Bradley gauging U.S. newcomers
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Around this time of year, when the winds blow cold off the sea and the snow piles deep in Copenhagen doorways, a fortunate few players from the Danish soccer league are plucked up and whisked away to warmer climes.
On Saturday, about 20 Danes will be at the Home Depot Center in Carson, playing the United States at 2 p.m. in what will be interim Coach Bob Bradley’s first match in charge of the U.S. team.
After that, Denmark Coach Morten Olsen will take his players even farther south, first to San Salvador to play El Salvador and then to Tegucigalpa for a match against Guatemala.
The three-game tour will give Olsen a chance to see which of the players can be elevated to the full national team in time for a tough match against Australia in London on Feb. 6.
All but one of the players on the tour play in the Danish league, whereas the majority of Denmark’s national team stars play in England, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
“These players have only been together for a few days, but in two weeks we have to make a team,” Olsen said Thursday after training. “We are trying that.”
Olsen was one of Denmark’s stars at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and that team, in turn, inspired the Danish side that, against all odds, won the European Championship in 1992.
Bradley, meanwhile, is on a similar mission. He has had 28 players in camp since Jan. 4 and has been working them hard, trying to see which of the newcomers -- 11 of the 28 have never played for the U.S. -- are true national team material.
“We’ve got some young, talented players who need to be pushed every day,” he said. “Young players who still need time to see the differences between the kind of habits that will get you by on the club level and the kind necessary to be successful on an international level.”
Those such as Landon Donovan, Chris Albright and Pablo Mastroeni are known quantities, proven players who are merely using the camp to get back into game shape during the long Major League Soccer off-season.
Others, such as Sacha Kljestan, Joshua Gros and Michael Parkhurst, are trying to catch Bradley’s eye and force their way onto the U.S. squad. One player who appears to have done so is Chivas USA midfielder-defender Jonathan Bornstein, the MLS rookie of the year in 2006.
“The one who has impressed people but is not a surprise for me, is Jonny Bornstein,” Bradley said. “The qualities that we saw last year in terms of his mobility, his ability to pick things up quickly every day, he’s not fazed by anything. He comes out every day and puts himself into it and plays hard.
“So I think he has really shown people that he’s the kind of player who, with continued work and time, is going to be very good.”
The next game for the U.S. -- against Mexico in Phoenix on Feb. 7 -- will be more meaningful and Bradley intends to reinforce his lineup with some of his European-based players.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s result won’t mean a lot, a point the Danes will surely make if they suffer the same fate as Norway, which also came to enjoy the sun last January and ended up on the wrong end of a 5-0 hiding.
The Americans are 0-1-3 against the Danes, however, in a series that dates to 1993.
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Fresh faces
Eleven of the 28 players in the current U.S. soccer camp have yet to earn their first cap (with position, MLS club and age):
* Kyle Beckerman, MF, Colorado, 24
* Jonathan Bornstein, D, Chivas USA, 22
* Kenny Cooper, F, FC Dallas, 22
* Joshua Gros, MF, D.C. United, 24
* Sacha Kljestan, MF, Chivas USA, 21
* Bryan Namoff, D, D.C. United, 27
* Michael Parkhurst, D, New England, 22
* Troy Perkins, GK, D.C. United, 25
* Matt Pickens, GK, Chicago, 24
* Dasan Robinson, D, Chicago, 22
* Eddie Robinson, D, Houston, 28
Source: U.S. Soccer
