Jurgen Klinsmann will announce his roster for the upcoming camp/friendlies/qualifiers on Thursday.  He is going to name about 27 players, which is slightly more than usual, due to seven players sitting on yellow cards and late arrivals into camp.

One player who is rumored to be missing from this roster is Landon Donovan.  If Landon does not get called in, you would have to think he would be called in with the guys for the Gold Cup.

Speaking of that Gold Cup roster, it looks like they will have their own friendly against Guatemala down in San Diego before the tournament begins on July 9.  But US Soccer has not officially announced anything yet.

We told you about the Gold Cup getting a new trophy last week.  Well, here it is and it sort of looks like the old trophy.

With all these different USMNT rosters, Brian Sciaretta takes a guess at both rosters.

Jozy Altidore was named to the De Telegraaf Eredivisie Team of the Season.  And here are two photos of Jozy holding the Dutch Cup after last week’s victory:  Photo 1 & Photo 2.

Carlos Bocanegra is looking forward to returning to Rangers next season, although Bocanegra’s agent tells Greg Seltzer that there is some MLS interest.

There was a Sky Sports story that we posted last week about Bursaspor trying to obtain Maurice Edu from Stoke City on a permanent basis and multiple people are telling Greg Seltzer the same.

If Edu does return to Stoke City next season, he along with Brek Shea and Geoff Cameron will look like they play for the Columbus Crew in away games in their new black-and-yellow kits for 2013-14.

Remember when Freddy Adu’s manager at Bahia was fired a week after he joined the club and there was some crazy stat about the club going through 20-25+ managerial changes over the previous 10 years?  Well, Bahia fired another manager.

As expected, Steve Cherundolo will be getting a new one-year extension at Hannover 96.

After being released by Carlisle United, Frank Simek is currently on trial with D.C. United even though he would still need to go through the allocation rankings since he has played for the USMNT before.  Yay weird MLS rules!

Even with the broken leg, Will Packwood has agreed to a one-year extension with Birmingham City.

The LA Times has a new story up about Bob Bradley.

Brian Sciaretta talked to Alejandro Bedoya recently about his good start to the season and his big summer ahead.

Mix Diskerud talked to Goal.com this week about his future with the USMNT and his failed move to Portland.

Tijuana defeated Palmeiras 2-1 last night meaning they will advance to the quarterfinals of Copa Libertadores.  Edgar Castillo and Joe Corona both got the start in the win and they will now take on Brazilian side Atlético Mineiro.

Alex Kurial of Yanks Abroad has a story up on how Americans Shane Recklet and Jacob Wilson are trying to help Vasas SC back to the top level of soccer in Hungary.

And go take a look at our cool new Sacha/Over There shirt.  They will go up for sale next week.

Lets get right to it.

Much like last year, it looks like AZ Alkmaar probably won’t release Jozy Altidore for the beginning of the upcoming USMNT camp.

It appears that Michael Bradley does know how to smile between this photo and this video.

Staying in the Bradley family, here is a trailer for the upcoming Bob Bradley/Egypt documentary.

Brek Shea made the travel roster, but did not dress in Stoke City’s 1-1 draw yesterday.  I guess Ian Darke talked about it more at halftime, but he also tweeted that they are working on getting him 100% match fit as he finally got over his foot injury.  Here is also a story from England where it mentions that Tony Pulis brought Shea to the club with next year in mind.

It is not quite the silly season just yet, but we have our first rumor on a possible Jonathan Spector move to newly promoted Cardiff City.

Jermaine Jones talked to Bundesliga.com about Schalke’s last couple of games.

Honefoss goalkeeper Steve Clark was fined for taunting opponents during the club’s Norwegian Cup match from last week.  He was fined 20,000 Norwegian crowns, which the internet tells me is about $3,500 or 1,000 Schrute bucks.

Jon-Paul Pittman was one of 12 players released by Oxford United this week.  Pittman scored two goals in 15 appearances in 2012-13.

I posted about Paul Arriola’s move to Tijuana last week and he recently talked to Tom Marshall about making the move.

Here is a photo of Junior Flores in his new Borussia Dortmund gear.

