Notes on roster for Germany friendly

Today US Soccer released 19 names for the Germany friendly. They are:

• Berhalter, Gregg
• Cherundolo, Steve
• Ching, Brian
• Conrad, Jimmy
• Convey, Bobby
• Donovan, Landon
• Gibbs, Cory
• Hahnemann, Marcus
• Hejduk, Frankie
• Johnson, Eddie
• Keller, Kasey
• Klein, Chris
• Mastroeni, Pablo
• Olsen, Ben
• Pearce, Heath
• Pope, Eddie
• Twellman, Taylor
• Wolff, Josh
• Zavagnin, Kerry

Reading the tea leaves of these rosters is always hard. There are a lot of different reasons you might be on the list:

• You're a lock for the WC but you're needed in the roster to be able to mount a credible threat to Germany and allow other players to fit in (Donovan, Keller, Mastroeni, Dolo, Pope)
• You're going to the WC but Bruce isn't sure what you bring and wants to see more of you (Twellman, Johnson, Convey)
• You're on the bubble and Bruce wants to see if you can impress him enough to make the team (Ching, Zavagnin, Conrad, Berhalter, Hejduk, Gibbs, probably Hahnemann)
• You wouldn't even be on the bubble based on past performance but you can play a position that's weak for us so Bruce wants to see if you'll do (Olsen, Pearce, Wolff, Klein)
  
  There are also various reasons you may have been left off the roster:

• You're a mortal lock for the WC but Bruce sees no reason to rock the club boat by calling you in (McBride, Beasely, Bocanegra, Reyna, Onyewu)
• You were in the picture but now you're not, so Bruce has no need to see anything further (Casey, Rolfe--which kind of surprises me)
• You punched out a teammate and are serving a two-week suspension for it (Dempsey)

The players with the most possible upside have to include Convey (great club form, exciting late sub in Poland friendly) and Johnson/Twellman (with a torrid run-in to the cup a spot in the starting XI will likely be yours).

How do I feel about this friendly? Cautiously pessimistic. Germany has a lot to prove in this game after their 4-1 drubbing by Italy, so they're looking to get some pre-Cup pride back, not just test out players. Given that we're on their home turf as well, I think there could be rough going if we're not sharp. But more on this as the game approaches.