Not much to celebrate on Saturday for Clarence Goodson and Brad Davis. (Getty Images)

I spent the weekend away from the computer for a reason. I wanted to basically have some free time to do things non-soccer related for a change but I did make some time for the USMNT’s match against Honduras. Let me just first say that I went into this match with little to no expectations for our boys. Sure I thought a win would happen but it was merely a meaningless match that turned out to be just about that.

Some will fall into the deep end about this game and there are some that are probably working their way out by now after this 3-1 loss to our CONCACAF mates. While it wasn’t the best way to start a World Cup year but honestly it wasn’t the worst. Why? A good chunk of the players who played on Saturday won’t even be in the true discussion come June for Bob Bradley.

In other words there is no reason to get truly upset over our team which fielded a bunch of third and forth level national team players losing to Honduras. Had it been our main squad with Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and company then there would most certainly be a reason to get upset today.

Bradley used a large MLS base of players on Saturday and while that is all good and fine here it showed that the depth isn’t there like it should be. Maybe three or four of those guys on Saturday will be in the discussion for South Africa but the rest really shouldn’t be at this point.

Not that there is anything wrong with trying out a few fresh faces either. Bradley has been known to do that a lot in the past and quite honestly it has worked well for him in my opinion. This past weekend was a trail for the majority involved. A couple shined and showed they proved to be in the mix while a majority showed they aren’t on the same level as those in the mix.

To me Saturday’s loss showed the third and maybe forth level of talent just isn’t up to par with other countries. I think we can safely say that here after seeing that game. No this wasn’t a B team or even really a C team for me on the field. And on that note I really hate labeling teams A, B and C.

So to those who fell over board this past weekend, get your head up and get back into the boat. South Africa is only a few months away and our first team boys will certainly put on a better show than what we saw this past weekend.

Bob Bradley has released his 30-man roster for an upcoming camp next month. The roster is a heavy-MLS and Scandinavian based roster with loads of surprises for some folks out there. The roster will probably be trimmed down a bit for the Honduras friendly later next month on the 23rd.

Of the 30 players, 25 are from Major League Soccer with 13 of the 16 clubs represented. Good to see a few names on there like Kevin Alston from New England and Geoff Cameron from Houston.

Here is the roster:

GOALKEEPERS (4): Kevin Hartman (Kansas City), Troy Perkins (Valerenga), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake), Zach Thornton (Chivas USA)
DEFENDERS (8): Kevin Alston (New England Revolution), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles Galaxy), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS (12): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Örebro), Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Jeff Larentowicz (New England Revolution), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Chris Pontius (D.C. United), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)
FORWARDS (6): Justin Braun (Chivas USA), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Brandon McDonald (San Jose Earthquakes), Marcus Tracy (Aalborg)

You really have to like what the USSF is doing to try and get the USMNT ready for next summer’s World Cup. After being rumored for months, the USSF announced today the US will play third-ranked Netherlands on March 3 in Amsterdam.

The Americans will face the Dutch at Amsterdam ArenA on March 3 (2:30pm, ESPN2/Galavision). The game will also be on an international fixture date meaning we’ll probably see a big mix of European and MLS players from Bob Bradley.

This friendly along with the Honduras one in January and a possible match with Mexico in February is starting to shape some things up nicely for World Cup tune-ups for the US. Hopefully this trip to Europe will be a little better than the one last month that saw the US go down to Denmark and Slovakia.

Two friendlies are close to being officially announced for the US national team’s 2010 World Cup warm up schedule.

According to reports out of Honduras, the US men’s national team will face fellow World Cup participant Honduras on Sunday, January 24 at Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

The other looks to be trying to finalize a friendly with Northern Ireland, with the match potentially being played in March or May.

There is also still the rumored Holland game still left on the table for sometime in March. The game has been listed on the FIFA website for a couple months now and it should be announced by the end of the month as well.

Apparently the Honduras game’s date is in question according to SBI. Which means it will mostly be MLS-based players playing in the game with a few European players sprinkled in. With the day not being a proper FIFA fixture date it means European clubs aren’t required to release players for a friendly.

I saw the Northern Ireland report yesterday afternoon and thought the idea of facing them was very good as a World Cup tuneup. Northern Ireland faced fellow Group C member Slovenia and was defeated 1-0 by this Northern Ireland squad. Plus their club plays similar to England.

So potentially the US could be facing Honduras, Holland and Northern Ireland next year. Not bad really if you ask me. Its a good start at least for those tune ups leading up to June’s World Cup.

The US is going to another World Cup. (Getty Images)

Editor’s Note: Geoff Reid appears at WVHooligan each week. Today he is back to recap the recent World Cup clinching match for the US against Honduras. Feel free to leave Geoff your thoughts below.

It’s been a few days since the US national team secured qualification for South Africa next summer so now would be a good time to recap the latest events that took place in San Pedro Sulsa on Saturday night.

Before kick off, Honduras won eight matches out of eight in this world cup qualifying cycle. Nobody has managed to get a point against them on their own pitch in front of their own crowd. It looked like that might continue against the Americans after Oguchi Onyewu gave away a stupid foul on Carlos Pavon that led to the free kick which was brilliantly taken by Julio Cesar de Leon and Tim Howard had no chance. Give credit to the team and to Bob Bradley when it’s due because this team could have folded and lost all confidence and composure after going behind on the road in a place where nobody has gotten any points.

With a little bit of luck and terrible goalkeeping, Conor Casey was able to get his head on Charlie Davies’ tall flick on and bounced the right way into the goal. While luck certainly played a part in leveling the score, Casey’s second goal didn’t involve any, just pure class. Great through ball from Landon Donovan, a well timed run by Casey and ball watching from the Honduran defense followed by a beautifully calm finish gave the Americans the 2-1 advantage. Before we knew it, Casey won a free kick on the edge of the box in a similar position to where Clint Mathis struck the winner back in 2001. This time it was Donovan who stuck a brilliant dead ball and again, with the help of a goalkeeping error the US made it 3-1. Of course luck played it’s role again, the a goal being disallowed for offside for the Hondurans, and then later on after the second goal for the hosts, Pavon pulled a Roberto Baggio and skied his penalty into row Z. Continue Reading…

Just in case you missed this game, and if you weren’t at a bar or at someone’s house with this close circuit game you probably did miss it. It was a wild second half that saw the US go through to the World Cup for the sixth straight time!

Now the US has a chance to win their group on Wednesday night in DC against Costa Rica.

Still stunned by this second half finish by the US? How about Conor Casey’s two-goal effort?

Bob Bradley has announced his 22-man roster for the last two CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers against Honduras on on October 10th, and the qualifying match against Costa Rica at RFK Stadium on October 14th.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton)

DEFENDERS (7): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Jonathan Spector (West Ham)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (1860 Munich), Charlie Davies (FC Sochaux)

Off the top of my head, the only shockers to me were Conrad and Rogers. I’m also starting to wonder if Casey is the new Eddie Johnson for Bob Bradley. You know a decent forward that is a bit over hyped and never really does that great with the National team? I dunno, just a thought.