US Roster For T&T Game; Cooper Rejects Call Up

Shortly after the 6-1 win over Cuba on Saturday US National team head coach Bob Bradley named his roster for the US’s next World Cup qualifier.

Goalkeepers: Troy Perkins, Brad Guzan.

Defenders: Jonathan Bornstein, Danny Califf, Frankie Hejduk, Michael Orozco, Heath Pearce, Marvell Wynne.

Midfielders: Freddy Adu, DaMarcus Beasley, Maurice Edu, Sacha Kljestan, Pablo Mastroeni, Danny Szetela, Jose Francisco Torres.

Forwards: Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, Robbie Rogers.

Players that were released include: Carlos Bocanegra, Michael Bradley, Steve Cherundolo, Brian Ching, Jay DeMerit, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Oguchi Onyewu.

The bigger news however isn’t the fact that Bradley called in more players now that the US is through to the final round of qualifying. Its the fact that typically not-called-up striker Kenny Cooper rejected the call-up from Bradley and the National team.

Over at the FCD Blog Cooper released this comment over turning down the call-up:

“I feel so fortunate and honored to have been invited to join up with the U.S. Men’s National team in Trinidad and Tobago. I made the difficult decision to pass on this opportunity because I had picked up a virus and have been playing with a sprained ankle. Considering the importance of my club’s game versus Real Salt Lake this week, and that the National Team has already clinched a berth in the next round of qualifying, I felt it was the right thing to do to stay in Dallas and make sure I get well, and hopefully there will be other opportunities down the line.”

Interesting, all this time that people have complained about him not getting called into camp he actually turns down the chance when he finally does. He takes his club over his country here. Maybe all this time that he hasn’t been called up finally got to him and he decided he just didn’t want to do it right now. I think had the US not clinched a birth into the next round he would have considered it a bit more.

What do you all make of this? Is it bitter-sweet that Cooper finally got called up though he turned it down?