The roster for Wednesday's Columbus showdown is at ussoccer.com; I've taken from it the information pertinent to this post:
| Name | Club |
| Altidore, Jozy | Xerez C.D. (Spain) |
| Beasley, DaMarcus | Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) |
| Bocanegra, Carlos | Stade Rennais (France) |
| Bornstein, Jonathan | Chivas USA (MLS) |
| Bradley, Michael | Borussia Mönchengladbach (Germany) |
| Califf, Danny | FC Midtjylland (Denmark) |
| Ching, Brian | Houston Dynamo (MLS) |
| Clark, Ricardo | Houston Dynamo (MLS) |
| Davies, Charlie | Hammarby IF (Sweden) |
| Dempsey, Clint | Fulham FC (England) |
| Donovan, Landon | Bayern Munich (Germany) |
| Guzan, Brad | Aston Villa (England) |
| Hejduk, Frankie | Columbus Crew (MLS) |
| Howard, Tim | Everton FC (England) |
| Kljestan, Sacha | Chivas USA (MLS) |
| Onyewu, Oguchi | Standard de Liege (Belgium) |
| Pearce, Heath | Hansa Rostock (Germany) |
| Rogers, Robbie | Columbus Crew (MLS) |
| Torres, José Francisco | Pachuca (Mexico) |
| Wynne, Marvell | Toronto FC (MLS) |
If I'm counting correctly, that's twelve players based in Europe, and one playing in the Mexican top-flight out of eighteen total.
Now compare it to the roster for the first World Cup qualifier against Mexico in 2005:
| Name | Club |
| Albright, Chris | LA Galaxy (MLS) |
| Beasley, DaMarcus | PSV Eindhoven (Holland) |
| Berhalter, Gregg | Energie Cottbus (Germany) |
| Bocanegra, Carlos | Fulham FC (England) |
| Busch, Jon | Columbus Crew (MLS) |
| Cherundolo, Steve | Hannover 96 (Germany) |
| Ching, Brian | San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) |
| Convey, Bobby | Reading FC (England) |
| Dempsey, Clint | New England Revolution (MLS) |
| Donovan, Landon | LA Galaxy (MLS) |
| Gibbs, Cory | Feyenoord (Holland) |
| Hartman, Kevin | LA Galaxy (MLS) |
| Johnson, Eddie | FC Dallas (MLS) |
| Keller, Kasey | Borussia Mönchengladbach (Germany) |
| Lewis, Eddie | Preston North End (England) |
| Marshall, Chad | Columbus Crew (MLS) |
| Mastroeni, Pablo | Colorado Rapids (MLS) |
| McBride, Brian | Fulham FC (England) |
| Noonan, Pat | New England Revolution (MLS) |
| Onyewu, Oguchi | Standard Liege (Belgium) |
| Ralston, Steve | New England Revolution (MLS) |
| Reyna, Claudio | Manchester City (England) |
| Wolff, Josh | Kansas City Wizards (MLS) |
| Zavagnin, Kerry | Kansas City Wizards (MLS) |
This is the best information I could find; obviously this roster is bigger in size, so we'll have to make allowances as we compare the two. I've chosen to use the roster from the first Mexico match in '05 for a couple of reasons: One, it's the best parallel to the upcoming match from a league schedule standpoint (MLS players in pre-season while most European-based players are in the midst of their campaigns), and two, each manager would have likely called up their strongest sides for the first match of the campaign against their biggest rival.
There were eleven non-MLS players on this roster, out of a total of twenty-four.
Percentage of non-MLS players on 2005 roster: 46%
Percentage of non-MLS players on 2009 roster: 72%
The increase seems significant, if only as an indication that more and more American players are strong enough to play in leagues outside of the US. While it could be argued that not all of the leagues on the 2009 list are upgrades over MLS, it's clear that most of the American national team stalwarts that do play abroad play in leagues with more quality than our own domestic one. We know that Bob Bradley is comfortable with MLS players having coached there, and it's doubtful that the team will ever be devoid of them completely, but even taking into account current form, it appears there has been a major shift away from MLS players to those plying their trade elsewhere.
Some of this is certainly circumstantial; Landon Donovan, for example, would have been called into the team regardless of whether he was on loan to Bayern Munich or not.
Share your thoughts. Do you see the emphasis on foreign-based players as a matter of circumstance (form, MLS not being in season, etc.), or as representative of an overall shift in the American squads makeup for years to come?
A note: I was forced to gather the club information for the 2005 team myself (using Wikipedia), so if you find any mistakes, please let me know. I also reserve the right to post a more in-depth commentary on the "shift" at some point in the near future.
