Bruce Arena spoke to the media after announcing his roster for the Germany-USA game next Wednesday. Among the key points: * The selection of Kasey Keller to start in goal was made in advance, thereby freeing up Brad Friedel to travel with Blackburn Rovers to the UAE; * There was no need to risk Claudio Reyna, who’s coming back from another injury, against Germany. He said he’d chose from Landon Donovan, Earnie Stewart, John O’Brien, Chris Armas, Cobi Jones and Eddie Lewis for the four starting midfield jobs against Germany. * He said he has about seven players competing for four or five spots up front. * Steve Cherundolo may start against Germany and has “a pretty solid shot at making” the World Cup team. * Arena wants to look at young defender Cory Gibbs, but acknowledged that “he has a way to go.” * Arena said success in the Gold Cup won’t necessarily translate into success at the Gold Cup. He said the World Cup qualifiers were closer to the pressure his players will face at the World Cup. Here’s an edited transcript of Arena’s comments: Opening comments: “We’ve had a great start to 2002, but this is all part of our preparation for the World Cup, and although we are pleased with our results, the only thing that really matters is June 5 — our opening game with Portugal. These games are important, and they are important to me as far as narrowing down our roster. The game in Germany is going to be a challenge. I think the last time in Europe we caught a team that was maybe not fully prepared. This time around, we will face a German team that is prepared for the U.S. They also have players that are fighting for roster spots and have been told plenty of times that they haven’t beaten us the last two times we have played.” On the inclusion of Mathis and Donovan on a primarily European-based roster: “Well, to start off you need at least 18 players. We don’t have 18 players in Europe that we could have compete against Germany. Certainly, they’re important players in the mix at this time. We haven’t had a chance to see Mathis and McBride with our European players yet, so we’re looking forward to that. My thinking all along was that two-thirds of the roster would be European-based and one-third would be MLS-based. Obviously, I didn’t want to bring too many MLS players with their season starting this weekend.” On the absence of midfielder Claudio Reyna on the roster: “Claudio may be available for his game this weekend with Sunderland, but when we look at the big picture, for a player that’s been out a number of weeks it’s not worth the risk. If he has to, he could’ve probably played with us against Germany, but that’s maybe pushing him too hard too early when we’re thinking about the fact that he’s just coming back from an injury.” On Claudio’s absence over 2001 and so far in 2002: “In 2001, he played in less than half our games and in 2002 he has played in one of our eight games, so we don’t need to be that reliant on Claudio, just like we aren’t reliant on any other player. Last year we played without Clint Mathis and Brian McBride. If you think about this, we’ve done this before; we’ve been though this exercise. I think we are a better team with Claudio Reyna, with Earnie Stewart and with a lot our more experienced, veteran players, but at the same time, I think we are quite comfortable with whoever we go with. I am convinced we have players who will be able to step up and produce for us if we need to.” On who Reyna’s replacement might be at attacking midfielder: “Clearly, the options are with (Landon) Donovan, (Earnie) Stewart, (John) O’Brien, (Chris) Armas, Cobi (Jones) and (Eddie) Lewis, so four of those six we’ll go with. I haven’t determined at this time who we’ll go with.” On a recent quote of his that was perceived as doubting the long-term stability of Major League Soccer: “If it was interpreted that way, fair enough. That was not my intention. I was responding to a question regarding MLS development. What I was saying was that I don’t think their feet are on the ground enough yet to handle that huge financial responsibility. With contraction, that’s the last thing on their mind. I’m the biggest supporter of MLS. If I worded things incorrectly, then I apologize. I’m very confident that they’re going to be here for the long haul.” On Josh Wolff’s role with the team and chances of making the final World Cup roster: “In terms of his role, I don’t think its defined. The concern right now is his health. If he’s healthy, I think Josh understands where he fits in with this team. But having said that, we have a number of forwards that I have to make some hard decisions about. We have about seven players competing for four or five spots.” On how MLS has helped develop the U.S. player pool: “MLS has helped us considerably. Right now, we’re down to about a 35-man pool, and I would think approximately 23 of those players are from MLS, so it shows the kind of numbers MLS has been able to provide for the national team program and the depth that we now have. Armas would probably be working in a bank right now with out MLS. In all honesty, I don’t know what we would be like right now. There wouldn’t be any questions about the roster. The question would be ‘Do you have enough players for a 23-man roster?’ We have three teenagers that are competing for this roster, and that has never happen before in the history of the game in our country. That is a tribute to MLS. Having said that, we need to paint a picture of how MLS is going to get better in the future. In each and every World Cup, we tend to be on the old side, but for this I think we’re probably going in with an average age of 28 or so. I think we’ll be younger in 2006 and then that much younger in 2010. I think as the league grows, the national team grows, and the national team will be better for it.” On the strength of the defense in 2002: “You tend to give a lot of credit when there is a shutout to the back four and goalkeeper. It has been a total team effort, from the forwards back, that has made it a lot easier for our back four and goalkeeper. We got a good performance from Kasey Keller in the Gold Cup, and Tim Howard did a good job last week. Jeff Agoos has been around and played well every game. Eddie Pope looks like he has come back from his injury and played well against Honduras, and Llamosa played well against Ecuador. The young