Finally, both Julian Green and Russell Canouse scored for their teams in German U-19 action and you can view the goals in this U-19 video recap of the weekend (their games are the first two games highlighted in the video).  Hell of a strike by Canouse.

The big news from yesterday, which Howie already posted, is that Stuart Holden is back in the USMNT picture.  Holden also did an interview with Lion of Vienna Suite this week where he states that he feels 100%.

Steven Goff gives us the latest USMNT ticket sales update.  I really need to stop playing around and pull the trigger on a trip up to Seattle in June.

Jurgen Klinsmann doesn’t appear to be happy about Brek Shea’s lack of playing time at Stoke City.

Sky Sports is reporting that Maurice Edu might make a permanent move from Stoke City to Bursaspor, but the article really only has quotes from Edu about being happy in Turkey.

Here is a video of Geoff Cameron talking about Stoke City’s summer tour to play against Houston Dynamo.

Greg Seltzer updates us on AZ Alkmaar’s all-time single-season goals list (plus gives us some other numbers and stats).  Jozy Altidore is fourth with 30 goals and has three games left to add to that tally.  Kees Kist holds the top three spots with 39 goals (1981-82), 36 (1978-79) and 35 (1977-78).

Want some other numbers?  Conor O’Brien leads all Danish Superliga players in average kilometers covered per game this season.

Steve Cherundolo talked to US Soccer about soon becoming the fourth player in Bundesliga history to play 300 games and playing the most games in club history after his next appearance.  Cherundolo is also close on a new contract with Hannover 96.

This is from last week, but this story has some quotes from Tab Ramos on the US U-20 team, including why DeAndre Yedlin didn’t make the CONCACAF U-20 Championship roster.

A player that was on the CONCACAF U-20 Championship roster, Mario Rodriguez, scored a goal for Kaiserslautern in the semifinals of the U-19 German Cup the other day.

US U-17 forward Junior Flores is headed to Germany to train with Borussia Dortmund up through their Champions League final appearance.  Flores signed a pre-contract deal with Borussia Dortmund back in October and can’t sign a professional deal until he turns 18 in March of 2014.

We have another American at Club Tijuana as former LA Galaxy youth academy player Paul Arriola has signed with the Liga MX club.

And finally, here is a local paper type story on Aleks Gogic signing with Reading.

The title says it all.

Jurgen Klinsmann spoke to some reporters on Wednesday and touched on a few different topics, including Stuart Holden and some ideas on how he is going to build this summer’s Gold Cup roster.

“We save most of [the top-flight European-based players] clearly for the World Cup qualifiers and then give them a well-deserved break. And then we have to build a very competitive roster for the Gold Cup.

“It’s tricky. Who is in a rhythm? The Scandinavians are in a rhythm. The MLS players are. Mexico is in a similar break like Europe, so it makes it difficult. Whoever from Mexico you leave out of the May-June camp, most likely we will leave them out of the Gold Cup as well because they would come from vacation and they can’t catch up. It’s a challenge for us.”

Klinsi also doesn’t want to see Carlos Bocanegra returning to Rangers next season.

Klinsmann also addressed Landon Donovan in the quotes above and Landon agrees that he has some work to do before returning to the USMNT.

Going back to Holden for a second, here is another article from England about him returning to Bolton after his loan to Sheffield Wednesday.

US Soccer put up a video this week with John O’Brien talking about his first cap with the USMNT.

It looks like Brek Shea and Geoff Cameron will be headed to FC Dallas this summer. . . . .in a scrimmage as Stoke City are headed back to the States this summer for some friendlies.

J.R. Eskilson decided to brave the 405 this week and went to the Home Depot Center to watch the US U-20 team partake in an intrasquad scrimmage.

Billy Schuler got the start and played 45 minutes in Hammarby’s 1-0 loss to Falkenberg on Thursday.

Zach Pfeffer scored a goal for Hoffenheim’s U-19 team in some youth cup match on Wednesday.

Brian Span scored a goal for Djurgården’s U-21 team earlier this week and here is a highlight of it.

After making his debut over the weekend, Freddy Adu came off the bench again and played eight minutes for Bahia in a 0-0 draw to Bahia de Feira on Wednesday.

