Early U.S. roster heavy on defenders

Donovan, Altidore are inmix of six forward candidates.

NEWYORK— Defenders John Brooks, Timmy Chandler and DeAndre Yedlin were among the players selected Monday by U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann on his 30-man preliminary World Cup squad.

Midfielder Julian Green, who made his national team debut last month, and forwards Terrence Boyd and Chris Wondolowski also are among the players who will try to earn spots during the Americans’ pre-World Cup training camp, which opens Wednesday at Stanford, Calif.

Klinsmann — who selected just six forwards, including Landon Donovan — must submit a 23man roster to FIFA by June 2.

Ten players were on the 2010 squad, including left back DaMarcus Beasley, like Donovan a veter- an of three World Cups.

Five players did not appear in any of the 16 qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup: No. 3 goalkeeper Nick Rimado along with Brooks, Green, Wondolowski and Yedlin.

Half the players are from Major League Soccer, with four each from England’s Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga. Two are from Mexico’s league, and one each from leagues in Austria, France, Netherlands, Norway and Turkey.

The Americans will play friendlies against Azerbaijan on May 27 at San Francisco; Turkey on June 1 at Harrison, N.J.; and Nigeria on June 7 at Jacksonville, Fla. They travel the following day to their base camp in Sao Paulo.

At the World Cup, they open against Ghana on June 16 at Natal, face Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal six days later in the Amazon rain forest city of Manaus and close the group stage against Germany on June 26 at Recife.