US squad for Poland

is announced here. For those too lazy to follow the link, the 20 man team is...

Goalkeepers (2) – Tim Howard (Manchester United), Kasey Keller (Borussia Moenchengladbach)

Defenders (7) –Gregg Berhalter (Energie Cottbus), Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Todd Dunivant (Los Angeles Galaxy), Eddie Lewis (Leeds United), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Jonathan Spector (Charlton Athletic)

Midfielders (6) –DaMarcus Beasley (PSV Eindhoven), Bobby Convey (Reading FC), Clint Dempsey (New England Revolution), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), Kerry Zavagnin (Kansas City Wizards)

Forwards (5) – Eddie Johnson (Kansas City Wizards), Brian McBride (Fulham FC), Pat Noonan (New England Revolution), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution), Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)

As expected, this squad draws heavily on the European-based players. A few thoughts:

• Four (count 'em!) potential left backs in this squad. If only soccer were played in quarters, Arena could try them all. My guess is that Lewis will get a good look in that position on Wednesday, with someone else seeing action in the second half.
• No Pope and Conrad. I wouldn't read anything into that; with Berhalter, Bocanegra and Oneywu playing in Europe, there's no point in bringing the other two.
• No Cory Gibbs, who's only just started playing after a long term injury. My feeling is that with the competition at his position it will be difficult for him to make this team. However Jonathan Spector is there. Either Spector or Conrad for a final roster spot? (And do you really need five central defenders in your squad? My feeling is probably yes.)
• Mastroeni is healthy enough to go on this trip. A good sign, but I don't know if he'll be immediately thrown back into it against Poland or not.
• Five forwards. I suspect Arena will only take four to Germany and that it will be between Noonan and Wolff for the final spot. It would be nice to see Noonan play a little as a striker in this match.
• Howard is the backup goalie and not Marcus Hahnemann. Interesting.
• It occurs to me that you could throw Reyna, Pope and a third goalie on this roster and call this a World Cup squad. Although that's close to being correct, there are still some selection issues to resolve: Noonan/Wolff (with Hejduk maybe taking the place of the one not selected), Zavagnin/O'Brien, and Conrad/Spector are the three obvious selection choices. I think there's a more complex question at left back: can you bring both Lewis and Dunivant or do you pick one and use that space to bring on a fifth striker? Clearly that's one of the big issues Arena needs to resolve.