Just a quick post on tonight’s game. I won’t go too in-depth with it or do any live blogging (work is keeping me from doing such a thing). But since it is the start of the final round it is time to watch and hope the US does well enough to qualify for next year’s World Cup in South Africia.

It all starts and ends with Mexico. Getting on the right foot tonight is huge for both sides. I like the US in a close, physical battle that may be a bit sloppy due to the nasty weather that is in the Columbus area right now.

What are your predictions for tonight? Let’s hear them.

WVH Prediction: US 1, Mexico 0

It’s finally here, the 20 guys that will go head-to-head in the opening game for the final round of World Cup qualifying this week against arch-rival Mexico. Columbus is sure to be buzzing with this news.

Goalkeepers: Tim Howard (Everton), Brad Guzan (Aston Villa).
Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Danny Califf (Midtjylland), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Marvell Wynne (Toronto).
Midfielders: Michael Bradley (Moenchengladbach), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Jose Francisco Torres (Pachuca), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Robbie Rogers (Columbus).
Forwards: Brian Ching (Houston), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles/Bayern Munich), Charlie Davies (Hammarby), Jozy Altidore (Villarreal/Xerez).

A few MLSers mixed in with a slew of European based guys. For the most part I cannot complain one bit about this roster. Could Bob Bradley have called up a Freddy Adu or someone like that? Possibly but I think this bunch is as solid as it can be.

What do you make of this roster?

Twenty players, nearly all MLSers, have been invited to USA training camp starting tomorrow in Carson. Foreign-based players will be added in the days leading to the USA-Mexico World Cup qualifier Feb. 11 in Columbus.

More than likely a lot of these MLS guys won’t be on the final roster. Just a hunch.

GOALKEEPERS: Jon Busch (Chicago Fire), Will Hesmer (Columbus Crew), Matt Pickens (Colorado Rapids).

DEFENDERS: Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Ugo Ihemelu (Colorado Rapids), Chris Wingert (Real Salt Lake), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC).

MIDFIELDERS: Brian Carroll (Columbus Crew), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Jack Jewsbury (Kansas City Wizards), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), John Thorrington (Chicago Fire).

FORWARDS: Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire)

Ah, thank God this is happening. I just don’t think I could watch a US-Mexico qualifier from Seattle or Salt Lake (no offense you two, I just love C-bus a bit more for this game).

Read all about it here. And according to Mr. Goff, keep on ignoring those Salt Lake reports.

Thankfully the USSF got it right once again. Mark your calendars if you haven’t already.

Gosh, sometimes you just see something and think “you gotta be kidding me”. I know Columbus Crew fans have been getting some serious press this season about their actions. While I’ve taken up for them in some ways, I see a report like this one below and wonder really what goes on with some of them.

Surely by now most of you know of the incident at the friendly between West Ham United and the Crew this weekend. At halftime some West Ham fans apparently went near the Crew fans at Crew Stadium and from there things got a bit too ugly.

Crew supporters began directing chants toward the rival fans, and fights quickly broke out between more than 100 Crew fans and at least 30 West Ham fans. Columbus police officers and Crew Stadium security staff eventually separated the groups.

Highway Patrol officers arrested one fan outside the stadium for disorderly conduct, Patrol spokeswoman Anne Ralston said. A dispatcher didn’t know whether Columbus police had made any arrests inside the stadium.

This is the second incident Crew fans have been involved in this season. As New England celebrated its winning goal at Columbus on May 24, a fan shouted a racial slur at Revolution forward Kheli Dube, who scored in the 89th minute. Dube is black. The incident prompted a league investigation, with MLS commissioner Don Garber saying that the fan will be banned from league games for life if officials were able to identify him from a video that captured it.

Honestly by now its gotta be a put up or shut up kind of deal for some of these fans. While I felt the whole “video-gate” situation was blown a bit out of proportion by some out there, seeing an in-game brawl between fans at a damn friendly is not cool.

Come on, at a friendly.That was everything but friendly.

But let’s not blame those Crew fans for this all though. Those 30 or so West Ham fans apparently started it all according to various wire reports. They were the ones seen going towards the Crew supporters. I’m sure had this been anywhere else in the world the home fans would have responded in the same manner as the Columbus ones did. Let’s be real honest about that here okay.

It always seems like the guy who responds to the first punch throw is always the one that gets caught or punished the most. I will try to remain in contact with some of my contacts that I know were probably at the game or at least know what really went on. Once I get some response back from them I will try to pass it along to you. Don’t worry, I won’t go MLS-Rumors style on this though and continue to talk about it for days on end just to stir up stuff.