altitude related swelling on that left ankle aside - since he's less likely to play a big role for his country next week.
England meets Germany in a friendly at famed and recently reborn Wembley Stadium on the same evening Bradley's boys face Sweden.
Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein has also been called into the U.S. squad. He'll also arrive back home around noon on game day. Ironically, however, he won't be on the same plane with Beckham and Donovan.
MLS alumni in Europe grows: The roster of MLS alumni is quite substantial in European leagues this year. Now that Claudio Reyna and Kasey Keller are no longer playing overseas, MLS can feel good about this: most of the biggest Yankee names in Europe were cultivated through Major League Soccer.
The list includes Freddy Adu (Portugal's Benfica) and DaMarcus Beasley (Scotland's Rangers) and eight now playing in England's Premiership: Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Dempsey and Brian McBride (all Fulham), Bobby Convey (Reading), Eddie Lewis (Derby), Brad Friedel (Blackburn), Marcus Hahnemann (Reading) and Tim Howard (Everton).
Adu and Beasley each made Champions League appearances this week for their new clubs.
"Big" names still on the way?: Major League Soccer's international transfer window closed on Wednesday. So any player who was under contract with a team from another country on Wednesday cannot join an MLS club until the window reopens next year.
But that doesn't mean that a club may not add a "name" player in the next couple of weeks. One MLS source said a few talented players that good fans might recognize are currently out of contract and could still be added before league rosters are frozen on Sept. 14.
Teams may certainly add to their roster via trades within MLS before the roster freeze deadline as well.
O'Brien might need surgery: News this week that Ronnie O'Brien may require surgery on his troubled knee isn't good at all for Toronto FC. The club is 0-6-1 with a minus-14 goal difference when O'Brien doesn't start. With the feisty Irish flanker in the lineup? 5-4-4 with a dead even goal difference (18 for, 18 against).
O'Brien, who could not be reached for comment, should find out next week if surgery will be required. He originally injured the knee on July 25 in a friendly at BMO Field against England's Aston Villa.
Despite the potential setback for O'Brien, help for the flagging TFC attack may be forthcoming. Injury-bitten strikers Jeff Cunningham and Danny Dichio appear to have a chance of playing this weekend against Chivas USA. And defender Marvell Wynne, who is battling a hamstring injury, is improving as well and could be available.
Lineup woes in Commerce City: Thanks to trades, injuries and personnel adjustments -- the kind of adjustments meant to reverse a long winless skid that ate up July and some of August -- the Colorado Rapids have used 16 different starting lineups in 21 matches this year.
Manager Fernando Clavijo would surely like to go with the same starting 11 the next time his team plays, on Aug. 26 against the Los Angeles Galaxy. (The Rapids have this weekend off.) But that probably won't be possible.
Defender Dan Gargan left Thursday's match with a knee injury, which was still being evaluated on Friday. Tony Sanneh, signed only the day before, took Gargan's place on the right side of Colorado's back line.
Sanneh has more than a full week of practices to attempt to win a starting assignment against the Galaxy. Whether it's Sanneh on the right or some other arrangement, the Rapids appear likely to deploy lineup version 17 that night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
Ballouchy trade paying off: Colin Clark, in unbelievable form for the suddenly surging Rapids, is hogging most of the attention in Commerce City. But don't overlook Mehdi Ballouchy's impact on Thursday's match for Clavijo's club, which has now won two in a row.
Ballouchy didn't participate in last week's win against Houston, serving the back end of a two-match suspension. So it's taken a little while for him to make an impression.
But he played a big role in the Rapids' early goal Thursday, which initiated a surprising 3-0 win for Colorado against New England.
Ballouchy punctuated a midfield give-and-go with a big run into the corner. It's the kind of run out of central midfield that Colorado had lacked during its long winless stretch, as Clavijo's team struggled mightily to get players forward.
