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.

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.

A few random things for you.

Charlie Davies got the start and went the full 90 minutes in Randers’ 0-0 draw to OB today.  It was his first start in a top-flight European league since before his car crash with Sochaux in 2009-10.  As Howie pointed out to me, Costa Rica has played two WC Hex qualifiers on American soil since his last start.  Let that sink in for a second.

After playing some games with the U-23 team in the Regionalliga, Bobby Wood came off the bench and played 31 minutes in 1860 Munich’s 1-0 win over Erzgebirge Aue today.

Landon Donovan is back with the LA Galaxy and spoke to the press today.  He is hoping to get back with the USMNT in time for the three qualifiers in June.

The Birmingham Mail has a story on Will Packwood and his road to recovery.

Here is a likely poorly Google-translated interview with Alfredo Morales from Hertha Berlin’s site.

The US-Mexico game drew the highest World Cup qualifier match ratings in ESPN history.  And here are the field-level highlights of last Friday’s game against Costa Rica.  A friend of the site also sent in some photos from the game that I should hopefully have up tomorrow.

Swedish Superettan side IK Brage have signed central defender Tyler Ruthven.  Ruthven last played with the New York Red Bulls in 2012.

Bob Bradley has Egypt on the right track so far in their quest to qualify for the World Cup.

And good luck to soccer journalist Brian Straus. Staus was let go by the Sporting News along with some other writers this week.  Whether you enjoyed his now famous article from last week or not, we need more people like him following MLS/US Soccer.  Hopefully someone smart picks him up.  Maybe I can convince him to come to this site and pay him in high fives.

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.

I just want to link again to the footage of Stuart Holden running around as it makes me happy to see.

Speaking of Holden, Bolton manager told BBC Radio Manchesterthat Holden could make his senior-team return next Tuesday in Bolton’s FA Cup replay at Sunderland.

Will Packwood is going to have a third round of surgery to insert a metal plate into his leg.

Zach Pfeffer scored again for Hoffenheim’s U-19 team in his second friendly with the club.

Michael Parkhurst got the start at right back in Augsburg’s 4-1 win over Hansa Rostock in a friendly on Wednesday.  Here is also a photo of Parkhurst in action.

Bob Bradley and Egypt lost to Ghana today, 3-0, in a friendly.

While most of Brøndby’s players are looking for new homes with the club’s financial issues, Clarence Goodson is not ready to return to the US/MLS.

US Soccer continues its “MNT in…..” series with Jose Torres in Mexico.

Will Parchman takes a look at everyone’s favorite Icelandic-American forward Aron Johannsson.

Travis Clark updates us on the latest US U-20 camp.  And Brian Sciaretta has an interview with US U-20 forward Daniel Cuevas.

And finally, Steven Goff has a story up on Joe Gyau.

A bunch of links for Tuesday evening.

In case you don’t follow us on Twitter or Facebook, but we have a new addition to the site.  We are going to try and track every goal scored this calendar year.  You can find our goal tracker by clicking the goals link above in the navigation bar.

I posted on Monday about Graham Zusi and Juan Agudelo training at West Ham this week, but it looks like at least Zusi’s trip is an actual trial.

Sticking with the MLS-to-Europe training stints, DC United goalkeepers Joe Willis and Andrew Dykstra are both headed to England to train with different clubs (Sunderland for Willis and Hartlepool United for Dykstra).

Matt over at The Shin Guardian did a detailed depth chart of the USMNT as we enter 2013.  And Brian Sciaretta gives us his breakdown of the January camp.

Not too of a shock, but Grant Wahl is hearing that ESPN won/bought the rights to the US-Mexico qualifier at Azteca.  So ESPN should have that game plus all the home qualifiers, while beIN Sport should have all the rest of the road qualifiers if I am remembering this correctly.

A week after playing in an indoor reserve match, Stuart Holden took the field outside in Bolton’s reserves’ 3-0 win over Oldham Athletic’s reserves.  Holden got the start and played 65 minutes, which got some good reviews of his performance.

While he is coming back from injury, Will Packwood is scheduled to have a second surgery on his broken leg.

US U-18 midfielder Zach Pfeffer scored a goal in his first friendly since going out on loan at Hoffenheim.

Marc Pelosi got the start and went the full 90 minutes in Liverpool’s 4-1 win over Inter Milan in the NextGen Series (U-19 tournament).  With the win, Liverpool advance to the next round.

Parker Walsh could be headed back to Karlsruher SC.

Not a surprise, but Stoke City are open to loaning out Maurice Edu.  Edu has only appeared in one game with the Potters since making the move from Rangers to Stoke City.

Clarence Goodson’s Brøndby are having some money issues and the players might have to take a pay cut or the club might go bankrupt.

Alejandro Bedoya apparently has some suitors in Spain, German, Denmark and Sweden.  Bedoya is expected to stay with the USMNT until a deal is finalized.

Conor O’Brien also has a few different teams looking at him according to Greg Seltzer.

American Jack Stefanowski has been named the head coach of Nepal’s national team.

Alecko Eskandarian tells us a cool story about Clint Dempsey from 2005′s Camp Cupcake.

And finally, Sciaretta has another interview with Sacha Kljestan.

This weekend was sort of a fun one with Dempsey and Herc scoring goals, plus the USMNT roster announcement.  Good times.  Now or some links from the weekend.

Speaking of the USMNT January camp.  Both Graham Zusi and Juan Agudelo are going to be a week late as they are headed to West Ham United this week for one of these MLS week-long-summer-camp-training sessions.

Doug McIntyre (ESPN Insider) gives us his surprises of the 25-man roster.

