Besler One of Four Changes to US Roster and Sapong Returning

US Soccer tonight announced that Jurgen Klinsmann would make all four of his allotted changes to his roster ahead of the knockout rounds of the Gold Cup. 

#USMNT @J_Klinsmann makes 4 changes to Gold Cup roster. In: Besler, Gonzalez, Gordon, Johnson. Out: Ashe, Gomez, McInerney, Onyewu.
— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) July 18, 2013

Sporting KC's Matt Besler is one of the four replacements coming in for the US.  Joining Besler is his centerback partner during World Cup qualifying, Omar Gonzalez.  Besler and Gonzalez are likely to become the starters for the US in the center of defense in the knock out rounds.

Besler will miss at least one, and at most two Sporting games, depending on how far the US advances.  He'll definitely miss the game this weekend against Real Salt Lake. Should the US advance to the finals, Besler will also miss Sporting's trip to Montreal on July 27th. The other game that Besler could miss now is the All Star game on July 31st. While the Gold Cup final is the 28th, Peter Vermes could look to give Besler a break for the game against AS Roma.

The good news for Sporting KC is that Graham Zusi has not been called in. Plenty of people were thinking that Zusi would be called in to the team as well.  The thought was that it'd give Klinsmann a chance to see how Zusi and Landon Donovan could work together and be on the field at the same time.  But with Donovan and Zusi playing similar positions, Klinsmann was able to let Zusi stay with his club.

Speaking of this weekend, it looks like CJ Sapong will be returning early to KC.  Reports tonight are that Sapong is returning early to Kansas City.  He played in tonight's game against Pittsburgh and will apparently be headed back to KC.  So Sapong could be playing a role this weekend as well.

CJ Sapong confirmed he's heading back to @SportingKC tomorrow. Short stint at @OrlandoCitySC is over. #MLS #USLPro
— TheSoccerObserver (@SoccerObserver) July 18, 2013