Still recovering from his broken leg, Will Packwood was offered a new contract by Birmingham City this week.

And finally, here is an awesome interactive site that features the historical English football league tables from 1889 to 2012.  Click on a team and it highlights their position for every season.

So good ol’ Klnisi named his 23 players for the upcoming qualifiers yesterday.  And boy is that back line inexperienced.  In the official release by US Soccer, it lists the sad list of injuries.

The U.S. team has been hit with a rash of injuries as eight players are unavailable for the matches. Edgar Castillo (facial fractures), Timmy Chandler (hamstring), Steve Cherundolo (knee), Tim Howard (back), Fabian Johnson (hip), Jonathan Spector (ankle), Jose Torres (hamstring) and Danny Williams (illness).

Brek Shea has been called in, but he claims that his foot is not fully healed.  And it looks like Jonathan Spector, who would be very helpful in the back right now, was headed to Denver until injuring his ankle this weekend.

Klinsmann spoke to the press following the roster release.

Nick Firchau is reporting that Brian McBride will be in Denver until Wednesday helping out with the team (coaching, not playing, although I bet he could still be helpful……FYI, I am/was a big McBride fan).

Tyson Hilgenberg looks at the relationship between MLS and the USMNT.

Want to see some highlights of the US’ 3-2 win over Costa Rica from 1991?  Why not.

How about a photo of the three Americans at Club Tijuana in the centennial kit?  Sure.

As for some U-20 stuff, Will Packwood is down to one crutch and will be back to walking in the next couple weeks.  And Brian Sciaretta caught up with midfielder Mikey Lopez.

Even though he hasn’t played in a long time, Bolton manager Dougie Freedman thinks Tim Ream has a future at the club.

Ross Dunbar writes about dual citizen Shawn Parker and his rising stock.  When it is all said and done, my “I know nothing behind the scenes and this is a total guess” hunch says he sticks with Germany.

It looks like Fred Adu (Howie likes to call him Fred instead of Freddy since he is not 15 anymore) is headed to Brazil.  If the deal goes through, that would be nine different clubs in six different countries over the last seven years.

And we end with a Anton Peterlin sighting!  He appears to be headed to Denmark to third tier side HIK.

Work was crazy today (and will be tomorrow), so here are some quick links.

US Soccer officially announced the friendly against Belgium for May 29 in Cleveland.  The US will be playing in Cleveland for only the second time ever for an official match.  And the US is 1-3-0 all-time against Belgium.

While we are still waiting for an official announcement on the rumored friendly against Germany, now there are rumblings that there could be a third friendly during that May/June time.  Add those three friendlies with three qualifiers in June and that might be a lot of games in a short period of time.

And the USMNT is ranked #33 in the latest FIFA world rankings, dropping one spot from last month.

Bruce Arena apparently doesn’t like dual-citizens on the national team.

According to this article (and this tweet), it looks like Germany’s U-21 coach wants him for the 2015 U-21 Euros (and he would be eligible).  Basically I am not going to get myself worked up about Brooks.

Want to see Brek Shea in a Stoke City onesie?  Why not.

According to Hoffenheim’s manager Marco Kurz, Fabian Johnson is unlikely to play this weekend. I think he will still get called in for the US.

Todd Marshall breaks down which Americans in Mexico have a good shot of being called in for the upcoming qualifiers.

Brian Sciaretta has a story/interview up with Mix Diskerud.

And finally, there will not be a Weekend Commentary Thread this weekend as the sites technical issues hopefully get resolved.

Geoff Cameron got the start while Brek Shea made his Stoke City debut, coming off the bench and playing 66 minutes in Stoke City’s 1-0 loss to Fulham.  Here are some highlights.

***UPDATE***

Here is every touch for Brek Shea.

Links!

Brek Shea played well in a recent closed-door scrimmage for Stoke City against Scunthorpe United and could possibly make the gameday roster this weekend when the Potters travel to London to play Fulham.

The US-Costa Rica qualifier in Denver is officially a sellout.

