Sporting Kansas City's Kei Kamara and Teal Bunbury have been called up by their respective national teams. (Getty Images)

It will be a fairly slow week around these parts, seeing how MLS is pretty much off this weekend (except for two games). With a FIFA fixture on the calendar this weekend there are a full slew of MLSers involved in friendlies and even some World Cup qualifiers.

MLS released this list of players and I felt it was worth putting up here as well. A total of 51 players representing 17 different countries from 17 MLS clubs. Only San Jose failed to have anyone called up.

Chicago Fire
Marco Pappa (Guatemala)

Chivas USA
Ante Jazic (Canada)
Michael Umaña (Costa Rica)

* Heath Pearce was called by USA but withdrew because of injury

Colorado Rapids
Steward Ceus (Haiti)
Omar Cummings (Jamaica)
Jeff Larentowicz (USA)
Sanna Nyassi (Gambia)

Columbus Crew
Julius James (Trinidad and Tobago)
Robbie Rogers (USA)

D.C. United
Dwayne De Rosario (Canada)
Bill Hamid (USA)
Dejan Jakovic (Canada)
Andy Najar (Honduras)
Chris Pontius (USA)

FC Dallas
Marvin Chávez (Honduras)
Brek Shea (USA)

* Zach Loyd was called by USA but withdrew because of injury

Houston
Carlo Costly (Honduras)
Andre Hainault (Canada)
Jermaine Taylor (Jamaica)
Je-Vaughn Watson (Jamaica)

LA Galaxy
Landon Donovan (USA)
Robbie Keane (Ireland)
Chris Birchall (Trinidad and Tobago)

New England
Kenny Mansally (Gambia)

New York
Juan Agudelo (USA)
Bouna Coundoul (Senegal)
Rafa Márquez (Mexico)
Roy Miller (Costa Rica)
Tim Ream (USA)
Dane Richards (Jamaica)

Philadelphia
Keon Daniel (Trinidad and Tobago)

Portland
James Marcelin (Haiti)
Lovel Palmer (Jamaica)
Steve Purdy (El Salvador)
Rodney Wallace (Costa Rica)

Real Salt Lake
Jean Alexandre (Haiti)
Arturo Alvarez (El Salvador)
Kyle Beckerman (USA)
Will Johnson (Canada)
Álvario Saborío (Costa Rica)

Seattle
Terry Boss (Puerto Rico)

Sporting KC
Teal Bunbury (USA)
Roger Espinoza (Honduras)
Kei Kamara (Sierra Leone)
Shavar Thomas (Jamaica)

Toronto FC
Julian de Guzman (Canada)
Terry Dunfield (Canada)
Ryan Johnson (Jamaica)
Javier Martina (Curaçao)

Vancouver
Nizar Khalfan (Tanzania)
Mustapha Jarju (Gambia)

Zach Loyd will join the US team in Philadelphia next week. (Getty Images)

Jurgen Klinsmann has made one change to his first roster for the US Men’s National team. Today he announced that FC Dallas defender Zach Loyd would replace the injured Tim Chandler on the 22-man roster.

Chandler had been battling injuries since the start of the Bundesliga season and was not fit enough to make the game.

Loyd will be getting his second call-up with the US team. His first came back in January when the US tied Chile 1-1. Loyd went 73 minutes in that match and was named the Man of the Match. The 24-year old has played in 21 games for FC Dallas this season, scoring once and adding two assists

There were plenty of shocks to this roster like DC’s Bill Hamid or seeing some names like Michael Orozco Fiscal again. Seven MLSers were called this time, which is great to see. Two come from the MLS academy system (Hamid and Agudelo), which shows that the league’s academies are moving in the right direction.

One shocker for sure was seeing a name like Jozy Altidore left off or even having DeMarcus Beasley be back on the roster. Also, no Clint Dempsey? I guess his club got in the way there, which isn’t a bad thing really.

Three players I would have liked to see called were Chad Marshall, George John and Geoff Cameron. I bring up Cameron only as a defender though. Still, I really have no major issues with this roster.

What do you think?

