This is OUR year!

Ow! Watch it, with the not-so-subtle prodding there, Mr. the Truth!

Well, the title says that "this is our year," but I'm not so confident. It just seems likely to the best year in a while. I've done a little basic math. The average age of the 27 outfield players named is 25.8, the median age is 25.6 years. The closest age to an outlier is Jozy Altidore, at twenty, two years younger than the next youngest player. Three players (Bocanegra, Cherundolo, and Ching) are 31 (or will be - you'd be shocked at how many of these players have birthdays in May). I'm not complaining about these numbers. I think that's great - we don't have any particularly young players to worry about becoming intimidated and no extremely old players to worry about tiring/resting. At least as far as general age and age distribution, we're primed to go THIS YEAR.

Looking at it in more specifics, the defense is a little older than I would like, but that's not looking too bad until the World Cup in Brazil - by then I hope new defenders have emerged because Bocanegra, DeMerit, Cherundolo and possibly Goodson all may be too old to play. I'm a little worried about the U.S. defense. Not too much may have changed since qualifying, but the Jonathans Spector and Bornstein have not impressed with their club play. That's unfair to Spector - I've liked the way he has bombed forward, but he's scored a distrubing number of own goals and been responsible for more than a few defensive lapses. Onyewu has barely begun to play after his injury and never with first team AC Milan. Demerit and Cherundolo have never inspired me with confidence, but that may be a personal issue. I would like to see Heath Pearce make the final 23, but I'm not sure it will happen.

By 2014, the U.S. will need more young strikers as well, but that's sort of been a given considering the crisis causd by Charlie Davies injuries. It's not surprising that the strikers have the widest age range spanning the full 20 - 31 years. Altidore is as much a shoe-in as anyone in this team and Ching has, though unspectacular, been consistent. The other strikers were pulled in as on-form players - Buddle and Gomez are incredibly inconsistent, but have shown the capability to score a lot of goals. Similarly, Johnson has shown a lot of promise and then disappointed - his coach at Aris seems to have some faith in him and he has played fairly well, hence the hope that he can shine in international competition. Findley. . . I can only assume is there to give the threat of a speed option. I don't expect Findley to make the final 23.

If Landon Donovan makes it to the next World Cup, he will be older than any outfield player on the team this tournament. As would Beasley. Dempsey and Ricardo Clark would be at the age peak, 31. That said, there is a lot of promising talent under age 25 in the U.S. midfield. Michael Bradley is the second youngest player on the team (22) and he has continued to show well in the Bundesliga, he could be quite a star in the making if he continues his solid improvement. Bedoya, Torres, Holden, Edu - hell, even Robbie Rogers, are all under 25. So is Sacha Kljestan. What the hell is he doing on this roster, by the way? The guy has talent, but he has failed to show anything close to it in more than 18 months (see the later post above). Kljestan and Rogers have the skills to make this team, but I don't think either of them has shown anything in the past year that I want in the final 23. Especially considering the strong midfield options that the U.S. has this year.

I expect the average age to increase when it comes down to the final 23, although the median will stay the same - Altidore and Bocanegra are unlikely to be cut. Let us all just thank our deities or Bob Bradley for not putting Frankie Hejduk on the list.