There are a couple of different ways to look at tonight’s friendly between the United States and El Salvador (ESPN Classic and Galavision, 7 p.m.).

The first is to write it off as a meaningless affair. After all, there might be four or five guys out of the 20 in uniform tonight that have a realistic chance to be on the plane when it leaves for South Africa.

None of the European-based players, aside from Clarence Goodson, are in Tampa, so you can bet that coach Bob Bradley will use this opportunity to tinker with different lineups and formations with less than full attention to the scoreboard.

And the opponent is a team that the red, white and blue defeated twice in 2009. No disrespect to the Cuscatlecos, but it’s not the kind of matchup that gets the blood pumping for some folks.

Of course, to the 20 players in a national team kit this evening, this may be the most important game they’ve ever been a part of.

I’m sure that everyone in that group still has at least a glimmer of hope of making the final roster in May, so let’s have a look at the player pool:

GK: Troy Perkins (D.C. United) and Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake) - America is pretty set at the goalkeeper position with Tim Howard, Brad Guzan and Marcus Hahnemann seemingly locked into the three slots.

Bradley might be tempted to take one of these guys over Hahnemann, who will turn 38 on June 15. But since neither of these guys is young enough to figure in the 2014 plans, there’s really no reason to bring one of them to this year’s World Cup.

DEF: Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC) - Here’s where it gets interesting. With the concerns at center back, it’s telling that Go0odson is on this roster. It seems to me that Bradley is giving him every chance to make the roster, and barring an injury, I expect him to do just that.

Bornstein is another player that has a chance to nail down a spot, mainly because he can play on either side as a fullback and slide up into the midfield in a pinch.

Marshall, Pierce and Wynne have been less than stellar in recent call-ups and will need good performances to re-enter the discussion.

M: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Chris Pontius (D.C. United), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew) – Rogers jumps out here as the player most likely to earn a spot.

He’s an intriguing prospect because of his age, pace and ability to play out on the wing.

I don’t want to be a dream killer, but the rest of this bunch have to be considered longshots with guys like Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber and a number of other players ahead of them in the pecking order.

Kljestan and Beckerman have had some opportunities to impress in recent months, but their performances have run hot and cold.

This would be a good time for a warm one.

F:  Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake) - Assuming Charlie Davies is healthy enough to be on the World Cup roster, there’s only room for two forwards behind Davies and Altidore.

Ching, in my opinion, will have to be hurt not to be on the roster. Some fans may not like his style, but he’s a veteran that holds the ball up well – two traits that make him attractive to Bradley. It would be nice to see him play well tonight, however.

The real battle is between Casey, Cunningham and Findley for the last forward slot (assuming one of the European guys doesn’t force his way into the discussion).

All three are accomplished MLS players. Cunningham won the Golden Boot last season with 17 goals while Casey was nipping at his heels with 16. Findley ended up with 12, putting all of these players in the same boat.

Can they translate MLS success to the international level?

If the roster came out today, I’d probably take Findley, but tonight’s friendly is a chance for one of the other guys to shine.

The next friendly is on March 3 in Europe against the Netherlands, so that roster will likely look radically different than this one.

The phrase now or never comes to mind…

In a long and completely boring interview with London’s Daily Mail, Marky Mark Wahlberg had this to say about his neighbor David Beckham:

Man, the Beckhams. It used to be so quiet on my road. Then David moves in with his family. Suddenly we’ve got paparazzi hanging out day and night. Now they’ll follow any car that drives down the road….I’m not telling Beckham to take his family home. I’m just not sure why he came to America in the first place. Man, we don’t want your soccer. There’s no way Americans are going to buy the idea of 90 minutes of running around without much happening. Thanks for trying guys, but we’ll stick to baseball and basketball.

Hey Marky – say what you want about Beckham, but there is no reason to insult the most popular sport in the world.  There are millions of soccer fans in the United States, and I don’t see any of them telling you how to avoid sounding like a lobotomized chimpanzee when delivering your lines.  Besides, if I wanted to spend 90 minutes watching someone run around without much action, I would have plunked down $9.50 to see you in that piece of excrement The Happening this summer.

Some random thoughts on the US win and the upcoming game against Costa Rica

The Greatest US Win I Have Never Seen.   A lot has already been said about how absurd it was that this game was not broadcast to the average US fan, so there is no reason to continue to beat this dead horse.  Beyond the television rights, Grant Wahl’s twitter on the game failed to tweet, the ussoccer.com twitter was intermittent at best and their Match Tracker did not work at all (at least for me), so switching between the New York Times Goal! update and Ives Galarcep’s running update was the best I could do.  It was easier to get information about North Korea’s political divisions than it was to figure out what was going on in the game.

