I have no major issues with Bob Bradley’s choices for the 23-man final U.S. roster for the 2010 World Cup, announced today.

Are there some guys on the squad who don’t exactly shout out “global elite” when you hear their names? Absolutely. All but maybe a half-dozen guys, actually.

Are there a batch of players who did not make the team … who clearly deserved to?

Absolutely not. Not even Brian Ching.

Let’s look at the roster by position.

Goalkeepers (3): Brad Guzan, Marcus Hahneman, Tim Howard.  Analysis: These three have been locks, barring major injury, practically since Brad Friedel announced he was finished playing internationally back in 2006. Howard will be the man, in South Africa, and if can be as good as many of us thought he would be, by now … the Yanks will be formidable. Trouble is, he seems to have plateaued as a player about three years ago.

Defenders (7): Jonathan Bornstein, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Clarence Goodson, Jay DeMerit, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector. Analysis: Remember when the U.S. was known as a tough team to score against? Those days are gone, along with Eddie Pope and Frankie Hejduk and Bocanegra’s youth and Onyewu’s health. Bradley needs to identify four guys, and fast, who can plugs the leaks in the back. We would guess his preferred lineup would have Jay DeMerit and Onyewu in the middle, Bocanegra on the left and Cherundolo on the right. But three of those guys (all but Cherundolo) have missed a lot of time with injuries, and Onyewu is attempting to come back from major knee surgery six months ago. A very shaky group.

Midfielders (9): DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Stuart Holden, Jose Torres. Analysis: By far the strongest and deepest position on the team, though the talent is clustered more on the wings than in the middle of the park. Donovan and Dempsey are the team’s best players. Period. Both play wide. Beasley seems to have come back from the dead and could provide a spark on the left flank. Bradley (fils) presumably will play the playmaking mid-type position, though he has never reminded anyone of Claudio Reyna as a ball-distributor. The holding mid position will go to Edu (not to be confused with massive bust Freddy Adu) or Clark, with Edu seemingly ahead, for now. Feilhaber has an ability to inject energy as a substitute, Torres is devilishly skillful and Holden was coming on strong until he was hurt at Bolton. This group is so strong, it may even promote one of its own to …

Forward (4): Jozy Altidore, Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, Robbie Findley. Analysis: Another unimpressive group. Consider this: Take out Altidore, and the other three have a grand total of nine caps. Nine! … Still, Buddle is a great story — one national team appearance in his life, way back in 2002, scores nine goals in nine matches with the Los Angeles Galaxy to force himself into Bob Bradley’s field of view, gets a call-up, has an assist against the Czechs, makes the team. But is he ready to go out and start against England on June 12? Uh, well. … Altidore will start, even after a shaky club season, because he is the best of the lot. Gomez got on the radar by scoring 10 goals in 14 games in the Mexican League, and it’s possible to see him starting. Maybe. Findley is along for the ride. This position could very well be reinforced by Dempsey moving to a withdrawn forward spot, with Altidore up top and Beasley/Holden going in on the left side of midfield. In fact, expect it.

Overview: Some good guys (as opposed to massively talented) got left behind from the prelim squad of 30. Ching is popular, but the sense is that he isn’t healthy, hasn’t been sharp and never could really run. He represents the sort of bulky target striker the U.S. liked to have on board, but this team has shifted to smaller and more mobile. The mercurial Eddie Johnson was dropped. The man can run, but his technical skills always have been rudimentary, and now he’s hurt, as well. At the midfield spot, Robbie Rogers and Sacha Kljestan are useful Major League Soccer players, but they happen to be up against the deepest pool of talent on the squad. … And in the back, Alejandro Bedoya is four years away, Chad Marshall is probably just not good enough to be out this late and Heath Pearce could not take advantage of any of his 47 chances to hold the left back spot.

Bob Bradley has the best 23 he could have. It isn’t as if he’s choosing from the talent pools of Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Italy, England … and really good guys get left behind. After the first six or seven, the U.S. squad is a collection of journeyman, and Bradley’s job is to identify the guys who are in shape, playing well and help with team chemistry. I believe he has done that. Brian Ching instead of Robbie Findley. He could have done it. Frankie Hejduk, a maniac on the pitch and something of a scrawny enforcer instead of Goodson. Maybe. But we are talking about four guys who wouldn’t have played in South Africa, barring some catastrophe.

I am not going to second-guess the makeup of this squad, no matter what happens in South Africa. No one else should, either.