LA Galaxy forwards Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan were named today to the final 23-man World Cup roster by U.S. National Team head coach Bob Bradley. The players will remain in training camp with the National Team this week ahead of Saturday afternoon’s friendly against Turkey in Philadelphia, before flying to South Africa with the rest of the U.S. delegation on Sunday. This will be the third World Cup for Donovan and the first for Buddle.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa will be the fourth World Cup held since the Galaxy’s inaugural season in 1996. The Galaxy have been represented at each of the previous tournaments with Cobi Jones playing for the U.S. in 1998 and 2002. In 2006, the Galaxy sent two players to the World Cup, with both Chris Albright and Landon Donovan named to the United States roster. For this year’s tournament, the Galaxy are the only MLS team to have two players on the final 23-man U.S. roster.
The all-time leading scorer in U.S. National Team with 42 goals and 42 assists in 121 career games with the Red, White and Blue, Donovan played for the U.S. at the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea and the 2006 World Cup in Germany, starting all eight games that the U.S. played in at those two tournaments and scoring twice. The MLS leader with nine assists in nine games this season, Donovan is the sixth leading scorer in MLS history with 97 career goals and the second leading scorer in Galaxy history with 65 goals in 130 career games with the club.
Buddle, who leads MLS with nine goals in nine games this season, earned his second cap with the U.S. on Tuesday night, starting and playing the opening 45 minutes of the 4-2 loss to the Czech Republic in Hartford, Conn. That was the first start of Buddle’s National Team career and his first appearance with the team in more than seven years. The 10th leading scorer in MLS history with 82 career goals in his 10-year MLS career, Buddle has 34 career goals in 71 games since joining the Galaxy in June 2007. Buddle’s two caps are the fewest among the 23 players named to the final U.S. roster.
Buddle and Donovan will miss at least the Galaxy’s next three games, which will all be played before Major League Soccer takes a two-week break for the group stage of the tournament. If the United States advances beyond the group stages, the pair will miss at least one more regular season game with the Galaxy.
The United States were drawn into Group C of the World Cup along with Algeria, England and Slovenia. The U.S. opens their World Cup schedule on Saturday, June 12 when they take on England at 11:30 a.m. (PT). They then take on Slovenia on Friday, June 18 at 7 a.m. (PT) before rounding out group play on Wednesday, June 23 against Algeria at 7 a.m. (PT).
To view the complete United States World Cup roster for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, please visit www.ussoccer.com, the official website of U.S. Soccer.