Last night’s win was as impressive as the win against Spain in South Africa.  There are a lot of ways to hedge the win against Spain – it was in a neutral stadium, the Spanish took us for granted, it was as much a holiday as a tournament for Spain, etc.  There are no qualifications needed for what happened last night.  The stadium was absolutely rockin (check out Ives’ Youtube from three hours before the game began http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5C8mh-Vhrw).  Honduras had absolutely everything to play for.  We went a goal down at the same time that we knew Costa Rica was ahead and going to get three points.  Nevertheless, the US stepped up and won the game.  And yes, it was lucky that Pavon put the PK over the bar, but no less unlucky than that Holden had a completely fluky handball to set up the PK. 

Is Connor Casey the next Jozy Altidore or the next Eddie Johnson?  Many fans, including myself, were flummoxed to see Connor Casey in the starting lineup in place of Jozy Altidore or Brian Ching.  I guess that is one of several thousand reasons why Bob Bradley is the coach and I am not.  Nevertheless, one game does make a regular US National.  Remember Steve Ralston’s goal against Mexico last qualifying round?   Remember the great run that Johnson had in qualifications for 2006?  Neither do I.  I would suspect that Casey has gotten himself a ticket to South Africa, but I am not convinced he has a place in our starting XI.  I hope that Jozy plays Wednesday against Costa Rica because he should be playing like a man with something to prove.  In fact…

The entire team has something to prove against Costa Rica.  Our worst loss this year was not the Gold Cup final, which came with a boatload of “what ifs.”  It was the 3-1 loss against Costa Rica at Saprissa in June.  The 3-1 score line flattered the US as Costa Rica dominated the game from the beginning to the end.  The US was not just out-played but also out-competed.  Additionally, if we beat Costa Rica, we will have won the Concacaf hex, and….

Winning the Concacaf hex is far more impressive than any hex win in the European qualifying.  For all the talk about the minnows in Concacaf, the truth is winning the Concacaf hex is far more difficult than anything Spain, Italy, England or Germany or any other European team had to do to qualify for South Africa.  None of those teams had a road game that compares with going to Azteca, Saprissa or last night’s games at San Pedro Sula.  There are no Montenegros, Faroe Islands, Andorras or Liechtensteins in the Concacaf hex.  In fact, the worst team in our hex, Trinidad and Tobago, is probably better than the worst 10 teams in the European qualification.  Reigning champion Italy has qualified with six wins in its nine games (just like the US), but Italy has had to play Ireland, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Montenegro and Georgia.  Did you know that Cyprus had 1,100 people show up for one of their WCQ games?  All those Euro football snobs can go stick it.  If the US wins the Concacaf, it will be a fantastic achievement.

Who is the real target demographic of professional soccer in the U.S.? Is it Soccer Moms?  Is it Soccer players?  Is it Latino people?

Sure, Soccer Moms, Latinos and Soccer players make up some of the peripheral targets, but who makes up the core target?

One U.S. pro soccer fan thinks he’s the core target demo.  He’s 41 and 1/2 years old and had been a consistent fan of the big 3, football, basketball and baseball his whole life, until recently.  As a new Soccer fan and not having been a soccer player for more than 20 years, he watches snippets of world soccer leagues, but does not go out of his way to find them.  He doesn’t have Fox Soccer Channel to watch at home, though he wonders what life would be like with it.  He doesn’t own a soccer scarf and has no plans to purchase one.   

He supports Obama and likes to talk politics, but does not consider himself a Republican or Democrat.  He doesn’t tweet yet, but has recently investigated Facebook as a possible hobby.  He likes Spanish music a lot, but does not like watching American Idol or Dancing with the Stars.  He has attended one women’s Roller Derby and one Lucha Libre and only watches short stints of MMA, but he is ready to watch American Soccer every night of the week.

He only glances briefly at NASCAR, but loved Talladega Nights with Will Ferrell.  He wants to know a little more about Lacrosse and Cricket, but not too much.  He likes to watch and play Tennis a lot, but only can take small doses of watching or playing golf.  He likes to spend time with his wife and kid and wishes he had season tickets for a professional soccer team in his area.

He likes to travel, but does not like to get too involved in popular culture.  He is college educated, but thinks college is overrated.  He likes movies based on a true story, but really liked ‘Oh Brother, Where art Thou?.’  More than anything, he is really sick and tired of the big 3 sports and is trying to wean himself off of them.

