USSoccer.com has reported that Coach Bob Bradley has added 35 year-old defender Frankie Hejduk to the training camp roster leading up to the final leg of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Frankie Hejduk Added to Roster
This is the fourth FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign for Hejduk who has 84 career caps (second most on the roster for the Honduras match) and seven international goals. He has appeared for the USA 17 times in World Cup qualifying, most recently in the 3-0 victory on April 1 against Trinidad & Tobago. Just days prior to that game in Nashville, Hejduk set up one goal and scored the equalizer in the 2-2 draw against El Salvador on March 28 in San Salvador.
This brings the training camp roster to 22 players, which will be trimmed to 18 before each of the remaining two matches at Honduras on Saturday night and against Costa Rica in Washington, DC on October 14th.
Steve Davis at Daily Soccer Fix writes that although Hejduk is a little past his prime, his addition is a good one for the US:
First, when he’s healthy – which, admittedly, is a little less often these days – he’ll still get up and down the line more than Spector, Cherundolo or anyone else Bradley can throw out there.
Second, there’s nobody over there at the moment really blowing Bradley’s little coaching socks off. But there’s another, even more important reason that this is no terrible idea.
Hejduk is fearless. It doesn’t matter what’s going on around him – he’s just there to play a little soccer, kick a couple of shins and then cruise the internet for the latest surfing vids on YouTube.
Given his production in previous qualifying matches and his experience on this stage, I would expect him to be on the 18-man game day roster for both Honduras and Costa Rica. However, Bradley may favor younger legs if Hejduk does not perform well during final training or is not 100% leading up to the matches.
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