The American Fan’s World Cup Handbook - 2010 Edition

With just two weeks to go until the World Cup kicks off, let's take a look back at some of the best moments of the 2006 World Cup. It's so close you can almost taste it.

The USA's 23-player World Cup roster was announced today live on the campus of ESPN after the team's 4-2 loss in their international friendly last night vs. the Czech Republic. The game was used to give the fringe players a chance to make a last impression before the final roster cuts. The players who benefited most were Edson Buddle, who made a good impression, and Herculez Gomez, who scored a header. Robbie Findley did not play, so his inclusion on the roster is probably the most surprising.

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION (All-Time World Cup Roster Appearances) 
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (2010), Marcus Hahnemann (2006, 2010), Tim Howard (2006, 2010) 
DEFENDERS (7): Carlos Bocanegra (2006, 2010), Jonathan Bornstein (2010), Steve Cherundolo (2002, 2006, 2010), Jay DeMerit (2010), Clarence Goodson (2010), Oguchi Onyewu (2006, 2010), Jonathan Spector (2010) 
MIDFIELDERS (9): DaMarcus Beasley (2002, 2006, 2010), Michael Bradley (2010), Ricardo Clark (2010), Clint Dempsey (2006, 2010), Landon Donovan (2002, 2006, 2010), Maurice Edu (2010), Benny Feilhaber (2010), Stuart Holden (2010), José Torres (2010) 
FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (2010), Edson Buddle (2010), Robbie Findley (2010), Herculez Gomez (2010) 

Here's what Head Coach Bob Bradley had to say after the roster was announced:

Football-shirts.co.uk is conducting a virtual tournament of World Cup jerseys, where fans get to vote on their favorite jerseys to determine the winners. Below you will find images of the jerseys being voted on and the links to where you can vote.

Click here to vote on Group A

Check out Nike's new short film/commercial featuring Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Wayne Rooney (England), Franck Ribery (France), Ronaldinho (Brazil), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and other popular athletes.

Parts 1 & 2
Part 3

In Part 4, the U.S. barely get by Trinidad & Tobago and prepare for a battle in Honduras.

From left to right: USA World Cup bid committee executive director, David Downs; U.S. Soccer president, Sunil Gulati; U.S. National Team captain, Carlos Bocanegra; FIFA president, Sepp Blatter 

The U.S. World Cup bid committee delivered its 1,250-page bid book to FIFA today in Zurich, Switzerland. The United States is bidding to host the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022. FIFA will decide the hsts for both tournaments on Decemer 2.

Here are the other countries that are bidding:
2018/2022: Australia, Belgium/Netherlands, England, Russia, Portugal/Spain, United States
2022: Japan, Qatar, South Korea

If the United States wins the bid, the following cities could possibly host tournament matches:

In the videos below, Drew Carey tells ESPNews why it should be a no-brainer for FIFA to select the United States, and Spike Lee comes out of the woodwork.

In case you didn't get the gist of the commercial, it is customary for players to trade jerseys with a player from the opposing team after international matches.

Landon Donovan was on The Herd with Colin Cowherd this morning talking about the U.S. National Team and the World Cup.

It sounds from Charlie's interview in France that it wasn't so much Bob Bradley who kept him off the World Cup roster as much as it was his club Sochaux. All in all, this whole episode has been just one big unfortunate tale. Maybe it will make Charlie an even hungrier player.

Listen to the very revealing interview here (Thanks to MLS Rumors for the link). You'll hear a bunch French at the beginning but Charlie answers in English.

United States manager Bob Bradley tells ESPNews about the decision to keep Charlie Davies off his provisional World Cup roster. It's really a shame that four years of searching for a pair of forwards with chemistry has yielded basically no results. With a month left they are basically starting over, unless you consider Altidore and Ching to be an ok fit, which I personally am not satisfied with. Hopefully either Herculez Gomez, Edson Buddle, Eddie Johnson or Robbie Findley can pair up with him with better results. I would like to see them just move Clint Dempsey up front and call it a day.