This won't be overly long and involved, but I thought it necessary to provide a bit of a basic primer as U.S. National Team World Cup camp starts in earnest at Princeton today.


Just a few basics, with the possibility that news will leak out of New Jersey throughout the week to give us a better idea of where things are headed.


Who's There

Twenty-nine twenty-six of the thirty on the preliminary roster are present, with Alejandro Bedoya remaining in Sweden one more today for Orebro's match today.

*UPDATE*

According to SF (MLS Insider) who is in Princeton, Feilhaber, Gooch and Goodson have no yet arrived either. I'm guessing that they'll all be there later today/early tomorrow.

The presence of every player (minus Bedoya, who will be there shortly) on the list answers the question of just who would be in camp; Bob Bradley originally indicated that 26-28 would be invited, with the remaining spots held by alternates. Either he had a change of heart, or the initial stages of camp are being handled differently than what is to come. The first of the domestic warm ups is eight days away.

Injuries

Eddie Johnson's hamstring injury, picked up last week while playing in the Greek Superleague playoffs, has been evaluated as a "Grade 1" strain. As I understand it, this is the least serious type of strain, and puts Johnson in the day-to-day category of injuries. It doesn't sound too bad, but any time lost at all is a serious blow to Eddie's already small chances of making the final twenty-three man roster.

Holden, Onyewu, Bocanegra, and Ching (with the possibility I'm missing someone) are all coming off of injury in some form or another. Adding Chad Marshall.

Holden - Broken leg suffered against the Netherlands on March 3rd is fully healed. Holden made a substitute appearance for Bolton in their final match of the season.

Onyewu - Patella tendon injury suffered in October. Onyewu's long recovery is complete, and though he made the travelling squad for AC Milan's final two matches, he did not make the game day roster for either.

Bocanegra - Abdominal strain. Bocanegra has not played over the last few weeks for Rennes, though the reasons are more related to resting his abdominal strain than because he was not healthy enough to play.

Ching - Hamstring injury suffered in the first week of the MLS season. He returned to training with the Dynamo last week.

Marshall - Hamstring injury of his own, that has him training separately from the group on the first day.


Major Areas of Focus

With that short amount of time, Bob Bradley has a healthy to-do list. Here are the three most pressing issues:

Shaking out the Forwards

Altidore, Ching, Buddle, Gomez, a lame Johnson, and Robbie Findley. From that group, Bradley must determine who deserves a look against the Czech's on the 25th; from there, he'll either use the Turkey game on the 29th to flesh things out further, or settle on his group (and hopefully staring tandem) and use the game as a World Cup dry run. With the uncertainty involved, he may not have the luxury of the latter, or could split the game into halves with different combinations as part of the evaluation process. Will we see Dempsey or Donovan at striker in either friendly?

How good is Gooch/Getting him up to speed

Oneywu's failure to appear at the end of the Serie A season means that no one really knows if he's ready to handle game speed. Camp will hopefully give him another layer of readiness, but it won't be until the warm-up matches that Bradley, or Gooch for that matter, will know just how far from full pre-injury levels he actually is. Bradley's hands may be tied, since Onyewu is far an away his best central defender, but he does have options. Still, expect Onyewu to get every minute possible during the build up to get both his fitness and sharpness moving quickly in the right direction.

Left back

Every U.S. fan's biggest concern: who to play at left back? Bornstein, Spector, Bocanegra, other? Bornstein has maintained Bradley's faith despite some questionable performances, and has the speed to keep up with speedy wingers; Bocanegra plays on the left in France, and has the superior experience and positional sense. The remaining options, including Jonathan Spector or playing another fullback out of his natural position, are downright scary. Bradley may decide to set out his team based on a tactical response to his opponent, which would mean both Bornstein and Bocanegra getting time at the spot through camp.

Honorable mention goes to pinning down just who will play alongside Michael Bradley in central midfield. Ricardo Clark has been there before, but Maurice Edu has played solidly for Rangers and might be the more dynamic option. At least Bradley has one thing going for him, in that both players have appeared for their clubs and shown well over recent weeks.