USA PROFILE: They staggered rather than swaggered into the finals and few would expect to see any more than three matches from the weakest American squad to date, writes Paul Doyle

America’s qualification will likely pose a security headache for Asian authorities, but will cause little worry to their opponents. It may be the US’s fourth consecutive appearance in the World Cup, but the current squad is probably the weakest so far. Team USA is no American beauty.

Alongside solid performers like Claudio Reyna (left) of Sunderland and goalkeeper Brad Friedel (Blackburn) are a ragbag of mediocre Europe-based pros like Everton’s Joe Max-Moore, some ageing also-rans like Cobi Jones, and a couple of gifted but inexperienced youngsters, such as Landon Donovan of San José Earthquakes and Clint Mathis of New Jersey Metrostars.

That, of course, is a summary that could be applied to many of the World Cup participants, and is not necessarily a recipe for failure. What it is then, is an immense challenge for coach Bruce Arena.

Often seemingly average teams qualify for tournaments and make amazingly graceful progress – they pick up momentum from somewhere and all of a sudden are unstoppable. Any team can do it.

But it’s impossible to predict. Teams that gathered momentum in qualifying, such as Ireland, Slovenia, or Senegal, are more likely than others to create a surprise, but that doesn’t preclude the possibility of others pulling it off. And that’s the just the sort of transformation the US will be relying on, because they reached the World Cup at a stagger, their qualifying campaign emitting a greyer shade of glory.

On the other hand, while they lacked style and guile right up to their decisive home win over Jamaica (made decisive only by Honduras’s freakish home loss to the 10-man, already-eliminated Trinidad and Tobago), they at least proved they have guts, which, as Holland no doubt still lament, is central to any sort of success in sport.

It's up to Arena to build on that over the forthcoming friendlies before the grand kick-off.

While doubters will joke that their aim of reaching the second round is so much American pie in the sky, the States’ men will approach the finals with dogged determination and lion-hearted intent. And club-footed players.

Squad:

Goalkeepers
1-Brad Friedel (Blackburn/Eng), 18-Kasey Keller (Tottenham/Eng), 19-Tony Meola (Kansas City Wizards)

Defenders
12-Jeff Agoos (San Jose), 3-Gregg Berhalter (Crystal Palace/Eng), 2-Frankie Hejduk (Bayer Leverkusen/Ger), 16-Carlos Llamosa (New England Revolution), 4-Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), 23-Eddie Pope (DC United), 6-David Regis (Metz/Fra), 22-Tony Sanneh (Nuremberg/Ger), 14-Steve Cherundolo (Hanover 96)

Midfielders
17-DaMarcus Beasley (Chicago Fire), 21-Landon Donovan (San Jose Earthquakes), 13-Cobi Jones (Los Angeles Galaxy), 7-Eddie Lewis (Fulham/Eng), 5-John O'Brien (Ajax/Ned), 10-Claudio Reyna (Sunderland/Eng), 8-Earnie Stewart (NAC Breda/Ned)

Forwards
11-Clint Mathis (MetroStars), 20-Brian McBride (Columbus Crew), 9-Joe-Max Moore (Everton/Eng), 15-Josh Wolff (Chicago Fire)