He refuses to succumb to the word ‘pitch’ to replace the word ‘field’ and still hasn’t seen ‘Bend it Like Beckham’, but he did really enjoy the documentary on the NASL Cosmos, even though he’s not old enough to remember too much about the league.  He also refuses to succumb to the abbreviation FC or nicknames like Chivas and Real, which seem foreign and pretentious.  He’s looking forward to an old name coming back, Rowdies.  He gets confused by all the different cup competitions and would rather see a longer regular season of professional U.S. Soccer.

His socioecomoic status is middle class, but he relates well to all classes; middle, middle-upper, middle-lower, upper and lower.  He lives in an apartment and his wife keeps pushing him to buy a house.  His work fluctuates, which is another reason he needs a stable, semi-daily American Soccer league, so he can get away from all of his work problems. 

Above all, he considers himself a U.S. sports fan, who deals daily with his disenchantment for baseball, football and basketball.  He looks forward to the day he can go to a franchise restaurant where the volume is up on a U.S. pro Soccer league match like it sometimes is on the big 3.

A purely American soccer league must take the step of changing the goal post dimensions.   As it is now, posts are at a height of 8 feet.  An American league should make the bold move of moving the height of the crossbar higher.  The crossbar needs to be adjusted by the length of 2 soccer balls to make the new height 8 feet + 2 balls. 

At first glance, this adjustment in the goalpost appears to be only for offensive purposes.  But, for every goal scored under these new conditions, there will also be one great save made by the goalkeeper. 

An American soccer league must take into consideration that sports fans will not settle for an average score of 2.5 goals per game.  It is all about offense.  Americans are looking for at least double or triple the amount of goals that are being scored now.  The ideal average score to attract sports fans to soccer in the U.S. would be 4-3. 

Making the sport mainstream should always be priority, unless soccer is only looking to fill a niche, and is satisfied being a peripheral sport in the U.S.  Raising the goalposts will create more drama, entertainment and the unexpected.  By having the posts a little higher, players can aim a little higher. 

Common sense dictates that there would be 10 times the amount of richochets than there are presently.  Goalkeepers, averaging 6 foot 3 inches, are now able to get to almost every ball level with the crossbar.  But raising the crossbar would mean that they would not be able to get to every ball level with the crossbar.  

These ricochets from the goalposts back onto the playing field will delight the fans.  Fans tend to always ooh and ahh when balls hit the posts.  With the ricochets, come more saves, more surpise and more pace. 

Recently, a still living legend, the Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden, winner of 10 NCAA basketball championships with UCLA, said that basketball should raise the rims from their present height of 10 feet.  This declaration by the most recognizable teacher of the game is an admission that the game as it is now, according to Wooden, can be better.  By raising the rim, players will have to be more creative with their shots, and thus, will rely less on dunks and put-ins.  Basketball has lost a good deal of strategic play because of the ease of the layup.

Sports must evolve with the times.  Players are taller and more athletic than players from the past.  Dimensions from the playing field should progress and change according to what is best for sports fans to enjoy. 

Regardless of the goalie’s position and distance from the goal, few scores are made that actually travel over the extended arm of a goalie who is in a standing position.  It is time for American pro soccer to take its shot.  Increase the size of the goal and see how many more attempts on goal there will be and see how much more exciting the game can be.

It’s a shame that the NCAA College Cup is not more publicized and marketed to the sporting public.  College soccer is exciting, and it should get more attention. 

The NCAA is missing an opportunity with NCAA soccer.  The ‘Final Four’ in NCAA basketball and the ‘Frozen Four’ in hockey have achieved much more fanfare.  The basketball championships are obviously huge and have been huge for a while.  The hockey championships are getting bigger every year and are sellouts (on the men’s side) for sure. 

NCAA soccer needs a calendar adjustment, a marketing plan, and a promotional facelift.  The tournament should probably not end when college semesters are out on winter break.  Also, the NCAA and ESPN should collaborate in order to do something with the College Cup during the MLS season so that it can be cross-promoted, and maybe make up some nifty name like the ‘Ultimate Four’ for the semifinals games. 

What do you think should be the official nickname of the College Cup semifinals?  Send in your responses via comments.  Another example might be the College Cup Core Four. 

Seeing the empty stands Friday at Frisco Field in Dallas when the best and brightest of college soccer are at their pinnacle event is embarrassing for the sport.  There needs to be a solution for getting the public out to a great stadium to see 2 games.  This should not be a hard sell.  Tomorrow’s final should be a great game, but, unfortunately, with the stands empty, it gives the appearance that soccer is not supported as a college sport in the U.S.