Revs defender Jay Heaps had to deal with the situation by touching the ball out for the throw-in. Ballouchy got the ball again, then whipped a big ball to the opposite side. That turned into another cross and, finally, into Jovan Kirovski's goal. Ballouchy wasn't credited with an assist, but anybody watching saw his contribution there.
Noonan injury not bad: Perhaps the only bit of good news for New England on an otherwise forgettable evening concerned Pat Noonan. The U.S. international forward was removed early in Thursday's loss with a groin injury.
Relieved team officials said Friday the injury isn't related to the sports hernia and subsequent corrective surgery that limited Noonan earlier this season. He'll be reevaluated Saturday in Kansas City to determine if he can play against the Wizards on Sunday.
The Revs will, at least, have Steve Ralston available against Curt Onalfo's Wizards. Ralston was left behind in New England with flu-like symptoms while the team traveled to Denver. Ralston was about to board the team bus for the airport back in Boston earlier this week when Revs manager Steve Nicol, noting how sickly the winger appeared, sent him home. He'll join the Revs in Kansas City on Saturday.
Where does Nunez fit?: Ramon Nunez is with Chivas USA this weekend in Toronto, but will most likely be on the bench at kickoff. In the bigger picture, manager Preki hasn't said where he sees the young attacker, just acquired in a trade with Dallas, fitting into the scheme.
That was part of Nunez's problem in Dallas. He preferred playing centrally, but wasn't the best at doing the defensive nitty-gritty. So he's not likely to displace Paulo Nagamura or Jesse Marsch, who have partnered to form a tidy little holding midfield tandem for Chivas USA.
Preki likes playing four across the midfield. Even when attack-minded Amado Guevara was there earlier this year, Preki rejected playing in a "diamond" formation, choosing to keep the center mids playing alongside each other. So, don't expect Nunez to be dropped into a traditional playmaker's role.
Even if Nunez wanted to play on the outside, Panchito Mendoza and Sacha Kljestan are entrenched on the left and right, respectively.
So, it appears the trade does two things for Chivas USA. First, it gives Preki cover in case of injury. And the midfield is a spot where Chivas could use a little more depth -- Jonathan Bornstein has been called into midfield duty before when injury or suspension took starters away.
Second, Preki likes competition in training, and a youngster who scored six goals in 20 starts last year for Dallas certainly can provide the kind of nudge in training that helps eliminate complacency. He can probably even push Ante Razov and Maykel Galindo a bit for their spots at forward.
Johnson gets 'em on frame: As the old saying goes, "100 percent of shots not taken don't go in."
Statistically speaking, that can't be argued. The point is, of course, that players have to boldly swing the boot goal-ward, or they'll never score.
On the other hand, there is something to be said for efficiency in the effort. And the expert there, it seems, is Eddie Johnson.
Kansas City's big striker is the perhaps the league's best at making his shots count -- or at least, giving them a fighting chance to count. Of the league's top 10 players in terms of shots taken, Johnson is easily the leader in percentage of those shots that finish on frame. His rate of turning shots into (statistical) shots on goal is an impressive 66.7 percent. Consider that the next highest player in that set is Luciano Emilio at 58.1 percent.
Among the top 10 players in terms of shots taken, here's how their efficiency stacks up:
Taylor Twellman -- 67 shots, 37 shots on goal (55.2 percent)
Luciano Emilio -- 55 shots, 32 SOG (58.1 percent)
Davy Arnaud -- 54 shots, 21 SOG (38.9 percent)
Ante Razov -- 54 shots, 24 SOG (44.4 percent)
Christian Gomez -- 48 shots, 25 SOG (52.1 percent)
Juan Pablo Angel -- 47 shots, 25 SOG (53.2 percent)
Herculez Gomez -- 46 shots, 20 SOG (43.5 percent)
Andy Dorman -- 44 shots, 25 SOG (56.8 percent)
Eddie Johnson -- 42 shots, 28 SOG (66.7 percent)
Chad Barrett -- 40 shots, 22 SOG (55.0 percent)
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
