McBride named to Olympic team
Brian McBride is in; Chad Barrett is out.
McBride, an Arlington Heights native, is one of three over-age players named to the U.S. Olympic men's soccer team Thursday. He earned a spot at forward, while Chicago Fire striker Barrett, who played on the Olympic qualifying team, did not make the final roster picked by U.S. coach Peter Nowak, a former Fire midfielder.
The Olympic teams are comprised of U-23 players but are allowed three older players.
Though Barrett leads the Fire with 5 goals, he has been struggling lately.
"It's always difficult for the guys who are going to get left off," Nowak said. "There's only 18 spots, and you have to make a decision one way or another."
McBride recently left the English Premier League, hoping to play with the Fire, but the team is still trying to acquire his MLS rights from Toronto FC. McBride being named to the Olympic team means the MLS teams have less urgency in their stalled trade talks.
"I'm very pleased and really thankful for him to even consider being a part of this team," Nowak said of McBride, 36, and a veteran of three World Cups. "For his career, the Olympic games will be the cherry on the cake."
The other over-age players are Brad Guzan, the goalkeeper from Southwest suburban Homer Glen who just transferred to the English Premier League from MLS, and New England Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst.
The team begins training Sunday in Palo Alto, Calif. The United States opens Group B play on Aug. 7 against Japan, followed by games Aug. 10 against the Netherlands and Aug. 13 vs. Nigeria. The top two teams in each of the four-team groups advance to the quarterfinals Aug. 16. The final is Aug. 23.
"It's no secret that the group we play in is very difficult, one of the toughest of the entire tournament," Nowak said.
Part of the difficulty for Nowak in picking a team is that the senior national team has a 2010 World Cup qualifier Aug. 20 at Guatemala.
"We had a lot of discussions with coach (Bob) Bradley on how we could accommodate both teams," Nowak said.
The Olympic roster includes 12 players with full national team experience, including Michael Bradley, Freddy Adu, Benny Feilhaber and Jozy Altidore.
Women without Wambach: The U.S. women's Olympic team lost perhaps its best player Wednesday night in a 1-0 victory against Brazil in a pre-tournament friendly in San Diego. Abby Wambach suffered a broken leg and will be out of action for about 12 weeks.
Wambach has led the team in scoring in the past three world championships. She has 99 goals in 127 games.