| | |  Americas & Beyond 
U.S., Mexico Gear Up for World Cup
 Mark Zeigler - San Diego Union-Tribune
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April 21, 2010
We’re 50 days from the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Here’s a quick look at the preparation plans for the United States and Mexico.
Team USA
National coach Bob Bradley is finalizing the roster he’ll invite to the preparation camp beginning May 15 at a yet-to-be-named site on the East Coast. There are games on May 25 against the Czech Republic in East Hartford, Conn., and May 29 against Turkey in Philadelphia.
The team will fly to South Africa on May 30 and continue training at its base in the Pretoria area, playing one final tuneup against Australia on June 5 in Johannesburg.
The big questions facing Bradley are injuries to several key players and the recent upturn in form of some more obscure ones. FIFA regulations require a 30-man provisional roster be submitted May 11 and a final 23-man list on June 1.
Charlie Davies, who was initially ruled out of the World Cup following a November car crash, has been doing fitness workouts for the past month with his club in France. But the speedy forward has yet to return to full training, let alone game action, with Sochaux. The same goes for defender Oguchi Onyewu, who had major knee surgery in November.
There’s also the issue of midfielder Jermaine Jones, who has an American father and last summer took advantage of a new FIFA rule allowing him to switch national-team allegiance from Germany to the United States. But he has been plagued by a stress fracture in his leg all season and still hasn’t seen the field for German club Schalke 04.
The other question is whether Bradley will call Edson Buddle or Herculez Gomez, two forwards who were out of the picture a month ago but have suddenly played their way back into consideration. Buddle has scored all seven Los Angeles Galaxy goals this season, and Gomez — who resurrected his career with the San Diego Gauchos in 2002 — is leading Mexico’s Clausura season with an incredible 10 goals in 14 games for Puebla.
“I always say,” said the Galaxy’s Landon Donovan, “you play the guy that’s playing the best at the time, period.”
El Tri
Javier Aguirre didn’t want to wait for May 17, when FIFA requires clubs to release players for World Cup duty. Mexico’s coach named a preliminary roster and opened a camp with 17 domestic players on April 12, meaning they’ll miss the remainder of the Mexican league season.
Chivas of Guadalajara lost five players alone, and not surprisingly it has been shut out three straight times.
Of the 17, only a handful are expected to get serious minutes in South Africa: goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, midfielder Gerardo Torrado and forwards Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Cuauhtemoc Blanco. But the others get a chance to show their worth in a three-city U.S. tour next month: May 7 against Ecuador in East Rutherford, N.J.; May 10 against Senegal in Chicago; and May 13 against Angola in Houston.
The team then returns to Mexico City, where it will be joined by 10 to 12 European players for a week of training. Then it’s off to Europe for games against England (May 24), the Netherlands (May 26 in Innsbruck, Austria) and Italy (June 3 in Brussels).
Said Aguirre, who is in his second stint at El Tri’s helm: “These guys want to make history, and it’s in their hands. The sacrifice is tough. The 60 days won’t be easy.”
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