ussoccer.com has announced a 29-man roster to the camp which opens on January 4th.
DC United players (6 of them) invited are Bobby Boswell, Brian Carroll, Alecko Eskandarian, Josh Gros, Brian Namoff, and Troy Perkins.
Great to see Boswell get called up, he’s got a real bright future and is one of the better defenders in MLS. After shutting down Didier Drogba each of the last two seasons in pre-season friendly matches against Chelsea, it wouldn’t shock me if he got some interest from overseas. And a real easy way to get approval for a work permit in England is by having enough caps with the national team.
Carroll is a contender for defensive midfield, a position that is wide open behind presumed starter Pablo Mastroeni. The fact that he has been trialing overseas may have an influence in his choice here, although the trials don’t seem to have gone anywhere.
Esky is coming off a terrible year, but I guess the potential is there. Gros and Namoff are solid guys but I am a bit surprised at their inclusion. In my mind, I think both of them could easily play overseas, specifically in England, but without caps they have no chance, so I wonder if this may in part be an effort to get some of these guys looks by foreign coaches.
Link to the entire roster is here.
The US plays Denmark on Jan 20th at the end of camp.