In the last 24 hours of a mini-vacation, but here are some links from the last couple of days.

First off, a plug for our annual OT XI.  So go check that out.

Jurgen Klinsmann announced the USMNT roster for the upcoming games last week and Nick Firchau gives a notebook of goodies.  Also, since the roster has been announced, Brad Evans has been added to the squad.

The last of the five upcoming games is against Honduras and here is their roster.  I also posted Belgium’s and Germany’s rosters last week.

Leander Schaerlaeckens looks at why US goalkeepers are awesome.

It was starting to look like Aron Johannsson was a no-go for the USMNT last week.  But he might not be a lost cause as of this week.  Hmm.

Tab Ramos named his roster for the upcoming Toulon Tournament earlier this week.  One name missing from that roster is Anthony Brooks.  He told some German press that he wants to pull a Timothy Chandler circa 2011 (rest over the summer since he is young and new to the Bundesliga) and sit out of national team competitions (but maybe he changes his mind if the USMNT come calling?).

Another name missing from the U-20 team is forward Villyan Bijev.  And now he has accepted a call by Bulgaria’s U-21 team for this summer’s Euros, which would provisionally cap-tie him.  Bijev’s last appearance with the US came with the U-18 team at the Lisbon International Tournament.

Speaking of the Lisbon International Tournament (I love easy transitions), the current U-18 team opened up the 2013 Lisbon International Tournament with a 3-0 win over the Czech Republic.

Going back to the U-20 team, Jose Villarreal’s name was missing from the Toulon Tournament roster because the Galaxy didn’t release him.

BBC Sport’s Garth Crooks selected Brad Guzan as his goalkeeper for his team of the season.

Stoke City and Tony Pulis have decided to part ways.  Geoff Cameron, Brek Shea and Maurice Edu will have a new manager to impress this summer.

Photo time!  Clarence Goodson and Brøndby avoided relegation over the weekend so they celebrated by taking a shirtless photo in the locker room (this is for the ladies).

Charlie Davies and Randers finished third in the Danish Superliga, so here is Davies showing off his bronze medal.

And congrats to Sacha Kljestan and Anderlecht on winning their second consecutive Belgian league title.  Here is a photo of Sacha and the cup.  Staying with Sacha, I should hopefully have the Sacha/mustache shirts up for sale later tonight/tomorrow.  It all depends on my travel schedule today.

Will Parchman thinks Terrence Boyd is the future of the American striker.

Following in the footsteps of Frank Simek, Mike Grella is currently on trial with D.C. United.

After a quick six months in Germany, it looks like Paolo DelPiccolo is probably headed back to the US/MLS.

U-20 coach Tab Ramos has released a 22-man roster for the Toulon Tournament in Toulon, France, which will serve as the final tune-up before the U-20 World Cup begins in Turkey on June 21. It’s the usual mix of MLS, Mexico (Jeffrey Payeras from CSD Municipal in Guatemala thrown in), and a few Europe-based players.

People who know more than me predict “subtle changes” for the World Cup roster. Thirteen players from the CONCACAF qualifying squad are on this Toulon tournament squad; notable names not there (for various potential reasons) include John Anthony Brooks, Jose Villarrael, and Luis Gil.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Cody Cropper (Southampton FC; Maple Grove, Minn.), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara; Santa Rosa, Calif.)

DEFENDERS (7): Eric Miller (Creighton; Woodbury, Minn.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (C.D. Guadalajara; Riverside, Calif.), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids; Boulder, Colo.), Jeffrey Payeras (C.S.D. Municipal; Hawthorne, Calif.), Caleb Stanko (SC Freiburg; Holly, Mich.), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.), Javan Torre (UCLA; Santa Monica, Calif.)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas; Plano, Texas), Marlon Hairston (Louisville; Jackson, Miss.), Benji Joya (Santos Laguna; San Jose, Calif.), Mikey Lopez (Sporting Kansas City; Mission, Texas), Collin Martin (Wake Forest; Chevy Chase, Md.), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids; Brighton, Colo.), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew; Gahanna, Ohio)

FORWARDS (6): Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), Daniel Garcia (North Carolina; Dallas, Texas), Alonso Hernandez (C.F. Monterrey; El Paso, Texas), Alfred Koroma (Akron; Southlake, Texas), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders Academy; Mercer Island, Wash.), Victor Pineda (Chicago Fire; Bolingbrook, Ill.)

