US World Cup Roster

At long last it is here and sure enough the biggest surprise of all was in the forward position.

I give you the full US Wold Cup Roster:

Goalkeepers
Marcus Hahnemann, Tim Howard, Kasey Keller

Defenders
Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Jimmy Conrad, Cory Gibbs, Frankie Hejduk, Eddie Lewis, Oguchi Onyewu, Eddie Pope

Midfielders
DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Pablo Mastroeni, John O'Brien, Ben Olsen, Claudio Reyna

Forwards
Brian Ching, Eddie Johnson, Brian McBride, Josh Wolff

The big talking point is the absence of Taylor Twellman from the list in favor of Brian Ching (pictured). As Bruce Arena said, "Ching has proved himself in MLS play." I am surprised that he went with Wolff over Twellman, but I guess Wolff has had a better start to the season. Ching does offer a good head off set pieces, but his international experiences have been less then great of late.

Of my picks, I got all 3 keepers, 7 of the 8 defenders (I went with Gregg Berhalter over Jimmy Conrad), all 8 midfielders and 3 of the 4 forwards (see Brian Ching above). So I got a total of 21 out of 23, not that bad.

Arena also named the alternates for the roster.

Goalkeeper
Tony Meola, Matt Reis

Defenders
Chris Albright, Gregg Berhalter, Todd Dunivant

Midfielders
Chris Armas, Chris Klein, Pat Noonan, Steve Ralston, Kerry Zavagnin

Forwards
Conor Casey, Chris Rolfe, Taylor Twellman

Odds are 1 or 2 of these alts will be called in.

Now we know our 23, next up, making the group work as a whole.

Update: The team will begin their pre-World Cup training camp May 10 in Cary, N.C., when 20 players are expected to report. Both Steve Cherundolo and Kasey Keller will join camp after the German Bundesliga season ends on May 13. Additionally, Eddie Lewis may still be competing in the promotion playoffs in the English League Championship.

As for the alternatives, I don't think they will be in camp unless they are replacing a player, but I might be wrong.

Update 2: On Wednesday, Frankie Hejduk was replaced by Chris Albright due to injury.