1. Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, and Eddie Johnson will all be given opportunities to book their tickets to South Africa. Buddle and Johnson will have good moments, and Gomez will look a little lost. That said, none will come close to breaking up the Altidore-Dempsey tandem that should be a lock to start against England.2. ESPN will try to inject more meaning into the game (as if roster implications aren't enough) by playing up the USA-Czech Republic "rivalry." They will show highlights of the Americans' '06 World Cup loss in both the pre-game and at half-time--"This is the USA's opportunity for some revenge!"
3. Bob Bradley will try to use the game to sort out the clogged central midfield--Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Ricardo Clark, Jose Francisco Torres, and Sacha Kljestan (we'll spare you the should-be-deployed-as-winger argument). No one will look that good, but Kljestan will be the only one left off the roster when it's announced on Wednesday.
4. An unprecedented four faux-hawks will make an appearance: Stuart "O-Town" Holden, Herculez Gomez, Jose Francisco Torres, and Carlos Bocanegra.
5. The US will draw 1-1 against an uninspired Czech Republic, the goal coming from Edson Buddle on a pretty easy put-away. Not much to read into this result, as a fair amount of playing time will be given to fringe players. So the absence of Robbie Findley, Chad Marshall, and Robbie Rogers will signal the end of their World Cup hopes. Oguchi Onyewu will show a little rust, but will also demonstrate why he's been a lock to start all along, despite his injury problems. Stuart Holden will ease worries about moving Clint Dempsey up top by putting in a solid 60 minutes on the right wing. Jonathan Bornstein will make two pretty big errors (and by "pretty big," I mean something that leads to a clear goal-scoring opportunity--or worse), but his fans will remind us, "if you ignore those two brief lapses, he actually had a pretty good game." Overall, a pretty boring performance, but nothing to worry about, given the circumstances.
Let's get down to brass tacks--who gets left off when Bob Bradley announces his roster Wednesday? We'll say Chad Marshall, Heath Pearce, Robbie Rogers, Sacha Kljestan, Robbie Findley, Herculez Gomez, and Eddie Johnson. (It should be noted that we wouldn't be unhappy if we were wrong about a couple of those.)