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.

Aston Villa had their end-of-the-season awards dinner tonight/last night and Brad Guzan walked away with both Players’ Player of the Year and Supporters’ Player of the Year awards.  Congrats to Mr. Guzan.  He joins Stuart Holden (2010-11) and Clint Dempsey (2010-11 & 2011-12) among the list of Americans to win player of the year honors at a Premier League side.

With the end of the season, we now slowly turn to the silly season.  The Sun is reporting that West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce wants Guzan for next season.  Like most soccer transfer rumors on the internet, there is about a 5% chance it is true (if that).

RIP Gold Cup trophy.  It might have been weird looking, but as Howie put it earlier today, it was a part of CONCACAF’s strange charm.

There has been a little online chatter that Mikkel Diskerud might look back to Norway since he hasn’t been called into Klinsmann’s camps that much aside from January, but Mix turned down an offer to play with Norway’s U-21 team at this summer’s U-21 European Championship.  And I guess there is some speculation that Mix will play for the US this summer (my guess would be at the Gold Cup).

The US U-20 team will be at the U-20 World Cup this summer, but will be first playing at the Toulon Tournament in France at the end of this month.  Tab Ramos gave some quotes to US Soccer’s website about the tournament.

In the potentially really good news department, Anthony Brooks told Ramos recently that he is leaning towards playing with the US U-20 team at the Toulon Tournament in France.  My reaction:  good, good.

The fine folks at Top Drawer Soccer have some video interviews with U-20ers Benji Joya, Danny Garcia and DeAndre Yedlin.

And Ryan Bacic talked to potential U-20 forward Jordan Morris.  According to Brian Sciaretta, Morris had a really good camp last month and fits the current system well.

As for some things with this site, Howie, Jon and I are breaking down film (not really) and starting our process to select our annual OT XI for 2012-13.  Who do you think will deserves to be on the squad?  Let us know in the comments in case we are overlooking someone (if we are, I am blaming Howie).

And if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook (or have just looked to the left side of the side in the last 24 hours), you may have noticed a sneak peek of Super Secret Project X.  It is something that I am pretty excited about, does involve a player that is over there and should hopefully be revealed this weekend or next week.

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.

A few links before hitting the bed.

One last shameless plug for my Inside the Numbers piece on why Clint Dempsey is awesome.  I am also happy to report, while still being completely vague, that there will be something new to the site in about a month and it is going to be awesome.  I just got an e-mail yesterday from someone who is helping with the project and it looks great.  I would tell you more but then I would have to kill you.

Moving on….

It looks like Jozy Altidore’s injury from the weekend is no big deal and he should be good to go come Friday’s game against Heerenveen.

Jozy also talked to Jason Davis about the latest transfer speculation and other things.

Danny Williams has been MIA for Hoffenheim the last couple weeks and I just assumed (incorrectly) that it was due to them getting a new manager and him trying out new things.  Actually, Williams has been out with an ankle injury that he picked up while playing with the U-23 team in the Regionalliga earlier this month.

Brian Sciaretta caught up with Ben Spencer to talk about his time so far in Norway with Molde FK.

Tab Ramos has called in 24 players for the latest U-20 camp at the Home Depot Center for this week.  He also has some quotes on it right here.

Gwendolyn Oxenham of Pelada fame (go see this movie if you haven’t already) wrote a nice piece for SI.com about pickup games and American players.

And finally, Romania’s stretchers are better than everyone else’s stretchers.

Here is a quick rundown of things you might want to look at before today’s game.

» The game is at 10:30 PM Eastern on ESPN.

» Here are some fun facts and stats from myself and US Soccer’s game notes:

The US is 1-23-1 all-time against Mexico on Mexican soil, including a 1-19-1 mark in Mexico City.

The US is 0-13-1 all-time against Mexico on Mexican soil during World Cup Qualifying.

The US is 1-8-1 all-time against Mexico in Azteca, including a 0-5-1 record in World Cup Qualifying.