GOALKEEPERS (2): Bill Hamid (D.C.United), Tim Howard (Everton)

DEFENDERS (8): Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Etienne), Edgar Castillo (Club America), Timmy Chandler (FC Nürnberg), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Clarence Goodson (Brondby), Michael Orozco Fiscal (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Chivas USA), Tim Ream (New York Red Bulls)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Eintracht Frankfurt), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04), Brek Shea (FC Dallas), José Torres (Pachuca)

FORWARDS (5): Freddy Adu (Benfica), Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla), Edson Buddle (FC Ingolstadt), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

A lot of changes will be made by new head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. (Photo via MLSSoccer.com)

Yeah go ahead and throw this one on the massive pile of other stories similar to this one. I’ve stayed away from the Klinsmann talk for a few reasons, mainly lack of time on my part to devote to discussing it is the biggest. As you’ll see in the coming weeks, I have some changes that I’ll be making to the site and I’ve been busy working on them.

Now back to the story at hand. As we’re all aware there are plenty of players out there that will benefit form the Jurgen Klinsmann hiring for the US National Team. Plenty of those guys are young and come from Major League Soccer while a good bit of them will be from other league spread out throughout the world.

With some friendlies on the horizon, I’d expect to see plenty of new faces in with the US.

Jose Torres – I know JFT got the call to the World Cup last year from Bradley but it seems like ever since then we haven’t heard a peep from this kid. There’s little doubt in my mind that Klinsmann will get the most out of him with his creative skills.

Brek Shea – Don’t be shocked if Shea gets a look this time around. He’s having too good of a year for FC Dallas in MLS not to get a call up. I know Dallas fans will be excited for him even though it will come at a critical point in their season with potential CCL games and all. As we’ve seen in MLS this season he is magic on the wings for Dallas. Klinsmann could use a spark like that in the midfield too.

George John – Another FCD player that will likely get a look-at from Klinsmann. John is dominant in the defense and has been a key factor in Dallas’ success this season. He’s big, tall, and physical too. All items you want in a center back. Put him in there with guys like Clarence Goodson or Omar Gonzalez and you could easily have a back duo for years to come.

Tim Chandler – We know the German-born connection here. He definitely appears to be the next best thing at right-back for the US and with Klinsmann in charge that time may come sooner than it would have with Bob Bradley in charge.

Michael Bradley – Yup, I’m putting the old coaches son on the list. I think he gets a lot of the bad wrap that his dad would get when he was the coach. Now with his dad gone from leading the team, the son can re-focus on being a leader in the midfield like he has shown to be on occasion. (I also get how you could make the argument that his hire hurts him as well too)

Chad Marshall – Another top-notch defender that always got overlooked by Bradley. I never got why Marshall was not called into the Gold Cup camp either. Considering how dominant he’s been in MLS over the last five-to-six years and has only had a few call ups is surprising. I’d easily take him right now over Tim Ream (just saying).

Any names that I’m missing here? Let’s hear it.

Some on the list I did were the usual suspects that we alway hear about returning to MLS, others were guesses while the last group were for fun. I won’t lie though, I do firmly believe most of that last group will happen down the road.

Either way it is always fun to speculate.

The Chivas USA-Benny Feilhaber situation is still going on, we should know something within the hour about what is going down with that deal.

For me, all I can say is it is about time. About time that Nike and the USMNT sport a red kit for a match. This weekend the US Men’s National team will square off against Argentina in the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey and will sport this new red kit.

Hot damn that is a nice jersey. Players will wear red socks and the blue shorts in Saturday’s match.

According to Nike, the red jersey is being rolled out in response to feedback and comments from fans who sought to complete the red, white and blue collection of jerseys. (The shirt is similar to the third jersey the U.S. had for the 2006 World Cup.)

Nike also took things a little further by creating a clever Twitter contest called Red All Over. They asked users to tweet a new motto for the jersey. Some were great, others were fairly lame.

The new jersey is on sale from Nike starting tomorrow for $70. I haven’t owned a red kit since one of their last red kits back in 2000 or 2001 (I can’t recall when exactly it was out). I must say this looks like a must-have for any US soccer fan.

The usual cast of characters have been called into action for two upcoming friendlies this month against Argentina (March 26th) and Paraguay (March 29th). U.S. national team manager Bob Bradley leaned on guys like Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Carlos Bocanegra once again. But he also called in a couple surprise players.

