US National Team, Olympic Team and Heerenveen star Michael Bradley was out at Chivas USA training this morning, getting in a session to stay sharp and fit.

With the England match just around the corner, it looks like the Eredivisie standout is doing exactly what David Beckham did when training with Arsenal. Just getting a run in. Nothing more, nothing less.

image via Chivas-USA.blogspot.com

UPDATE - US Soccer and U-23 Head Coach Peter Nowak have announced the roster for the Toulon Tournament that kicks off May 21st.

While it doesn’t have the big name players were used to seeing, there will be a few to keep an eye on, namely Benny Feilhaber.

Anyone else think this tournament could earn him not only a spot in Beijing, but also a new club?

Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Dominic Cervi (out of contract), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake), Quentin Westburg (Troyes)

DEFENDERS (10): Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake), Eric Brunner (out of contract), Kyle Davies (Southampton), Michael Gavin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Kamani Hill (Vfl Wolfsburg), Jonathan Leathers (Kansas City Wizards), Brek Shea (FC Dallas), Julian Valentin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Rob Valentino (New England Revolution), Blake Wagner (FC Dallas)

MIDFIELDERS (5): Bryan Arguez (Hertha Berlin), Corey Ashe (Houston Dynamo), Greg Dalby (SC Charleroi), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Lee Nguyen (Randers FC)

FORWARDS (4): Gabe Ferrari (Sampdoria), Bryan Jordan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Ellis McLoughlin (Hertha Berlin), Sammy Ochoa (U.A.G.)

[Courtesy of US Soccer]

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It definitely wasn’t the easiest draw for the United States (I think that’s going to Brazil with a group that includes Belgium, China and New Zealand), but you knew it was going to be difficult no matter what.

Facing Japan in the opening match on August 7th in Tianjin will provide a great opening test for the Americans, who the United States beat in Penalty Kicks in the Quater-Finals in Adelaide during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Next up on August 10th (also in Tianjin) will be a Dutch squad that boasts the likes of Liverpool’s Ryan Babel, PSV’s Ibrahim Affelay, Feyenoord’s Jonathan de Guzman (Canadian transplant) and Real Madrid’s Royston Drenthe just to name a few.

Rounding out Group B play with be a tough, physical match up with Nigeria on August 13th in Beijing at the National Stadium.

Other Groups include;

Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia and Australia

Italy, Cameroon, South Korea and Honduras

Brazil, Belgium, China and New Zealand

Peter Nowak will have to have his roster finalized in late July and keep this in mind. Nowak can only name an 18 man roster for the Olympic Games, including his THREE over age players.

And you thought there were surprises for the Olympic Qualification Tournament?  Makes you realize how important the Toulon Tournament could be for some players.
[image and information via USSoccer.com]

Men’s Olympic Group B Schedule

To give the fans out there what a day in the life of
Sacha Kljestan is like, heres whats went on today,
Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

I wake up usually around 8 am and sit around for a bit
on my computer and check whats new going on in the
world. Then I ate breakfast, coffee and some yogurt
with granola and fruit. And then Im leaving for
training with Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center. We
train at 10 am, so I have to be there no later than
9:30 am, so that means I leave home around 8:35-8:45
to make sure Im there on time so Im not buying the
team bagels.

Im in the locker room around 9:15 and just hanging out
talking to my next door neighbor in the locker room
Brad Guzan until we head out to training. Training
starts at 10 am and today wasnt too hard of a session
as we were coming off a win on the weekend vs Salt
Lake and guys were still pretty heavy. After the
regular session of some technical work, possesion, 7v7
to goals, and some finishing, Paulo Nagamura and I
worked on our free kicks from about 22 yards out over
the wall. We have been training on those about twice a
week together so when it comes to it in the game, we
will be fighting over who takes them. After training I
spent about 40 minutes in the gym, lately I have been
trying to put on some weight to get stronger to be
able to play with more force on the field.

When I came back into the locker room, Liverpool and
Arsenal were 1-1 in the Champions League match of the
day. After trading spectacular goals from Fernando
Torres and Emanuel Adebayor, Liverpool pulled away
with a few late goals and moved on to the Semi-finals.
Pretty exciting end of a match to watch. Hopefully one
day I will be playing on that stage.

