Round tres

Just a day and some change until the US Men's team meets Guatemala on Sunday in the US's first play at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas. Once again the roster is packed with MLS players, plus one international player, defender Heath Pearce of FC Nordsjælland in Denmark. But Coach Arena said bye c'ya to the Galaxy and Revolution players, which include heavies Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Taylor Twellman, who performed ever-so-nicely against Norway, garnering a lovely hat trick, and got a goal and some set-up credit against Japan.

This is the US team's third match against Guatemala in a year, starting with a 2-0 win in Birmingham last March followed by a lackluster draw in Guatemala City in September just a few days after the men qualified for Germany. Facing them for Guatemala, once again, is FC Dallas tough guy Carlos Ruiz.

MLS.net reports that the 14 MLS players on the roster are:

Keepers: Brad Guzan of Chivas and Zach Wells of Houston 1836 (and lord, that name's going to take me some getting used to. Do I call them just Houston? Or the 1836ers? The 36?). I think Guzan's a pretty solid keeper, so I'm looking forward to seeing him play again on the international level.

Defense: D.C.'s Bobby Boswell (who had the misfortune of committing three own-goals last season, but he seems to have shaken that bad run off nicely to rebound at the end of the seaon), Jimmy Conrad from Kansas City Wizards, my other futbol crush Frankie Hejduk (why? I dunno, I like the hair. And the big-O phuque U attitude he carries about with him like a big chip on his shoulder. But mostly it's the hair.) of the Crew, and national team regular Eddie Pope of my nemesis Real Salt Lake.

Midfield: Three -- count em, three! -- from the Black-and-Red, Brian Carroll, Ben Olsen and Santino Quaranta, who played in the scoreless draw against Guatemala in September and turned in a good effort, Real's Chris Klein, Kyle Martino of Columbus, and Kansas City's Kerry Zavagnin, who's played in the USMT's past three international friendlies and caught my eye with his good, reliable play.

Strikers: Brian Ching of Houston-formerly-San Jose (whom I adore because I gotta give luv to my fellow Asian-Americans out there), Eddie Johnson now of the Wizards but last week of FC Dallas, the Fire's Chris Rolfe and the ever-awesome Josh Wolff of the Wizards (did I ever mention I'm partial to the Wizards? Yeah, I love them, too. In my region, I have the Wizards and FC Dallas. Dallas is three hours away, KC is six, but I'd take KC any day. Nothing against the club, really, I just hate the Dallas metrohell).

Hmmm, looks like the only Dallas represenation on the field will be Ruiz. LA and the Revs players are absent, of course, in order to prepare for CONCACAF Champion's Cup play next week. No Colorado or Metrostars players, either.

But this is a good lineup, especially going in against Guatemala, who is part of the intercontinetnal rivalry of the US vs. the rest of the Americas. It's a good thing, actually, that the MLS heavies of Donovan, Twellman and Dempsy are absent, as the

last three games were pretty much walks in the park, made easier by their stellar talent. This is a team that will have to be a team to get on the board, and without the distraction of the popular crowd, they can do it. Some of my Premiership friends would call this lineup the C team, but I disagree. I can sense some good team play out of this bunch, and that's what I always tune in for.

And ooh-la-la, fashionista week wraps up this weekend as the team trots out the new threads.