Soccer Watch: The World Cup, the USMNT, and a Touch of Verde

Hi there. Nick Barbaro here, filling in temporarily while Eric Goodman is off working on with the Fox World Cup coverage team in Los Angeles.

For the next month and a half, the Verde Report will become World Cup Watch, as the world’s attention becomes trained on the small desert nation of Qatar, in a way that I don’t believe has ever happened before. The clash of cultures will be fascinating, and potentially world-changing, and it’ll be fascinating to watch how the world media and Qatari society get along with each other. I’ll start my preview coverage next week. Meanwhile, you can visit our World Cup landing page, which has the complete schedule, plus some earlier coverage.

Roster Notes: There are several surprises in Greg Berhalter’s final roster picks for the World Cup squad – no Ricardo Pepi, no Paul Arriola, no Zack Steffen – but it’s a solid squad; you can’t really argue with the players that did get included. And that says a lot about the player pool the U.S. is producing these days. See the full list below, or the USMNT story.

Austin FC made their own roster moves this week, picking up the contract options for popular goalkeeper Brad Stuver and Charlie Acensio, and declining options on Danny Hoesen, Felipe Martins, Freddy Kleemann, Will Pulisic, and backup keeper Andrew Tarbell, though they noted that negotiations could continue with those players. They also traded Jared Stroud to the expansion St. Louis City FC, for $100,000 in General Allocation Money (don’t ask), and extended Jon Gallagher’s contract for four years.

Lastly, local fans watching the MLS Cup final might have noticed the big man in the middle – Austin’s own Ismael Elfath, who was tabbed as referee for the league’s showcase game. His next stop: Doha, where he’s the lone U.S. ref chosen for the World Cup.