FanHouse BradGuzan

Two years after retiring from international soccer, Brian McBride will wear the USA jersey one last time.

McBride was one of the three over-23 players named on the U.S. men's Olympic soccer team, which was announced today by U.S. Soccer. The former Fulham striker will join future Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan and New England Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst on the team.

There are few surprises among the under-23 players on the roster. McBride joins Jozy Altidore, Robbie Rogers and Charlie Davies up front. Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley headline the midfield, which also includes MLS standouts Maurice Edu, Stuart Holden and Sasha Kljestan, along with Benny Feilhaber (Derby County) and Danny Szetela (Brescia).

Parkhurst leads a back line that includes Michael Orozco (San Luis) and three MLS starters -- Patrick Ianni, Nathan Sturgis and Marvell Wynne. Chris Seitz will back up Guzan in goal.

McBride hinted last April that he would be willing to join the U.S. Olympic team. His presence would allow Peter Nowak to play a 4-4-2 with McBride and Altidore up front, rather than the 4-2-3-1 that barely managed a goal in Olympic qualifying. The U.S. side still faces an uphill battle in Group B against the Netherlands, Nigeria and Japan, but it's hard to argue the talent isn't there.

Proving once again that the best American soccer players are the ones that can use their hands, Aston Villa has made a £2.5 million offer to Blackburn Rovers for veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

This comes less than a week after Villa, a Premier League club owned by American entrepreneur and Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner, struck another deal with MLS for Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan. That deal is still pending Guzan receiving a British work permit.

Friedel, 37, joined Blackburn in 2000 and has 287 appearances with the club, in addition to his 82 caps with the U.S. men's national team between 1992 and 2005. He has stated in the past that "Blackburn is home to me," and new Blackburn boss Paul Ince had said that he wanted to keep Friedel, but when a club is offered £2.5 million for a 37-year-old, it has to listen.

Friedel is clearly being brought in to contribute now while grooming Guzan for the future. Last season, Scott Carson was loaned out to Villa from Liverpool, but Villa balked at the Reds' £10 million asking price for a permanent deal and ended the loan. Ironically enough, Blackburn may decide to use the cash from the Friedel deal to acquire Carson for less than half that price. (UPDATE: Or not. West Bromwich Albion just snagged Carson for £3.25 million.)

Chivas USA goaltender Brad Guzan has emerged into a top quality young goaltender over the past few years, and now he'll get to test his skills in the Premiership. Probably:

After the match, Guzan did little to hide the fact that his long-rumored move to Aston Villa is imminent. Speaking to ESPN, Guzan said, "I know there's some talks going on and obviously we're kind of seeing what happens in the next couple of days here. I hope for the best result for everybody involved."

Guzan would be the fourth American goalie in the Prem: Tim Howard is at Everton, Kasey Keller is at Fulham, and Brad Friedel continues to hold it down at Blackburn.

Now if we could just get someone to score goals in a top flight league. Or set them up. Or do anything on the other half of the field at all, really.

Well, so much for this conspiracy theory.

Sky Sports is reporting that Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan has been denied a UK work permit today, which will effectively block his $4 million transfer to Aston Villa. The rejection means Guzan will probably return to Chivas USA for the 2008 MLS season.

According to Sky Sports, Guzan's work permit application was rejected because he hasn't gotten enough caps with the U.S. national team in the last year or so. He'll need to get more international experience before he can reapply -- which will be tricky with Everton's Tim Howard, Blackburn's Brad Friedel and Reading's Marcus Hahnemann in the mix and MLS not stopping its season for international tournaments.

Now we know why Chivas didn't bother to search for another goalkeeper during the offseason. They probably knew this was coming. The good news for Guzan, though, is that at least he knows the starting job at Chivas is his. That wouldn't have been the case at Aston Villa until August.

UPDATE: Guzan's UK work permit application was rejected. Click here for details.

Aston Villa is putting the finishing touches on its $4 million transfer deal for Brad Guzan today. All the Chivas USA goalkeeper needs now is a UK work permit, and he'll be able to join the Birmingham club as early as this weekend.

At first glance, it didn't look like Villa needed a goalkeeper. All signs pointed to Scott Carson's loan deal from Liverpool becoming permanent this season. However, Liverpool's shaky financial situation may have prompted Villa to make their bid for Guzan.

Follow me on this. As I wrote here, Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks admitted that the club will have to service annual interest payments of £30 million. That's money that comes out of the club. It's also the approximate amount the club got in TV money from its Champions League run last season.

That's all well and good until Liverpool doesn't qualify for the Champions League. That looked more like a real possibility last night, too, after a late penalty gave West Ham a 1-0 victory over Liverpool, dropping the Reds to 7th place, 3 points adrift of the 4th and final Champions League qualifying spot -- and one point behind 5th place Aston Villa.

We all knew Brad Guzan was a hot commodity in the January transfer window, but apparently, shutting out a bunch of second-team Swedes has made him even hotter.

Aston Villa has reportedly jumped into the picture, offering Major League Soccer a $4 million transfer fee for Guzan, which may be double what Scottish giants Celtic are offering MLS for his services. The 23-year-old Chivas USA goalkeeper got a tryout from Celtic following his clean sheet for the U.S. men's national team against Sweden a week ago.

It's actually an interesting decision for Guzan. On the one hand, Celtic is a perennial Champions League club whose current goalie, Polish national Artur Boruc, appears poised to move to a bigger domestic league. On the other hand, Aston Villa has a popular American owner -- yes, they exist in England -- in Randy Lerner, and the regular domestic competition is much better in England than in Scotland. Villa's current goalie, Scott Carson, is on loan from Liverpool, but Lerner may be indicating that Carson will rejoin Liverpool at season's end.

Either way, Guzan wouldn't get much first team action until next season, but he would likely become the default starter next August. So which is more important to him -- Premier League action or Champions League action? Which would you pick?

Fulham's neverending quest for top American soccer players continues apace.

Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who attracted scouts from Arsenal last fall, will reportedly get a long look from Fulham on Saturday night when the U.S. Men's National Team takes on Sweden at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.

Guzan is expected to start in goal for Bob Bradley's side, which consists mostly of MLS players, as the Americans playing in Europe couldn't get away for the weekend. Other notable players on the roster include Jozy Altidore, Michael Parkhurst, Maurice Edu, Taylor Twellman and Landon Donovan, who will earn his 97th cap. The LA Galaxy forward may need this weekend, however, to keep his spot in the increasingly crowded first team.

Fulham, meanwhile, is looking for an upgrade over Antti Niemi in goal, and Guzan, who averaged 0.93 goals allowed per game at Chivas last year and kept a shaky backline together last month in South Africa, could fit the bill.

Last week, Fulham had shown interest in Kansas City Wizards striker Eddie Johnson, but that deal may be off after they extracted Marlon King from Watford today for £5 million.

The real mystery, though, is why Fulham isn't trying to upgrade its horrid midfield. The American they should be pursuing is Michael Bradley, who is currently playing for Dutch club Heerenveen, though not for much longer.