guys have also done well with their time in some of our experiments. Richard Mulrooney has been playing well since moving to right back, Carlos Bocanegra was solid in the Gold Cup. Gregg Berhalter did well in Italy and Pablo Mastroeni has done well. They have all played well on a consistent basis and have had Chris Armas in front of them and done well. The number of shutouts we have recorded is a credit to the team.” On the absence of Brad Friedel for the Germany roster: “We planned all along to play Kasey (Keller). Blackburn is traveling to UAE and it doesn’t make sense to bring him in when he’d be in a backup role. Once this trip came up for Blackburn, at the club’s request, we decided to let him stay with them.” On Cherundolo’s place within the team: “Let’s take it one thing at a time. I am thinking of starting him for this game. I haven’t seen Steve play this year, as I mentioned, but I know he’s been playing consistently for his club team. Whether this game will build into something that turns into a starting role, we don’t know. Steve is still at a point where he’s fighting for a spot on the roster. He’s had a good year this year, and I know what kind of player he is. He’s got a pretty solid shot at making this roster.” On calling in young defender Cory Gibbs: “Basically, I want to look at him in person. I saw him as a U-20 and saw a tape of him playing in Germany. He has a way to go, he’s a young defender, but it makes sense when we are playing in Germany to bring in as many of our German players as we can.” On the lack of a clear choice at the right back position: “Its a competitive position, for one thing. I don’t think you could say we had a forward who stepped up to claim a position, although a lot of that was due to injury. I just think that it’s the competitive aspect of it. Sanneh played pretty much all of the qualifiers, so there’s no question that he belongs on the field. Are we totally happy with the right back position? I think we can get better. They’ve done a solid job and have been pretty solid defensively. We tend to ask them to do more than what’s needed. Getting forward, they’re not always that comfortable, but that not the first priority of a defender.” On if success in past tournaments will help at the 2002 World Cup: “In all honesty, I don’t think so. I think the World Cup is going to be different than those tournaments, and I think the players know that. The World Cup is all about the intensity, the pace and the pressure. I think that’s certainly going to be the case this time around. If I thought that what we did in the (1999 FIFA) Confederations Cup and the (2002 FC) Gold Cup was going to be the road map for our success, we would certainly follow it. It’ll be an interesting experience for everyone. But I would almost have to say that I’ve learned more from our qualifying games than the tournaments you mentioned. If our players can step on the field in Korea and be confident about their abilities, I think we’ll have prepared them well. Really, I think its the frame of mind of our players that will be crucial to our success in the World Cup.” On the Feb. 13 performance against Italy (a 1-0 loss in Catania, Sicily): “Italy is one of the best teams in the world, particularly defensively. When you play Italy, you have to understand it will be low scoring, and if you get a goal — tremendous. We had a couple of chances early and didn’t score and that was the game. When Italy made four subs at halftime, it changed the pace of the game considerably. We didn’t go into that game to get a result, we went in to play our players together. They hadn’t played together in a while. I felt very comfortable, regardless of the changes they made, that we were able to get our players on the field together for 60 minutes. The biggest difference in that game was the changes that the Italians made at half changed the pace of the game and benefited the Italians. We weren’t concerned because that won’t happen in a real game. Our objective was to get our players on the field for 60-70 minutes and we accomplished that.” On the performance of goalkeeper Tim Howard: “I think he is going to be a really good goalkeeper. He is still young. His composure is outstanding, he is a good shot-blocker, and as he continues to mature and get more games in goal, he has the potential to be really good. We have a bunch of young goalkeepers like that. Zach Thornton continues to improve, Nick Rimando is a good goalkeeper and there are a couple others in MLS. Experience in the nets is important, and as Tim gets more games, he will only get better. From what I saw in the Ecuador game he is composed, controls play in front of him well, and did a solid job. He is certainly the goalkeeper of the future, whether it is the World Cup in 2006 or in 2010, he will be one of the keepers competing for the No. 1 spot.” On lack of success against European teams: “If I go back to a couple of World Cups, one opponent is Germany, who is clearly one of the top 10 teams in the world, and there has also been Yugoslavia and Iran. The one thing that European teams do well against the U.S. is they match up physically quite well. If you saw us in the friendly with Italy, you saw that they’re bigger and stronger than we are. We do rely on our athleticism as well, but in a different way. When you play against South American teams, you don’t see that kind of physical dominance.” On the type of “athletes” playing soccer in the U.S.: “I think there is a pool of elite athletes in this country, and out of that pool, what kind of cut is soccer getting, as opposed to football, basketball and other sports? In our country, there is so much more competition for the elite athletes. In Europe, soccer is the dominant sport, and they get the elite athletes playing their sport. Having size is one thing, but we have a 20-year old player who is as good as any 20-year-old in the world. Landon (Donovan) is not only a great soccer player, but he is also a great athlete. You look at DaMarcus Beasley and say the same thing. Our young players now have some great qualities. Look at someone like Carlos Bocanegra, who is a superb athlete. We are beginning to attract some top caliber athletes as well. In time, we will be able to step on the field with a European team or any team in the world and match them on technical side and physical side as well.