27 Invited to USMNT Camp

Things are about to get busy for the U.S. Men's National team as they prepare for three friendly matches - vs Scotland (5/26), vs Brazil (5/30) and at Canada (6/3) - prior to kicking off World Cup Qualifying against Antigua & Barbuda on June 8th. Head Coach Jurgen Klinsmann has invited 27 players to camp as the team gets ready for its busy stretch. Here's a look at the invitees:

KEEPERS

Tim Howard - Everton - A staple in net for the Americans, the 33 year old Everton netminder just wrapped up another solid season in the English Premier League. Howard played every minute of all 38 regular season games for Everton posting a record of 15-12-11 while contributing 12 clean sheets as Everton finished the year in 7th place. Howard last appeared for the National Team in the 1-0 upset win over Italy in February. He has 73 appearances and 26 shutouts in his international career.

Photo Credit: catkins101.wordpress.com

Midweek Mailbag - Soccer, Soccer & More Soccer

Carles Puyol is looking at maybe having surgery on his knee, and will most likely not be fit for the Euro 2012 tourney. I know he's just one guy, but he's pretty well the anchor of that back 4 for Spain. How big of a loss would it be to not have him when Spain tries to defend their Euro title? - Cory L., Raceland, LA

Photo Credit: guardian.co.uk

Tough break for Carles "don't call me Carlos or Charles" Puyol. Any time you lose one of your starters, particularly one of your team leaders, it's a blow. Fortunately for Spain, they're incredibly deep in the back. Even without Puyol they can trot out an imposing back line consisting of Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Gerard Piqué (Barcelona), Raúl Albiol (Real Madrid) and Álvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid). Puyol is 34 now and the reality is that Spain was going to need a plan to move forward without him in the near future anyways. Now they're just going to have to do it a little bit sooner than expected. The bigger concern in my mind for Spain is that they will be without their leading scorer from their World Cup run as David Villa continues to recover from his broken leg suffered with Barcelona. Spain will have to get production from somewhere else on the field or teams like the Netherlands or Germany will be able to upset the defending champs.