The pleased Bob Bradley, on today's first full session: "It was a good day. From start to finish, there was a good mentality, sharpness and competitiveness. We believe that the camps add up and eventually you get to the point where, when you come in, you don't start over; you start from where you left off. More and more, that is the case."

The optimistic Bradley, on 20-year-old midfielder Jose Francisco Torres's first practice: "It was just what we've always seen. He has some very good starting points and we are excited to have him in with us. We're excited that he wants to be here with us. He seems, in a short amount of time, very comfortable and fitting in with the group. That's nice to see."

The noncommital Bradley, on possibly capping Mexican-American Torres right away: "When we bring players into camp, we bring them in with the idea that they can help with what we are doing. Obviously, there are 23 players, 18 get put on the roster. You make your choices based upon the game, but he is here because we think he is a player who can help us."

The diplomatic Troy Perkins, on D.C. United's problems: "It happens. You can't have years after years after years of being at the top, especially in this league because it is so unpredictable every year. Players are in, players are out, players get traded and the salary cap doesn't help. They will be fine. People need to take a deep breath, relax, give the team some time. We have the same problem in Norway where we brought in eight new players and we've been struggling. It's a character builder for the players, and the young guys need to learn how to win."

Perkins made an unannounced visit to DCU practice this morning and was warmly received. He said he's having a great time in Oslo and his wife is due to give birth to their first child in March. I am planning to have much more on Troy in the print edition later in the week.

*The bonding Jozy Altidore, on Villarreal teammate Giuseppe Rossi, a former N.J. resident who has committed to Italy: "He's one of the guys who speaks English so he has helped me a lot. He's a good player. I asked him briefly about his situation and he said he is going to play for Italy and that he is excited about it. I am sure he will do very well with them."

Did you try to change his mind and play for the U.S.? (It's too late anyway)

(Laughing) "That's not my place."

*Goalkeeper Tim Howard had a dentist appointment and missed training. Forward Charlie Davies is scheduled to arrive from Sweden tonight.

*Ticket sales for Saturday's game are around 16,000.

*While the U.S. squad trained on RFK's natural grass auxiliary field, Gonzaga High School was playing a varsity game next door on the artificial turf. Students in the bleachers for the prep game peered over the fence and watched the U.S. practice, which is closed to the public this week.

The hits just keep on coming for D.C. United.

Brazilian midfielder Fred has a Grade 2 hamstring strain and will miss the final three matches of the regular season.

Which means, for this Sunday's game at Houston, DCU will be without Fred, Gallardo, Emilio (hamstring) and Moreno, unless Jaime's suspension is overturned by MLS.

[UPDATE]

Moreno's appeal was denied. He will not play again until Oct. 16 against New England at RFK.

The purpose of my interview session with USA midfielder Michael Bradley this morning at the team hotel was to gather information for an article that will probably appear in Thursday's print editions (and on washingtonpost.com, of course). Lots of great stuff tracing his development and experience as a wee lad hanging around D.C. United and Chicago Fire training camps while his father was coaching.

We also discussed his situation at struggling Borussia Moenchengladbach, a topic that seemed perfect for today's blog. As you might have read, the Bundesliga club (three points from seven matches) has dismissed coach Jos Luhukay and named sporting director Christian Ziege, the former German international, as interim manager. Perhaps the move will lead to additional playing time for Bradley.

When his flight landed in the U.S. the other day, he switched on his phone and saw a text message from Ziege informing him of the coaching change.

Were you surprised by the club's decision?

"Not surprised. It's such a big club and there is so much pressure from the fans and the club itself, you have to do well. We lost a lot of games pretty badly and then 2-1 to Cologne. That was sort of the last straw. Cologne is our big derby. It means everything to the fans, and when you have that bad run and it's capped off by losing to Cologne, you knew it was going to happen. You hear the rumblings. Everybody knew if we lost that game to Cologne, there was probably going to be a change."

Will your relationship with Ziege help your situation at the club?

"Ziege is the sporting director and everyone has a relationship with him. He is around every day, he sits on the bench at the games, he is out at training quite a bit. I think it will be a good thing for me because, at the end of the day, he was the one who really, really pushed hard to bring me to the club. I think he has confidence in me and he likes the qualities that I can bring to a team. So I am hopeful that, when I get back, there are good opportunities. We need to go on a big run and I hope to help turn things around."

How are your German language skills coming along?

"It's really similiar to Dutch so I can understand a lot of it and put some sentences together. I think I will pick it up quickly. I am fluent in Dutch. I spoke a lot of English in Holland my first year with some guys from English-speaking countries, but after a lot of them left I was on my own, so I had to speak it to communicate well. I don't think I will have too much trouble with German."

I will be back with more from USA training camp later today.....

