Trio of Wizards bag Cup call-up

KANSAS CITY - When the Stars and Stripes take the field on June 12 for their first group game in the 2006 World Cup, United States coach Bruce Arena will have three Kansas City Wizards on the 23-player roster.

Defender Jimmy Conrad and strikers Eddie Johnson and Josh Wolff were selected Tuesday to the U.S. roster for the World Cup. Conrad and Johnson faced the media Wednesday for their first news conference since their selection. Wolff did not attend the news conference, which was set up after the selection on Tuesday, because of a previously scheduled doctor's appointment.

The Wizards have the most players on the U.S. roster from any one club. But on June 12, 2005, a national team selection seemed far away for Conrad and Johnson.

Conrad, who wasn't invited to a national team camp until January of last year, was still looking for his first cap. He made his debut on July 7, 2005 against Cuba in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Johnson was not playing at all after suffering a stress fracture in his right foot in a game for FC Dallas.

Both players, though, made the successful journey to the 23-man roster.

Johnson, the youngest member of the U.S. team, found it hard to express how he felt about his selection.

"It's real exciting for me. Being 22 and having the chance to play in a World Cup? Not in a million years," Johnson said. "Still, to this day, to this second, right now thinking about what's going on, I never thought I would be in this position. But that's how the soccer world goes. It's a quick turnaround."

Johnson returned in early August, but re-injured the foot in mid-September to end his season with FC Dallas.

He had plenty of time to recover before Tuesday's U.S. roster announcement. Conrad's selection was threatened by surgery in late March to repair a case of athletic pubalgia. During the first three months of the year, Conrad's abdomen was increasingly bothered by the condition, tears in the abdominal wall brought on by excessive and intense use.

Finally, Conrad had to decide whether to have surgery to repair the damage now or later. He decided to have the surgery in March because he was told his chances of making the national team would be judged on all of his play, not a just one game or one play.

"If (having the surgery would have eliminated my chance of making the team), I don't know if I would have had it or not," Conrad said. "I just would have fought through. I don't know how long that would have lasted."

Conrad talked to officials both with the Wizards and the national team, who urged him to have the surgery sooner rather than later.

"That would give three weeks, three or four games, to show that I'm back and can compete at a high level," Conrad said.

Conrad's selection makes what he has gone through worthwhile.

"I don't need to wait 10 years to be proud of this accomplishment," Conrad said. "I'm just excited for the opportunity and I'll do what ever I can to support the team."

With his selection to the U.S. team, some of the pressure is now off Johnson, who came to the Wizards in a February trade. Now the pressure is to live up to expectations, his own expectations.

"I've put a lot pressure on myself in the whole coming back process," he said. "I have really put a lot of pressure on myself to get back to where I was when I was scoring goals. Being traded I think was a challenge for me. It was a test. It was God testing my faith to see if I was going to give up on it. I have battled through it."

Johnson is restless to score for both club and country. He has only one U.S. goal this year in six appearances and one goal for the Wizards in the team's first five games.

Every player with a chance of making the U.S. team has, perhaps, felt like he was under a microscope with Arena peering at him as he played with his club. So the days leading up to the announcement of the selection were a bit nerve-racking.

"The rumor was going around that we were supposed to hear on Monday. So I was on pins and needles on Monday," Conrad said. "I don't know who started this rumor, but it was a nasty one. I couldn't sleep on Monday night."

News of the selections did not leak. After Saturday's game in Columbus, Conrad hoped something would leak to ease the anxiety.

"Basically, all Sunday and all Monday we were just waiting to hear thinking someone would tip us off at some point," Conrad said.

But no one did.

The players who were selected were notified Tuesday by e-mail just as the televised announcement began. Landon Donovan called to congratulate Conrad after he received his e-mail. But Conrad had not received his e-mail and was not ready to celebrate.

When Conrad did receive word of his selection, it was time to call his parents, other family, and sit back and soak up the good news.

"It was a really nice, nice call to make to my mom and dad. I think they were more excited and beaming than I was," Conrad said. "It's things like that that make it really, really special."

Johnson's mother is happy at the news of her son's selection, but Johnson laments all the games she was unable to see while he was growing up.

"She never watched me play in a tournament. She never watched me win trophies. She still, to this day, does not know how big it is," Johnson said. "I don't come from a soccer family. I am the only one on both sides of my family that ever played soccer."

But this time, Johnson's mother can make sure she sees her son play on soccer's biggest stage.

"My mom gets a chance to experience something a lot of parents in this world wish one day they could experience," Johnson said. "She has the opportunity to go to the World Cup."

There may still be a chance for another Kansas City player to make the 23-man roster. Midfielder Kerry Zavagnin is an alternate selection. An injury could prompt Arena to select Zavagnin. Already, Columbus Crew defender Frankie Hejduk has been replaced by Los Angeles Galaxy defender Chris Albright because of a knee injury.

Wizards coach Bob Gansler, who said the selections of Conrad, Johnson and Wolff were well deserved, said Zavagnin would have made a good selection for the 23-player roster.

"He's the kind of guy who is always fit and is always ready," Gansler said. "He was kind of subdued (at training on Wednesday) and that's understandable. Come game time on Saturday he will be fine and he will play as well as he has always played because that's the kind of person he is."

Gansler, who selected the U.S. roster for the 1990 World Cup, said each successive coach has had an increasingly difficult task in selecting a roster for the World Cup because of the greater number of talented players from which to choose.

"Talent is like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder," Gansler said. "The national team coach has this little puzzle that he has to put together, 23 pieces, and they all have to fit. I feel badly for Kerry Zavagnin."

Still, the U.S. has a good team, Johnson said.

"I think this team, when everyone is healthy, can do great things," he said. "We're in a tough group, but this team has the depth and experience and the talent that we haven't seen in America, yet."

The U.S. will have to contend with the Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana in Group E.

Conrad said the players who played on the U.S. team at the 2002 World Cup would give them a boost this time around. But now that they've advanced to the quarterfinals, the USA can never again sneak up on an opponent.

For the U.S. opener against the Czech Republic, Conrad said the Czechs' lack of World Cup experience might give the Americans an edge. But the Czechs' roster, which includes world-class players, would give them a boost.

The United States is ranked fourth in the latest FIFA rankings. That ranking, couple with the Americans' quarterfinal exit in 2002 has raised expectations.

"I think the true soccer fans know what we're up against," Conrad said. "I think we can get out of our group. That would be a huge accomplishment. We have a tough group."

Robert Whitman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.