As my boy Ives already told you, US Olympic Team Head Coach Piotr Nowak has replaced Real Salt Lake’s Nathan Sturgis with FC Dallas’ Dax McCarty after Sturgis pulled his hamstring during training.

While we’ve seen Sturgis play primarily with Real Salt Lake in a holding midfielder role, Nowak used him (similar to Thomas Rongen in the Under-20 World Cup) as a Center-back and Left-back during the 2008 Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

With McCarty (who I think would have been named initially if it weren’t for early MLS season injuries) occupying the deep, holding midfield role throughout that Qualifying Tournament, people will start to wonder why Nowak decided to replace a defender with a midfielder.

With everyone in the press already deciding that Nowak is going with an official 3-5-2 formation (one that he has yet to line up with), I personally tend to look a little closer at his roster.

Nowak knew that naming Sturgis to the initial Olympic Roster was going to be a risk because he’s been injured for a pretty significant amount of time, so I’m betting he was prepared for this to happen.

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Dan Frosch from the New York Times has a great read about New Mexico’s Edgar Castillo and his decision to play for Mexico instead of the United States.

What I liked seeing was the acknowledgment of US Soccer President Sunil Gulati and US Head Coach Bob Bradley that while they missed out on Castillo, they held on to San Luis’ Michael Orozco.

With former World Cup player /Colombian Wilmer Cabrera now filling the void of Hispanic Coaches in the younger US Soccer system as Head Coach of the US Under-17 National Team, along with former MLS Veterans Raul Diaz Arce and Marco Etcheverry involved with various US Youth Teams, hopefully we’ll see less and less players lost or passed over because of the lack of opportunities that Castillo had.

On a separate note, what does the success of Castillo and Orozco in Mexico say about the type of players that “America” is producing before they get to the college of MLS age groups.
image via NYTimes

Peter Nowak and his staff ran their first Olympic Team practice yesterday at Stanford University.

For all the up to date information from the team itself, check YNT-USSoccer.Blogspot.com.

image via YNT-USSoccer

Talismanic striker Brian McBride is ready to lead the young US Olympic team.

Image via Photobucket

The names are set (for the most part) as Piotr Nowak has released his Beijing Roster and yes, there are a few surprises.

2008 U.S. MEN’S OLYMPIC TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION

GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)

DEFENDERS (5): Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Danny Szetela (Brescia Calcio)

FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Brian McBride (out of contract), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

U.S. Men’s Olympic Team Alternates List
Goalkeeper: Dominic Cervi (Out of Contract)
Defender: Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew)
Midfielder: Dax McCarty (FC Dallas)
Forward: Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake)

We always knew there would have to be one or two surprises, so let the second guessing of Piotr Nowak’s roster begin.

Who am I surprised about? Benny Feilhaber and Nathan Sturgis, based on injuries alone. The inclusion of Marvell Wynne instead of Kamani Hill tells me (reading through the lines) that Nowak is going with three in the back.

Players missing from the Concacaf Qualification Tournament - Kamani Hill, Dax McCarty, Chad Barrett, Hunter Freeman, Jonathan Spector,Sal Zizzo, Dominic Cervi, Dax McCarty and Robbie Findley (although the last three are alternates).

The team will get together Sunday July 20th in San Jose, California for a week of training before heading out to participate in the ING Tournament in Hong Kong with fellow Olympians Ivory Coast (July 30th) and Cameroon (August 2nd).

Keep something in mind.  Nowak has until July 25th to submit his FINAL roster.  That means a full week of training and two matches before the team gets to Beijing.  Just saying…

Sacha Kljeston will play soccer for the U.S. at the Olympics, the son of a father determined to come to the U.S. to build a new life.

Great article and image from the OC Register

NBC has a new Olympics website up where you can find the schedule of all games and events.  Just about every event is on tv live and streamed online.   The US Men’s team opens against Japan on August 7, the Netherlands August 10th, then Nigeria August 13th in the opening round. 

These games are early too, the Japan game kicks off at 4:00am Eastern/1:00am West Coast. 

FIFA Olympics site

Image via Flickr

“NBC Universal, which will broadcast the Beijing Games in the United States, will start four new dedicated cable channels in August that could be available to 80 million TV households, company officials said.

One channel will be devoted exclusively to carrying men’s and women’s soccer games 12 hours a day, while a second channel will carry men’s and women’s basketball games 14 hours a day….”

More Here…

FC Uptown

Image via Engadget

Check out Graig Carbino’s take on the selection for the upcoming Olympics and what coaches like Bob Bradley have to take into consideration.

Click here for the story

West Ham defender Jonathan Spector will miss out on the 2008 Beijing Olympics for the United States after learning he’ll need surgery on his right hip to repair his labrum.

The surgery has a 6 month recovery period, making it impossible for the 22 year old to recover in time for the Games.

The big question is how will Peter Nowak replace one of his most experienced defenders? Will this have a major impact on his choices for the 3 over-age players and how big was Michael Orozco’s performance at the Qualification looking like now?

image via Cache