With little hope of reaching the quarterfinals and another critical league match looming Sunday, D.C. will send just 16 players to Costa Rica for Thursday's Champions League game against Saprissa (10 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel).

The list:

GOALKEEPERS: Zach Wells, James Thorpe.
DEFENDERS: Marc Burch, Pat Carroll, Greg Janicki, Devon McTavish, Gonzalo Martinez, Mike Zaher.
MIDFIELDERS: Ryan Cordeiro, Rod Dyachenko, Quavas Kirk, Joe Vide, Craig Thompson, Ryan Miller.
FORWARDS: Francis Doe, Thabiso Khumalo.

What should the starting lineup look like?

*The Sepp's World Cup bidding proposal will seemingly bring the tournament back to Europe in 2018 and perhaps the USA four years later. What do you think?

*Read my story about the USA national team's return to Washington after a four-year absence.

*Read my other story about DCU bust playmaker Marcelo Gallardo's injury.

*Snark alert: If the WPS holds another draft without any marquee names, did it really happen? The Washington Freedom selected four players (three from Virginia, one from Terpland) who had already performed for the club in the W-League. The team also made discovery claims on a Norwegian forward and Canadian goalkeeper.

*The Maryland men's team, with a 7-3 record and ranked No. 12 by Soccer America, will attempt to recover from its late-game meltdown at Clemson with a tough non-conference home match tonight at Ludwig Field against No. 20 Charlotte (8-1). Virginia, which has won four in a row to improve to 6-3 and earn the No. 18 ranking, hosts Liberty.

*Your TV options today:
-- CONCACAF Champions League, San Francisco (Panama) at Houston 10 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel, Galavision
-- CONCACAF Champions League, Marathon at Cruz Azul 8 p.m. Telefutura

*For a change of pace, video from the 2-2 tie between Newcastle and Wellington in the A-League (Australia). The first goal comes on a disputed penalty, the late equalizer on a no-brainer penalty. In between, a deflected strike from distance and a ridiculous goal. Quality of play? Eh. Take a look:

A brief excerpt from the coach's media session after today's training.....

If the USA wins Saturday and clinches a berth, how will the roster change for the T&T; trip?

"We have 23 in this camp, which obviously means we have some extras, and if we win, we have certainly the possibility of making some changes going into the next game. We won't name our roster for the next game until Sunday. We are constantly keeping track of a lot of different players and we will see what opportunities are there after the [Cuba] game."

Your thoughts on Jose Francisco Torres committing to the U.S. program and coming to his first training camp?

"He is a young player that we feel it's the right time to begin the process of bringing him in to the national team. What makes it different is just the fact that he had another option [Mexico], so there is an excitement on our end that we can get him in and get to know him, and I feel it gives us another talented young player who hopefully is going to make us stronger in the future. ... In all these cases, there are some behind-the-scenes work that needs to get done, but you don't want to distort the process either. There are a lot of players that we keep track of. It is important to respect the whole thing, and that's for everybody who you think is playing well enough and potentially has earned an opportunity to come in. So you try to balance all those things and find the right time, and see how it goes."

It's been a very busy day in Insider Nation. Time to get some print edition work done. I will have much more on the U.S. team's arrival in Tuesday's dead-tree version (available online late tonight).

I'll leave you with this question: Who will Bradley start Saturday against Cuba? (Not who you want him to start, but who you think he will start.)

The opening day of USA training camp was rather uneventful. Much of the squad was traveling to Washington today from foreign destinations and not available for today's light workout. In attendance were Ching, Dempsey, Kljestan, Bradley, Altidore, Hejduk, Szetela, DeMerit, Orozco and Donovan. Coach Bob Bradley and assistant Peter Nowak were also on site. Goalkeepers coach Zak Abdel had none of his subjects with which to work.

Oguchi Onyewu will arrive today with a broken nose, suffered in the Everton match last week. It will not prevent him from playing against Cuba.

Charlie Davies and Hammarby went down to Goteborg today, 2-0. Davies will be the only U.S. player not available for Tuesday's training session.

A non-roster item: Benny Feilhaber, who is not here, had arthroscopic knee surgery recently and is sidelined for a few weeks for Aarhus in Denmark.

More later.....

Marcelo Gallardo, D.C. United's 1.9 million-dollar man, will miss the remainder of the MLS season with a knee injury. The results of an MRI exam showed a Grade 2 sprain of a medial collateral ligament, an injury that typically sidelines a player for six to eight weeks.

Gallardo suffered the injury during United's 3-0 loss to Chivas USA on Saturday night, his first game back from an adductor strain. He also missed nearly two months of the summer schedule with a sports hernia.

Gallardo's final numbers: 15 regular season games (14 starts), 1161 minutes, 4 goals, 3 assists. He started all four Champions' Cup games in the spring, played 10 minutes in four U.S. Open Cup matches, and did not appear in any of the six SuperLiga and Champions League matches.