This will be the first time since last year’s World Cup that the USMNT plays with their “A” Team. The team will come together in Cary, NC for training camp next week before their match in New Jersey against Argentina. The Paraguay match is set to be played in Nashville.

Here is the full squad:

GOALKEEPERS-Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Tim Howard (Everton), David Yelldell (MSV Duisburg)

DEFENDERS-Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Etienne), Jonathan Bornstein (UANL Tigres), Timothy Chandler (FC Nürnberg), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Vancouver Whitecaps), Oguchi Onyewu (FC Twente), Tim Ream (New York Red Bulls), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United), Zak Whitbread (Norwich City)

MIDFIELDERS-Michael Bradley (Aston Villa), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Mikkel Diskeruud (Stabaek), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers), Jermaine Jones (Blackburn Rovers), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht)

FORWARDS-Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), Jozy Altidore (Bursaspor), Edson Buddle (FC Ingolstadt)

Notes:

- Interesting to see newcomers Yelldell, Chandler and Whitbread called in here for this camp. I’ve heard plenty of good things about Chandler.

- Only four MLSers called in for this camp, which should make most MLS coaches happy.

The US Men’s National team will visit some places it hasn’t been at in a long while during their group games in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The United States will be facing Canada in Detroit on June 7th, Panama at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. on June 11th and Guadeloupe at the new Kansas City soccer stadium on June 14th.

CONCACAF announced the Gold Cup groups on Tuesday. Here they are:

What do you make of the venue selection for the US games? Also, do you like the US’s chances in this group?

I only have a few notes to discuss from the US-Chile game.

• Dax McCarty looked great. Well for D.C. United fans that is. I cannot tell you how much Dallas will miss this guy in 2011 but United fans have to be grinning from ear-to-ear today about the future of their club with this guy.
• The Teal Bunbury-Juan Agudelo combo is the wave of the future for the US. I truly believe that more than ever now. Sure we still have the likes of Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore to play striker for the US but Bunbury and Agudelo are showing right away that they are ready to take over when called upon.
• Zac Loyd could indeed be the answer the US is looking for in terms of a left back. Its one game for him and I may be a tad biased but I really liked what I saw out of him.
• Again it may have been one game but Tim Ream and Omar Gonzales did nothing for me. More Ream than Gonzalez.
• And I’ll agree with the notion that saying this game wasn’t meaningless either. This is a good set up game for the Egypt friendly next month. Hopefully its a momentum building game in Cario.

Juan Agudelo looks to impress tomorrow night against Chile. (Getty Images)

January friendlies are always about one thing, an eye on the future. This has never been more true than this year with head coach Bob Bradley calling an extremely young squad into camp ahead of the friendly this weekend in LA against Chile. This young group has an average age of 23.4 years!

The lack of experience on the international stage should be expected though from some of this bunch. With no Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Michael Bradley or Stuart Holden in camp Bradley is hoping this young bunch can give him an indication of what is to become of US Soccer over the next couple of years.

For Bradley he will be in his element. I’ve already heard reports that training has been going well and players are doing good. Bradley loves coaching young players, he’s always been good at it I think. With the pressures of a World Cup year off his back teaching the young players like he enjoys.

This is the first step in a four-year plan for Bradley. The young squad will be about building depth and finding hidden gems that can be brought into the main squad right away for this summer’s vital Gold Cup.

January friendlies in the past have seen the likes of Sacha Kljestan go from just a Chivas USA player to a hat-trick scorer in 2009. Last year we saw Alejandro Bedoya go from a little unknown player in a Swedish league to a rising National team star.

So who am I hoping to see break through here this weekend against Chile? For one I want to see the continued growth of New York Red Bulls striker Juan Agudelo. His goal against South Africa back in November was special but we need to see more from the kid as we move forward. This is an excellent chance to do just that.

Hopefully we’ll also see growth in the defense with guys like Omar Gonzalez and Tim Ream. With few veterans on this squad it will be time for others to step up like FC Dallas midfielder Brek Shea.

Chile won’t be an easy team to beat even if they are sending a relative “B” squad of their own. With as many fresh faces as the US squad, the young Chilian squad will be looking to impress their coach as well as they head into the new calendar year.

What are you hoping to see tomorrow night against Chile? Any new USMNT players out there than you’re hoping to see shine? Think we stand a good chance to beat Chile?