Peter Hirdt gives us our Landon Donovan/Jozy Altidore stat of the day:

Yep, Altidore has scored 11 of his 13 international goals w/ Donovan on the field (2 goals in 1300+ min w/out LD)

Some guys in action on Tuesday.  Jonathan Spector went the full 90 minutes in Birmingham City’s 0-0 draw to Sheffield Wednesday.  Stuart Holden was an unused sub in Bolton’s 1-1 draw to Derby County.

As for last night, Ventura Alvarado, a 20-year-old Mexican-American, scored his first professional goal in Club America’s 3-1 win over Necaxa (highlights here).  If you don’t know much on Alvarado, Brian Sciaretta interviewed him back in August.  And Joe Corona and Edgar Castillo both started with Castillo help setting up the lone goal of the game as Tijuana defeated Colombian champions Millonarios in Tijuana’s Copa Libertadores debut (highlights here).

There is some internet speculation (so it must be true!) that Jurgen Klinsmann contacted Rogelio Funes Mori and Michael Hoyos about a possible USMNT call-up.  That said, some people don’t think Funes Mori is a US citizen, while Hoyos has not been the same since a car accident in 2011.

Staying with the car accident theme, Ravi Ubha of ESPN FC has an interview up with Charlie Davies.

Marc Pelosi had successful surgery on his broke leg on Monday.  If you want to see the harsh tackle that caused it, here you go (around the 9:25 mark).

There is still no word on whether Juan Ocegueda will play for Chivas Guadalajara or Chivas USA once he returns from U-20 duty.

U-20 midfielder Matthew Dunn is currently on trial with the Colorado Rapids.  Dunn has been with OFK Beograde in Serbia.

And finally, Ben Spencer started for Molde FK yesterday in a friendly against Kristiansund.

You might have seen me post a bunch of the videos already this weekend, but you should probably follow @EveryTouchFooty on Twitter.  He/she/it has been posting some great videos of various American players and their every touch in games from this past weekend.  If they continue to make these videos, you can expect me to post a lot of them as they give you a decent idea of how someone played aside from the normal 2-3 minute videos with only the goals from the game.

The US U-20 team kicks off its World Cup qualifying today at 5:30 PM Central on Fox Soccer.  US Soccer gives us two videos.  One with Tab Ramos talking about the roster and another about the team returning to Puebla to train.

Staying with the U-20 theme, Marc Pelosi had to leave his Liverpool U-21s game this weekend with an injury.  And it looks like he broke his leg.  That probably knocks him out of this summer’s U-20 World Cup if the US are able to qualify.

Landon Donovan is set to return to the LA Galaxy in late March.  No word if/when he plans to return with the USMNT.  I’m guessing we won’t see him in a US jersey until May or June.

Alfredo Morales made his 2012-13 senior team debut with Hertha Berlin this weekend.  And here is a photo of him and Anthony Brooks celebrating the occasion.  Hopefully he is talking in Brooks’ ear about how great it is to play for the USMNT.

I posted some goals from some friendlies last week and it looks like Brian Span has scored again in another one.  Hopefully Span can convert this good form into playing time with Djurgården as he appeared in only nine games last season.

Lester Dewee has continued to play/train/trial with Bodens BK and has scored some goals.  You can see some photos of some recent friendlies here and a video interview with Dewee right here.

And finally, Robbie Earle thinks Brek Shea can have some success at Stoke City.

That didn’t take long.

Brek Shea started in Stoke City’s reserve match against Burnley on Tuesday and scored with a header off a corner kick in the second half, but Burnley won 2-1.

Stoke City actually had a pretty strong lineup for a reserve match as Shea played alongside Michael Owen, Charlie Adam and Wilson Palacios.

According to the game recap, he started on the left wing, looked lively throughout the match and made “lots of neat touches and powerful runs”.

I still don’t think he is probably 100% ready to play with the first team in the Premier League just yet, but Tony Pulis is hoping that Shea will be available for Stoke City’s match against Fulham next weekend.

“We are looking to stage a couple of friendly games over the next week or so to give players like Marc and Brek a chance to step up their fitness.

“If they do that, then they will definitely come into the equation for the Fulham game; there is no doubt about that.”

He added: “Brek has looked really lively in training since coming back here, and Marc was close to being part of the squad at the weekend. It would be a real boost to have them available to us.”