Only five Americans have ever scored against Mexico at Azteca:  Willie Roy, (1974), Rick Davis (1980), Eddie Lewis (2005), Charlie Davies (2009) and Michael Orozco Fiscal (2012).

The US has led for a combined 20 minutes in the 10 games played against Mexico at Azteca all-time.

Mexico has only lost nine games all-time in 122 total games played at Azteca (80-9-33).

Mexico is 68-1-6 in home World Cup Qualifying games all-time, the only loss coming to Costa Rica in 2001.

The US has won a World Cup Qualifying match in Mexico City before, beating Cuba, 5-2, on September 21, 1949.

» The US’s lone point against El Tri on Mexican soil during World Cup Qualifying?  A 0-0 draw in 1997 and here are some video highlights of that game.

» Could Jurgen Klinsmann be playing mind games with Mexico?  He has called in Michael Orozco Fiscal last minute as an injury replacement for Jermaine Jones.  Here is video of MOF’s goal from August since it never gets old.

» Want a tactical preview of the game?  Head over to The Shin Guardian for their preview.

» The Mexican press found ways to watch in on practice earlier this week.  And I guess Klinsmann didn’t like this.

» Omar Gonzalez is pumped for the game and reveals that Club American has been interested in him over the last two years.

» As for some non-USMNT links.  Tab Ramos has some quotes on the U-20 World Cup draw and confirms that the team will be playing in the Toulon tournament in France in May.  Freddy Adu is officially headed to Brazil.  And here is a video interview with Jozy Altidore from last week courtesy of AZ’s website.

As for tomorrow, I like to think I’m a pretty level-headed guy who sides on caution, but I’m having good feelings about tomorrow for some reason. Thinking 1-1 draw.

I was gone most of yesterday, but still playing a little catch up on things.  And, fingers crossed, the server seems to be working much better the last two days.

Moving on.

Jermaine Jones has been ruled out for tomorrow’s game against Mexico due to an injury he picked up during the Costa Rica game.  He did not even travel with the team to Mexico and is headed back to Germany.  He posted this photo of his leg (and Snow Fro) after the game.

The US U-20 team found out their draw for the U-20 World Cup today and they have been placed in Group A with Spain, France and an African team to be named later.  A pretty tough draw, but luckily four of the six third place teams advance out of the group stage in the U-20 World Cup format.

Jurgen Klinsmann took over US Soccer’s twitter account yesterday and while he didn’t answer any of Howie’s questions, he did give us some good news on Clint Dempsey, Fabian Johnson and Steve Cherundolo.

Spoke with Clint. Back in training & hopes to play v Inter. All good for WCQs RT: ‏@mrhoffman02 When will we know if Dempsey is able to play

— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) March 11, 2013

Yes. He should be good to join us in Denver. RT @chieffif Heard that Fabian Johnson is returning to training. Option for the next 2 games?

— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) March 11, 2013

Happy he is back in training. Hopefully he can catch up as soon as possible. @elchosenjuan94how is cherundolo doing? #AskJK

— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) March 11, 2013

And while it has been mentioned before, Bruce Arena gave an update on Landon Donovan and he should return to the Galaxy the last week in March.

Costa Rica released their roster for the qualifiers.  Good news for USMNT fans, and most Red Bulls fans can confirm this, Roy Miller made their roster.  Also, I just noticed tonight that the US is winless in its last five games (3L, 2D) against Costa Rica and haven’t won a game since a qualifier in 2005.

The US U-20 team will be playing in the Toulon Tournament in late May/early June.

One of those players, Juan Ocegueda, is still going to play for Chivas Guadalajara despite playing for the US.  Chivas have a policy of “Mexican only” players, but they are apparently going to look the other way with Ocegueda.

It looks like Villyan Bijev finally got his work permit and made Liverpool’s U-21 bench this past weekend.

Conor O’Brien got the start and went he full 90 minutes in Nordsjaelland’s 1-1 draw to FC Midtjylland yesterday.

I haven’t heard Charles Renken’s name since he returned to the US last year, but he and fellow American Aubrey Perry are in Sweden on trial at Umeå FC at the moment.

And finally, Etchu Tabe has returned to Finland with KuPS again.