If you're not employed by an MLS team, good luck finding a name you recognize for the next U.S. friendly

The U.S. training camp roster for their friendly against Chile on January 22 in Carson, California was named today and I must say, it's a random one.

Los Angeles Galaxy defenders A.J. DeLaGarza and Sean Franklin were among 12 players with no international experience selected Tuesday for a U.S. national team training camp ahead of the Americans' exhibition against Chile.

Six of the 24 players on the roster for the Jan. 22 game at Carson, Calif., have played just one game for the national team, all in the second half of 2011. Orebro midfielder Alejandro Bedoya is the senior player on the roster with six international appearances.

Others with no international experience include goalkeepers Dominic Cervi of Glasgow Celtic, Sean Johnson of Chicago, Matt Pickens of Colorado and Anthony Wallace of Colorado; defender Zach Loyd of Dallas, Ryan Miller of Sweden's Halmstads; midfielders Eric Alexander of Dallas and Jeff Larentowicz of Colorado; and Chivas USA forward Justin Braun and San Jose forward Chris Wondolowski.

Among those with just one appearance are defenders Omar Gonzalez of Los Angeles and Tim Ream of New York; midfielders Brek Shea of Dallas and Mikkel Diskerud of Norway's Stabaek; and forward Juan Agudelo of New York and Teal Bunbury of Kansas City.

San Jose midfielder Bobby Convey, a member of the 2006 U.S. World Cup roster who revived his career in 2010, was among the veterans not picked.

Twenty of the players are from Major League Soccer and three from Scandinavian teams on winter break. Players are scheduled to report to the Home Depot Center on Jan. 4. The average age is just over 23, and veterans will be mixed in later in the spring as the U.S. prepares for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The U.S. is likely to host Argentina on March 26 at a site still being negotiation and probably will play another match three days later.

"We have some younger players that we think, with time, can grow into important roles with our national team," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. "We also understand going forward that it's an opportunity to at least begin the process of looking at some under-23 players, players that will be able to play for our Olympic team in qualifying. We really tried to focus on players that have not been in January camps so that we could see what some of these new faces are all about and get to see them in this situation."

The roster:
Goalkeepers: Dominic Cervi (Glasgow Celtic, Scotland), Sean Johnson (Chicago), Matt Pickens (Colorado), Nick Rimando (Salt Lake)

Defenders: A.J. DeLaGarza (Los Angeles), Sean Franklin (Los Angeles), Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles), Ugo Ihemelu (Dallas), Zach Loyd (Dallas), Ryan Miller (Halmstads, Sweden), Tim Ream (New York), Anthony Wallace (Colorado), Marvell Wynne (Colorado)

Midfielders: Eric Alexander (Dallas), Alejandro Bedoya (Orebro, Sweden), Sam Cronin (San Jose), Mikkel Diskerud (Stabaek, Norway), Jeff Larentowicz (Colorado), Dax McCarty (D.C.), Brek Shea (Dallas)

Forwards: Juan Agudelo (New York), Justin Braun (Chivas USA), Teal Bunbury (Kansas City), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose)

Bedoya is the former Boston College star that Shimer wrote about this past summer. He's a young player to keep an eye out for. For once, I like Bob Bradley's thinking for this camp. It's the obvious time to bring in a bunch of new names and see what they can do. No matter what, a few are bound to stick out that they didn't know much about previously.

Reminder: U.S. vs. South Africa (and a bunch more friendlies) tomorrow

This is basically a public service announcement to remind you that U.S. vs. South Africa is tomorrow night.

It is the U.S.' last friendly this year and it takes place in Cape Town.

Also, it was just announced that the Bob Bradley's boys will open next year's schedule with a friendly against Chile on January 22 in Carson, California.

The game announced Monday will be used as preparation for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. It is not on a FIFA international fixture date, so the American roster figures to be limited to players from Major League Soccer and Scandinavian teams who are in their offseasons.

The U.S. may play Argentina on a FIFA fixture date in March. Seattle has been one of the sites discussed for that match.

We'll miss your flair Chile

We've dogged him plenty but for once, former U.S. player and current ESPN bobo Alexi Lalas brought up a good point following Chile's 3-0 round of 16 loss to Brazil.

He said Chile was proof that you can play attacking, exciting soccer and still get results. I hope the coaches and players of Greece, Switzerland, Italy, etc. were listening and watching Chile in the 2010 World Cup because indeed they stuck out like a sore thumb with their style.

