Choices at forward have dominated the U.S. national team’s preparation for the 2010 World Cup, ranging from the health of Charlie Davies to the scoring form of Edson Buddle and Herculez Gomez.
Never did that discussion include Robbie Findley — especially after how overwhelmed he looked against the Netherlands in March — yet he was the most shocking inclusion in the U.S. team’s final 23-man roster for the tournament announced Wednesday.
“We feel that Robbie still brings something special, especially as a reserve,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “His speed when he comes into a match, his willingness to try to run behind the defense, we felt that those were things that when we looked at everything our team had, we still felt that we could use some of those qualities.”
Findley, 24, has zero goals in three appearances for the national team, experience that nicely complements Buddle and Gomez, who also earned plane tickets to South Africa with a combined five career appearances and one goal for the United States. Gomez scored that goal Tuesday.
Who was left out at their expense? For one, Houston forward Brian Ching, who has 11 goals in 44 appearances with the national team and was an unused reserve at the 2006 World Cup. But he has been unable to recover from a hamstring injury in April. Eddie Johnson, who is still living off a U.S. hat trick at RFK in 2004 and had showed recent scoring form in Greece, also was left out. But then again, it was just Greece, so his omission isn’t exactly a surprise.