I got home from training around 2 pm and ate lunch and
watched some more Champions League. Chelsea wins this
time 2-0 and move on at home. Next rounds match-up
will be a good one. The rest of day I like to relax
and do random things. Went to the mall with a few
friends and played some ping pong at home. Nobody ever
beats me at Ping Pong, Im still looking for some good
competition. I might try out for the Olympic Ping Pong
Team, Ok Im not that good I’ll just stick with kicking
soccer balls.

Remember last week when I was telling you guys about the new AdiPure?

Sacha Kljestan

Qualified!

Beijing here we come. After a lot of hard work over the past few months, our team came together to beat Canada 3-0 on Thursday night in Nashville to qualify us for the Olympics. We were all happy to celebrate with Coach Nowak and the rest of the team after we finally had accomplished what we set out to do. It was a great feeling scoring the 3rd goal and helping my team secure the victory. Almost like the icing on the cake for our ticket to Beijing. It was such a great feeling to hold that American flag on the field after the game, hopefully we have a chance to do that again in China in August by winning a medal.

I also want to thank the people of Nashville for all of their support and kindness this past week. Today the team was given a suite to watch the Nashville Predators take on the Chicago Blackhawks in NHL action. We cheered on the home team, and they won in a shootout, it was pretty exciting. They honored us at the game by showing us on the big screen and showing highlights of our last game vs. Canada. The Predators cheerleaders even made it up into our suite to our surprise, and the boys were pretty stoked about that.

We still have one more game here tomorrow that we are getting ready for. We will face Honduras in the finals, with a chance to become champions of CONCACAF. Even though we have already beaten them once this tournament, and already qualified for the Olympics, we still want to win the championship. So we hope to see all the fans in Nashville again tomorrow night.

Sacha Kljestan

With last night’s impressive win over our northern neighbors, the US team has clinched their spot at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. With 2 goals from Freddy Adu, and a third added by TOW contributor Sacha Kljestan (big ups kid!), the outcome of the game never looked in doubt. With loads of experience at the professional level, a deep squad and confidence in bundles, what do you think the US team can achieve this summer in Beijing? What three overage players do you think Peter Nowak is going to bring in? This will be a busy summer for some of our country’s brightest young stars. Here is to wishing them lots of luck and success!

Oh yeah, that beautiful stadium in the picture above will be hosting soccer matches this summer.

We are a couple hours until kick off of the US v Canada semi final match. With the winner advancing to Beijing, there is an awful lot on the line for the boys tonight. Obviously the majority of us won’t be in Nashville and able to attend in person, but we can all cheer them on from home. After failing to have advanced for the last Olympics, we need to get back to the games and represent.

The Original Winger will also be represented in tonight’s match. TOW contributor / Olympic Team captain Sacha Kljestan will be representing on the field, while 2000 Olympic Team Captain Dunny will be doing color commentary for Fox Soccer Channel for tonight’s game. What will be my contribution you ask and how will I represent? Sharp one liners and incredible tactical analysis will be taking place live and direct from my couch (unfortunately the only person paying any attention to me will be….me!). Enjoy the game… come on boys!

Our boy Sacha Kljestan checks in with us from Nashville as the US U-23’s are in the middle of securing their ticket to Beijing. Sacha is going to be continually checking in to keep everyone up to date on things and to give you an inside peek at his world. We urge everyone to cheer the boys on Thursday in their “winner goes to the Olympics” game against Canada.

WIN OR GO HOME!

Thursday! US Vs. Canada. Winner goes to the Olympics.

This has been a dream of mine since Atlanta ‘96 when Michael Johnson was dominating the world in his gold shoes. It has been an amazing experience so far in this qualification process. The 3 games in Tampa went well and the team is feeling good going into the Semifinal game. We know it will be tough, but we are hoping for good support from a lot of Red, White and Blue in Nashville. It’s win or go home for our team, be there to support us! Thanks!

Sacha Kljestan