They went down playing their game against the best team in the world (year after year) and that's much more admirable than the cowardly styles favored by the aforementioned boring squads.

Chile came in second in Group H, losing out on first place in their third match and a 2-1 loss to Spain. The loss to Brazil was the only time that Chile was shutout in the four matches. With some more luck, namely a better draw, they would have gone further.

Chile

Best moment: Winning their first two matches and clinching a spot in the round of 16 as early as anybody.

Worst moment: The two quick goals by Brazil in the first half today was enough to send them through to the quarterfinals.

Best result: 1-0 win over Switzerland sent them to the round of 16 and thankfully was enough to trip up the Swiss as they missed out on the round of 16 despite beating Spain in their first match.

Worst result: Getting beaten by Brazil is a feeling that everyone around the world knows, however Chile had to expect a better showing. If they had popped a goal in the first half, maybe it would have been a different story.

Final tally: 2 wins, 2 losses. 3 goals scored, 5 goals conceded.

Best player: Goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, who had back-to-back clean sheets to start the 2010 World Cup.

Worst player: This was a teamwide award but Chile received 13 yellow cards and a red card in its four matches. They led the field in cards and that lack of discipline cost them since three key players had to sit out vs. Brazil. I'm not saying it would have made much of a difference vs. Brazil (cause it wouldn't have) but you can't be that dirty and hope to get away with it.

As always, it's Brazil

The match that just concluded with a 3-0 Brazil win over Chile needs as little analysis as any game in the tournament, other than maybe Portugal's pasting of North Korea.

Chile is good but Brazil is great, simple as that. Brazil made the most of their chances and Chile had some as well but they couldn't put one past Julio Cesar. And if you fall behind a superpower by two or more, goodnight it's over.

Brazil will meet Netherlands on Friday at 10 a.m. in the quarterfinals, another extremely delectable matchup.

Final stats:

Brazil Chile
17(6) Shots (on Goal) 14(1)
14 Fouls 18
8 Corner Kicks 6
1 Offsides 1
47% Time of Possession 53%
2 Yellow Cards 3
0 Red Cards 0
1 Saves 3

In the last 8 meetings, Chile has been Brazil's bitch

In their last eight games, the South American "rivals" have had a very one-sided series with the Brazilians outscoring Chile 29-3 in their last eight matches.

3-0 Brazil in the 89th minute.

Robinho out

Gilberto Melo is in for Robinho.

3-0 Brazil in the 86th minute.

Kaka out

Kaka is out in the 81st minute for Kleberson.

3-0 Brazil in the 81st minute.

Robinho wants another

Robinho stayed onside barely and had his shot saved by Bravo. Nilmar just came on for Luis Fabiano.

Humberto Suazo, who came into the 2010 World Cup with the most goals in qualifying, showed why as he made a nice move on Lucio but his shot was saved by Julio Cesar (even though it looked like it was going wide).

3-0 Brazil in the 78th minute.

Suazo just hit a weird mishit strike the top of the crossbar and go over. It's been that kind of night for Chile.

Ramires booked

Ramires was booked with a yellow card for a recklass tackle and even more costly, he'll have to miss their next match.

3-0 Brazil in the 72nd minute.

Valvida comes extremely close for Chile

Chilean midfielder Jorge Valvida almost cut it to 3-1 with a lovely volley. Chile isn't giving up as they send everyone forward and they deserve a goal with that attitude and all the skill they possess.

Chilean defender Ismael Fuentes picked up a yellow card.

3-0 Brazil in the 69th minute and they're playing with the ball like only they can.

Robinho's 7th goal in last 4 matches vs. Chile

Don't worry America, your favorite bandwagon team is just starting to find its stride in the 2010 World Cup.

After a delightful run down the middle by Ramires, he laid it off to Robinho, who scored with a side-footed shot in the 59th minute.

Chile is the only team to play so far in the round of 16 that hasn't scored yet. Danny Alves just took a long distance shot and that almost went on, the Brazilian machine is up and running now.

Chile made their last change, midfielder Rodrigo Millar in for Mauricio Isla.

3-0 Brazil in the 63rd minute. Looks like all the true favorites will be in the quarterfinals.

Second half begins

Chile made two substitutions to start the second half: midfielder Rodrigo Tello in for defender Pablo Contreras and midfielder Jorge Valvida in for forward Mark Gonzalez.

