I'll admit it. I have no idea who will play for the U.S. against the Czechs tonight at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. Speculation, and the general feeling out of camp last week in Princeton, is that Bradley will use the game to evaluate players fighting for the last few spot on his roster for South Africa, as well as get critical field time for players in desperate need of live game action. After telling reporters that "17 to 19" spots are locked up, it sounds like he still has a bit of work to do in the former regard.


Around the interwebberbloggernets people are making their best guesses, putting forth what they hope to see, and just generally shooting spitballs at a houseflies. They might connect on a shot out of pure luck, but more likely they're as clueless as the rest of us.


All I'm really certain of is that Oguchi Onyewu will get ninety minutes because he needs it, that twenty-three guys will dress, and that only seventeen will play.


Six substitutions means thirteen guys, those that don't make the roster plus unused subs, won't see the field tonight. Subtracting the one keeper who is unlikely to play, it's actually this group of twelve that intrigues me the most. It stands to reason that the twelve will be made up of players in two categories: locks who don't need to play for whatever reason (or for whom rest is more important), and bubble players whose World Cup dream is about to come to an end.


If you're Eddie Johnson, Alejandro Bedoya, Chad Marshall, Sacha Kljestan, Robbie Rogers, Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, Robbie Findley, or one of a handful of others and you're not part of tonight's roster, it might be time to settle those vacation plans or get ready to head back to your MLS team. Hell, even Brian Ching could be on this list, though his status might be more "lock" than "bubble". These are the questions we still don't have the answers to, and why we'll be anxiously waiting for tomorrow morning (or whenever it might) and Bradley's final twenty-three for South Africa.


The fun will be in guessing which of those left out are locks not playing or bubble guys on the way to the cut list. I'm not sure we'll all agree.


We'll know soon enough who will represent the U.S.A. in South Africa. But tonight will give us our first clue as to which of the camp thirty has hit the end of the road.