Besler and Zusi Named to 23 Man Roster for the World Cup

US national team coach, Jurgen Klinsmann today named his 23 man roster for the World Cup this summer in Brazil. Today he cut seven players from his initial 30 man roster to get himself the 23 that got tickets to Brazil.

Included in that 23 are two players from Sporting KC. Both Matt Besler and Graham Zusi made the cut and will be headed to Brazil here in the next few weeks with the US team. It's the first World Cup for both players as Klinsmann took just five players who have previously played in the World Cup.

With the selection, Sporting KC continues to be one of only two MLS teams (LA the other) to send a player to every World Cup since the league began play. The pair become the eighth and ninth players to represent their country while playing for KC. The total nine is the most for any one team in MLS history as well, LA is second having sent seven different players, and eight total (Cobi Jones went to two World Cups while a member of LA).

1998
Uche Okafor - Nigeria
Preki - USA

2002
Tony Meola - USA

2006
Jimmy Conrad - USA
Eddie Johnson - USA
Josh Wolff - USA

2010
Roger Espinoza - Honduras

The biggest news out of the announcement was that veteran and probably the best player to ever put on a US jersey, Landon Donovan did not make the roster. Donovan was among the seven players that were cut today by Klinsmann. The move is a surprise and has brought out a lot of negative comments from fans this evening and even led to Klinsmann's son deleting his Twitter after a Tweet he made regarding Donovan. Arguments that Klinsmann is already looking towards 2018 with this roster since he has a contract through the next World Cup and questions of how a player who hasn't a professional game for his club was selected ahead of him. For me personally my expectations of the World Cup remain the same. I expect a group phase exit based on the group.