Happy Campers

The road to Germany begins in earnest this week with the opening of the first USMNT camp of the year. As has been widely reported, 29 MLS players and Heath Pearce have been called in to train with Bruce Arena and play a couple of games. Of those, both starting forwards for the Fire -- Nate Jaqua and Chris Rolfe -- are getting some winter workouts. Midfielder Justin Mapp was supposed to contribute as well, but according to the press release, an injury forced him off the roster.

Of course, with the likes of former Fireman DaMarcus Beasley and English Cola-ship players Eddie Lewis and Bobby Convey ahead of him on the depth chart on the left side, Mapp probably had the toughest road to make the squad for 2006. Jaqua and Rolfe also face uphill battles, but probably stand a better chance of scoring a ticket to Hamburg. Brian McBride -- he of the recent scoring tear in the Premiership -- is one of your starting forwards, without question. If he can get anywhere near his form from early in the qualifying run, you have to figure Eddie Johnson is in the mix as well. Past that, though, it's pretty much up in the air.

Jaqua has the advantage of his size, obviously, and if Arena likes what he sees, could sneak in as an insurance policy for target man McBride. He'll most likely have to beat out Brian Ching for that role, but Ching's performances with the Nats have been spotty as of late. Conor Casey is another guy Bruce has been working with at that spot, but he, too, has struggled with injuries and subsequent rehabiliation.

That leaves Rolfe, Taylor Twellman and Josh Wolff on the bubble. Twellman stands out as a different kind of goal-scorer, the eminently scrappy kind, and those qualities could trump his abject lack of output at the international level. Rolfe vs. Wolff is a more intruiging matchup, because Wolff clearly has the experience, but Rolfe has many of the same qualities, along with better durability -- which isn't saying much when we're talking about the oft-injured Wolff -- and better ballhandling abilities.

Presuming that I haven't forgotten anybody -- and it's likely that I have -- I'll go so far to say there's a better than average chance (i.e., more than 50%) that one of the Fire forwards will actually make the World Cup squad. Nate Jaqua can prove he's a better option than Ching or Casey, and Rolfe can prove he's better than Wolff. Whether or not they do, and whether or not Arena will take youth over experience remains to be seen.

If they don't make the squad, though, the other prediction I feel comfortable making is that they will be the top-scoring tandem in MLS next year, barring injury. This is sort of a sucker's bet. They will have trained with the best guys in the country for a couple of months before the beginning of the season, and if they're not with the Nats, it means Twellman and Johnson likely will be, eliminating some of the competition.