Chilean midfielder Arutro Vidal picked up a yellow card in the 47th minute for basically running over Kaka.

2-0 Brazil in the 50th minute.

Halftime and this is all but over

We've reached halftime and Brazil is up 2-0. Their explosive display (scoring 2 goals in 3 minutes) should be enough to get them through to the quarterfinals on Friday and the anticipated matchup with Netherlands.

Chile can score some goals themselves but they'll need to get one early in the second half or it's over. Brazil will probably get another goal too at some points.

Halftime stats:

Brazil Chile
9(4) Shots (on Goal) 7(1)
6 Fouls 8
6 Corner Kicks 2
0 Offsides 0
49% Time of Possession 51%
0 Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 0
1 Saves 2

Fabiano makes it 2-0 Brazil

I had thought of writing earlier how this Brazilian team wasn't of the same unbeatable quality of past ones but that looks silly now that they're up 2-0 on Chile.

After some classic Brazilian passing: Robinho centered it to Kaka who touched it to Luis Fabiano. He dribbled around Bravo and bingo, it was 2-0 Brazil in the 38th minute.

Brazil beat Chile twice in World Cup qualifying and that streak doesn't look to change here.

Juan shuts me up, 1-0 Brazil

Just as I wrote that I want Brazil to lose, they scored off a corner kick in the 34the minute.

Maicon took the corner and Brazilian defender Juan rose up to meet it and put it past a leaping but helpless Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.

1-0 Brazil in the 37th minute.

Kaka booked again, this one a little more legitimate than last one

Sorry for the delay, I had to get out of the house since it's 90 degrees and get to my air conditioned Planet Fitness.

Brazil and Chile are scoreless in the 32nd minute. Kaka just picked up a yellow for a lazy tackle. It wasn't that bad but at least it had much more substance than his red card vs. Ivory Coast which was a travesty.

Here's your starting 11's:

Brazil Lineup
G
1Júlio César
CD-L
4Juan
CD-R
3Lúcio
LB
6Michel Bastos
RB
2Maicon
LM
8Gilberto Silva
RM
18Ramires
F
9Luis Fabiano
RCF
10Kaká
AM-L
11Robinho
AM-R
13Dani Alves

Chile Lineup
G
1Claudio Bravo
CD
2Ismael Fuentes
CD-L
5Pablo Contreras
CD-R
18Gonzalo Jara
CM-L
8Arturo Vidal
CM-R
6Carlos Carmona
LM
15Jean Beausejour
RM
4Mauricio Isla
F
9Humberto Suazo
CF-L
11Mark González
CF-R
7Alexis Sánchez

I'm rooting for Chile to win this one. I'm sick of Brazil always dominating, it's time for some new blood although Brazil-Netherlands in the quarterfinals would be quite tasty.

Spain and Chile move on, shitbums go home

Goal-scoring is way down in the 2010 World Cup but there's a great lesson to take away thus far: if you want to play defensive, pack 'em in soccer, don't pack a big bag because you won't make it out of the knockout stage.

Spain held on for the 2-1 win over Chile but both deservedly advanced to the round-of-16. Brazil plays Chile at 2:30 p.m. on Monday and Portugal meets Spain at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Both matches are full of juicy possibilites.

Honduras and Switzerland tied 0-0 and frankly, that's what Shimer and I have been preaching. It's not just that we prefer offensive, creative soccer (who doesn't?), we simply want to see the best teams move on. It's very gratifying to see our words come true as the three most boring squads: Greece, Italy and Switzerland are all done.

Four minutes of useless added time

Switzerland and Honduras are still scoreless in the 92nd minute.

Danilo Turcos came on for Honduran forward David Suazo.

2-1 Spain in the 91st minute with two minutes of stoppage time.

Last Swiss sub and Honduran puts in part of my all-name team

Xherdan Shaqiri is in for Switzerland midfielder Benjamin Huggel.

Honduras inserted forward Georgie Welcome for Jerry Palacios.

That snoozefest is still 0-0 in the 84th minute.

Spain is up 2-1 in the 82nd minute.

Alonso out, Martinez in

Spain's second move was taking Xabi Alonso out for Javi Martinez.

Spain up 2-1 in the 74th minute.

0-0 Honduras-Switzerland in the 76th minute.

South American teams are unbeaten in the 2010 World Cup (10-0-4) and they've outscored opponents 21-4. Not too shabby.