfortable U.S. wins and two closer affairs.

Notable: Torrance's Shannon Boxx will reach a career milestone against Canada. Boxx, who made her international debut in 2003 at the relatively advanced age (for a soccer player) of 26 will become the 22nd player in U.S. history to play 100 or more times for her country.

Quotable:

"We have played them a couple of times and they have all been different games, but certainly some close games," said U.S. Coach Pia Sundhage. "A good part is that they have not scored that many goals against us and secondly the more minutes we have together with this team, the better it is. If you compare the first half of the first game against Norway to the last half against New Zealand, we have improved our a game a lot, so we are really looking forward to the game."