The other chatter from yesterday regarding the USMNT was locations of the various hexagonal qualifiers.  We are nearing the home opener against Costa Rica in March and we still don’t know the location.  Grant Wahl is hearing that the final three possibilities are Kansas City, Salt Lake and Denver.  I am guessing it will be Salt Lake or Denver as the US plays Mexico at Azteca a few days later and those two sites give the US players some training/game action with altitude.

Steven Goff is hearing that the June qualifiers could finally be headed to the Pacific Northwest in Portland and Seattle.  While that is all fun and games, Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson was tweeting a bunch about how there probably won’t be a qualifier in Portland since they don’t want to put sod on their turf for a couple different reasons.  But he thinks there is a decent shot that Portland hosts a Gold Cup game.  You can check out his feed for all his reasons/ranting.

I already linked above Clint Dempsey’s goals from the weekend, but here is a video interview from after the game.

Birmingham City’s website gives us a quick update on Will Packwood.  It looks like he will be out “for at least nine months.”  Teammate Jonathan Spector missed out on the FA Cup match with some kind of back injury.

I missed this story last week, but this should make Bob Bradley’s job a little easier.

ESPN FC gives us three young Bayern Munich players to keep an eye on including Tampa-born Julian Green.

Shawn Parker scored the game-winning goal this weekend for Mainz in a friendly against Club Brugge.

Andrew Wooten and Sandhausen made it to the finals of the Harder Cup before losing to Karlsruher SC.  Wooten was one of Sandhausen’s top scorers of the tournament.  And it looks like I was able to find video of the whole final.  That looks like it would be fun to attend.

I haven’t heard Jann George’s name mentioned since he was kicked off Nurnberg in early November, but apparently I missed that he signed with 1860 Munich II late in November and has been training with the first team as they start their winter break training camp.

And finally, much to Howie’s chagrin, former US U-17er Fuad Ibrahim has been named to Ethiopia’s team for the 2013 African Cup of Nations.

While Clint Dempsey enjoyed his FA Cup match on Saturday, the same could not be said for Birmingham City’s Will Packwood.  Packwood got the start at right back, but ended up breaking his tibia and fibula after landing awkwardly in the second half of Birmingham City’s 1-1 draw to Leeds United.

The Blues boss told bcfc.com: “I think the early diagnosis is a break to both the fibula and tibia, so it took the gloss off a fantastic performance by us today. His young team-mates and friends were distraught on the pitch; in tears. I tried to get them refocused and I just said to them let’s try and win the game for Will, but we couldn’t do it.

“We were brilliant and I thought we deserved to win the game. But we’ve lost a good young player who’s a magnificent kid. We love him to bits at the football club. He’s so honest and genuine and he’s a good pro.

“It’s not actually his proper position right-back. He’s played his entire career as a young lad as a centre-half and he must be in double figures for appearances at right-back for us now. He just gets on with it. We’re going to give him the best care possible and get him back fitter and stronger next season and he’ll have the support of everybody at the club.”

The US U-20 defender just tweeted that he is going into surgery this morning.

Going into surgery this morning. Thank you to everybody for all the support I’ve received! It means so much to me to have you all behind me

— William Packwood (@WPackwood) January 6, 2013

For those asking, it appears I have a double tib+fib fracture. Broken in as many as four places. Long road to recover…but not impossible!

— William Packwood (@WPackwood) January 6, 2013

Packwood’s first season with Birmingham City’s senior team has now come to an end after starting in five league games, one Capital One Cup match and Saturday’s FA Cup appearance.  The injury will also knock him out of February’s CONCACAF U-20 Championship and likely June’s U-20 World Cup if the US were to qualify.

A few links from the last couple of days.

Liverpool will have a hearing soon over their “illegal approach” of Clint Dempsey during last summer.

Brad Guzan won Aston Villa’s Player of the Month honors for October.

Here is a video of Michael Bradley answering questions in Italian.

Want to have a dance party?  Want to have a dance party while watching highlights of Steve Clark?  If so, click this link.

DaMarcus Beasley is sitting at 97 caps with the USMNT.  Not a total surprise, he wants to hit 100.

Greg Seltzer talked to Will Packwood about his first season as a professional at Birmingham City.

Jann George is looking for a new home.  He was kicked off Nurnberg for talking back to his coach.  I have heard some rumblings over the last year that he is a head case.

Apparently Jurgen Klinsmann has talked to Shawn Parker about playing for the USMNT.  Parker is a 19-year-old forward who has scored four goals in nine games with Mainz II this year and has even made one appearance with Mainz’s senior team.

I planned on doing this earlier, but I had to do some assembly on some office stuff for my apartment and I want to hurt the person who invented the allen wrench.  I have lost all feeling in my right thumb.

As for some news, Joe Gyau is currently training with German 2. Bundesliga side St. Pauli and could be headed there on loan.  Gyau has not been receiving any playing time with Hoffenheim this season after participating in a lot of the preseason games, so this could be a chance for playing time.

Will Packwood didn’t play in Birmingham City’s 3-2 loss in the Capital One Cup, but Brian Sciaretta has an interview up with the 19-year-old over at the NY Times soccer blog.

You can get a recap of yesterday’s Capital One Cup action right here.  Also of note, while both Brad Guzan and Eric Lichaj played for Aston Villa, it appears that Irish defender Derrick Williams is also an American, but he has been playing with the various Irish youth national teams.

Sticking with Sciaretta, he predicts the USMNT roster for the upcoming camp/qualifiers against Jamaica.

As for one player who probably won’t be called in due to a recent injury, you can likely cross Edgar Castillo off the list.

We mentioned before about a documentary following Bob Bradley as he attempts to take Egypt to the World Cup.  Well, there is now a trailer to check out right here.

And on that note, I need sleep.