His DCU/MLS contract is guaranteed next year, unless DCU finds a foreign club that wants him.

Meantime, midfielder Fred (hamstring) has been ruled out of Thursday's Champions League match at Saprissa and is almost certain of missing Sunday's league game at Houston. Forward Luciano Emilio (hamstring) is also unavailable Thursday and is listed as questionable for the Dynamo game.

Great news for the local ballclub, eh?

*Fabio Capello names his England squad for upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

*Poland seems to have settled its internal problems. Speaking of Poles, was that Peter Nowak wandering around the D.C. United locker room after Saturday night's game? Why yes, it was. Calm down, he was just in town early before USA training camp opens.

*The Vancouver Whitecaps will host the USL1 championship game after overcoming Montreal in the two-game semifinal series. Their opponent Sunday will be Puerto Rico, which needed overtime to oust Rochester.

*Bizarre college game: Maryland was leading Clemson, 2-1, when the Tigers scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute. The Terps responded just under three minutes later to reclaim the lead. Clemson then proceeded to score three goals in 83 seconds, two by reserve Michael Brooks, who finished with four goals, to claim a 5-3 victory. Maryland (7-3) has yielded nine goals in its last two ACC games.

Soccer America's top 10 (men): 1. Wake Forest; 2. Creighton; 3. Akron; 4. Illinois-Chicago; 5. Northwestern; 6. Saint Louis; 7. Louisville; 8. St. John's; 9. Cal; 10. South Florida.

Soccer America's top 10 (women): 1. Notre Dame; 2. Stanford; 3. UCLA; 4. Portland; 5. Southern Cal; 6. North Carolina; 7. Virginia; 8. Texas A&M; 9. Texas; 10. Florida.

*Women's Professional Soccer will conduct its general draft at 2 p.m. ET today, with players such as Brandi Chastain and Briana Scurry expected to be in the mix. There are four rounds. Washington has the first and third overall picks after a trade with St. Louis. Follow it here.

The latest from the Special One, It and the Boy:

Beginning a very busy week of USA coverage on the Insider, let's look at the recent performances of the 23 players called into training camp, which starts Monday at RFK Stadium (closed to the public). We break it down by position and include the club's record and standing in the league/division.

GOALKEEPERS
Tim Howard, Everton: 90 in 2-2 tie vs. Newcastle (2-3-2, 15th place)
Brad Guzan, Aston Villa: Did not play in 2-0 loss at Chelsea (4-2-1, 5th)
Troy Perkins, Valerenga: 90 in 2-1 win at Bodo/Glimt (7-10-6, 9th)
DEFENDERS
Carlos Bocanegra, Rennes: 90 in 3-0 win over Lyon (3-1-4, 7th)
Oguchi Onyewu, Standard Liege: 90 in 4-1 loss at Cercle (5-1-1, 2nd)
Steve Cherundolo, Hanover: 90 in 1-1 tie at Dortmund (2-3-2, 13th)
Heath Pearce, Hansa Rostock: DNP in 4-2 loss at Ingolstadt (2-2-3, 11th)
Jay DeMerit, Watford: 90 in 2-1 win over Preston (3-5-2, 19th)
Danny Califf, Midtjylland: 90 in 1-0 win over Nordsjaelland (5-1-3, 3rd)
Frankie Hejduk, Columbus: red card suspension vs. L.A. (16-6-5, 1st)
Michael Orozco, San Luis: 90 in 3-2 win over Indios (7-2-2, 1st)
MIDFIELDERS
Freddy Adu, Monaco: DNP in 2-0 loss at Saint-Etienne (2-3-3, 14th)
DaMarcus Beasley, Rangers: DNP in 1-0 loss at St. Mirren (6-1-1, 2nd)
Michael Bradley, Moenchengladbach: DNP in 2-1 loss to Cologne (1-6-0, 18th)
Maurice Edu, Rangers: DNP in 1-0 loss at St. Mirren (6-1-1, 2nd)
Sacha Kljestan, Chivas USA: 82 in 3-0 win at D.C. (11-10-6, 2nd)
Danny Szetela, Brescia: DNP in 2-1 win over Frosinone (2-1-4, 9th)
Jose Francisco Torres, Pachuca: 90 in 1-1 tie at Necaxa (3-4-3, 3rd)
FORWARDS
Jozy Altidore, Villarreal: DNP in 2-1 win over Betis (5-0-1, 2nd)
Brian Ching, Houston: 84 (2 goals) in 3-1 win at Colorado (11-5-10, 1st)
Clint Dempsey, Fulham: 90 in 1-0 loss at West Brom (2-4-0, 17th)
Landon Donovan, L.A.: 90 in 1-0 loss at Columbus (7-12-8, 7th)
Charlie Davies, Hammarby: today at IFK Goteborg (9-7-8, 7th)