USA coach Bob Bradley has defended his selection policy ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Cuba. Bradley in the pre game press conference was especially challenged as to why Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore were not included in the squad he responded with, "In terms of the roster, many different factors get weighed when you put a roster together.

"We feel that we have an overall good pool of players in which to draw upon and you weight different things, which can include where a player is in his season, in his club, how much he has played lately as well as just a feeling about the group that we bring in for a match to cover bases in terms of who we think might start, how we plan on subbing in these matches.

"All of those factors get weighed and come into play when you see an 18 or a 20-man roster."

Traditionally the USMNT coach has had to balance any selection with a range of players in different leagues, on different continents, that are all at different stages of their respective seasons.