The United States MNT will conclude their 2009 run against Denmark at NRGi Park in Aarhus on Wednesday evening.  And while the match ends a successful 2009, the pressure facing head coach Bob Bradley is more extreme than ever leading up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

With the recent injuries to Charlie Davies and Oguchi Onyewu, Bradley is forced to make some last minute evaluations on who will replace the forward and defender and time is of the essence.  After the Denmark match there is only one international friendly date on March 3, 2010 prior to the deadline to announce the FIFA World Cup roster.

That process and some of the desperation was seen against Slovakia with Eddie Johnson and Jeff Cunningham, seeing their first action with the Red, White and Blue since 2008 and 2005, respectively, up front while Jonathan Spector shifted to a central position and Clarence Goodson came on late in central defense to earn his 7th cap.

Unfortunately, the evaluations did not show immediate results with Spector the only player of the group who appeared to be an immediate answer to the questions facing Bradley on how to replace Davies and Onyewu.

But Bradely has made some changes on his roster to help in his ongoing search.  With their elimination from the MLS playoffs, the Houston Dynamo’s midfield duo of Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden joined the squad in addition to Tigres defender Edgar Castillo, who is making his first appearance in a national team camp after switching allegiance from Mexico to the U.S.

Denmark will provide another good testing ground, however.  The Danes qualified for the FIFA World Cup as the top finisher from UEFA Group 1 finishing ahead of Portugal and Sweden.

DENMARK ROSTER BELOW

Head coach Morten Olsen, who played defense for Denmark from 1970-1989, has built this team around his old position with a solid backline with two of the three defensive stalwarts, Michael Jacobsen and Simon Kjaer, on the roster. During their World Cup qualifying campaign, Denmark gave up 5 goals in 12 matches and will force Bradley’s side to bring a creative attack to break them down.

The attack is will not be at full strength with Olsen leaving leading goal scorer Jim Larsen and Nicklas Bendtner off the roster but the Danish attack was good at spreading the goal scoring responsibilities and will look to other players to step up and test the uncertainty of the Stars and Stripes back four.

Denmark Roster by Position
GOALKEEPERS (2): Stephan Andersen (Brøndby IF), Thomas Sørensen (Stoke City)
DEFENDERS (7): Anders Möller Christensen (Odense), Lars Jacobsen (Blackburn Rovers), Leon Jessen (FC Midtjylland), William Kvist Jorgensen (FC Copenhagen), Simon Kjær (Palermo), Per Krøldrup (Fiorentina),  Michael Lumb (AGF Aarhus)
MIDFIELDERS (6):  Thomas Enevoldsen (FC Groningen), Daniel Jensen (Werder Bremen), Thomas Kahlenberg (Wolfsburg), Christian Poulsen (Juventus FC), Jakob Poulsen (AGF Aarhus), Søren Rieks (Esbjerg)
FORWARDS (7):  Johan Absalonsen (OB), Jesper Bech (Silkeborg IF), Martin Bernburg (Brøndby IF), Jesper Grønkjær (FC Copenhagen), Martin Jørgensen (Fiorentina), Morten Rasmussen (Brøndby IF), Jon Dahl Tomasson (Feyenoord)