United States coach Bruce Arena named a 25-man squad including goalkeeper Kasey Keller, forward Brian McBride and midfielder Claudio Reyna on Monday for next month's defence of their Gold Cup title.

Arena has retained 10 players from their victorious 2002 campaign, when they beat Costa Rica in the final, while 12 of the squad went to last year's World Cup where his team reached the quarter-finals before going out 1-0 to Germany.

"Our goal is certainly to defend the Gold Cup championship," said Arena, whose side are ranked ninth in the world.

"Ultimately, we're trying to develop a squad capable of competing in World Cup qualifying, and to be able to compete against teams from our region in this type of environment is invaluable," he added.

The seventh edition of the CONCACAF regional competition features three previous champions -- the United States (1991, 2002), Mexico (1993, 1996, 1998) and Canada (2000).

They will be joined by Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Jamaica, Cuba, Honduras and Martinique plus Brazil and Colombia, who have been specially invited to round out the draw.

The US will play a final warm-up game with Paraguay on Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, before setting up training camp in Providence, Rhode Island, where they will prepare for their first round opponents El Salvador and Martinique.

VETERAN MIDFIELDERS

Columbus Crew's McBride and Tottenham Hotspur's Keller, who helped lead the US to the championship last year, are joined in the squad by veteran midfielder Reyna of Sunderland.

McBride, who has not played for the US since a 0-0 draw with Mexico in May, recently celebrated the birth of a daughter and did not play in this month's Confederations Cup.

McBride's four goals earned him the Golden Boot in last year's competition, while Keller's four clean sheets in five matches and two penalty saves saw him named top goalkeeper. Keller has now fully recovered from minor elbow surgery.

Captain Reyna has not played for his country since the World Cup loss to Germany after tearing knee ligaments last October. He was out for eight months but resumed training in May.

The squad also includes Chicago Fire midfielder DaMarcus Beasley and San Jose Earthquakes forward Landon Donovan who impressed at the Confederations Cup in France even though the Americans failed to win a match in Group B.

They went out in the first round after losing to Turkey and Brazil and drawing with eventual runners-up Cameroon.

The 20-match Gold Cup tournament will be held from July 12 to 27 in Foxboro, Massachusetts, Miami and Mexico City, where the final will be staged at Azteca Stadium.

Squad" Goalkeepers: Adin Brown (New England), Tim Howard (New York/New Jersey), Kasey Keller (Tottenham Hotspur)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Chicago), C.J. Brown (Chicago), Dan Califf (Los Angeles), Nick Garcia (Kansas City), Cory Gibbs (FC St. Pauli), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Greg Vanney (FC Bastia)

Midfielders: Chris Armas (Chicago), DaMarcus Beasley (Chicago), Bobby Convey (D.C. United), Chris Klein (Kansas City), Eddie Lewis (Preston North End), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado), Richard Mulrooney (San Jose), Steve Ralston (New England), Claudio Reyna (Sunderland), Earnie Stewart (D.C. United)

Forwards: Landon Donovan (San Jose), Clint Mathis (New York/New Jersey), Brian McBride (Columbus), Taylor Twellman (New England), Josh Wolff (Kansas City). 

Close

Today's Top News		Top Sports News
+A hard-won victory by nation and its people ( 2003-07-01) +Wen lauds HK's victory over SARS ( 2003-07-01) +No time to raise renminbi's value ( 2003-07-01) +Comment: No time to raise renminbi's value ( 2003-07-01) +New regulation to remove monopolies ( 2003-07-01)		+Tennis-Wimbledon-Henman happy to be doing the right thing ( 2003-07-01) +Soccer-US name Keller, McBride and Reyna in Gold Cup squad ( 2003-07-01) +Olympics-IOC approves addition of BMX for Beijing Games ( 2003-07-01) +Roddick survives Paradorn test ( 2003-07-01) +Soccer-Juventus sign Ghanaian midfielder Appiah ( 2003-07-01)