Ching’s dream reaches an end

BRISTOL, Conn. – The phones started ringing at 2 a.m. Wednesday, and players such as Brian Ching were told to come down to the third floor for a meeting.

This is the way the U.S. World Cup team was finalized, in the dead of night in a Hartford hotel.

Veteran Landon Donovan ended up consoling Ching, the Gonzaga University graduate, when his roommate found out he wasn’t going. Ching was on the 2006 World Cup roster but never got into a match. Having turned 32 on Monday, this was his last chance.

“It’s hard to imagine your lifelong dream not coming true, someone telling you that it’s not going to happen,” Donovan said.

For players such as Herculez Gomez, it was good news. He and Edson Buddle went from long shots to the American roster, joining Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Tim Howard on the 23-man U.S. team headed to South Africa.

While there was joy and relief for the chosen, there was only heartache and anguish for the seven players called downstairs a few minutes earlier, the players leaving the group selected May 11 for the preliminary roster, only to be cut four days before departure.

Players on the bubble were nervous before and after Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Czech Republic, the first of three exhibitions ahead of the U.S. team’s World Cup opener against England on June 12. Before the game, the squad scheduled a nationally televised announcement for Wednesday afternoon at the ESPN campus.

After the final whistle, coach Bob Bradley still wasn’t ready to tell players, wanting to first review the DVD with his coaching staff.

Then Pam Perkins, the team’s general manager, started calling players. She only told those who sounded awake they had made it. The groggy-sounding ones, Gomez included, were left in the dark until they reached the meeting room and Bradley greeted them.

“He congratulated each and every one of us,” Gomez said. “He definitely made us sweat it out, that’s for sure.”

This morning, Gomez will be with the team at the White House to receive personal congratulations from President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton ahead of Saturday’s sendoff game against Turkey in Philadelphia.

Gomez and Buddle were chosen over Ching, who only returned May 13 from a hamstring injury sustained while playing for Houston on April 1.

“Plain and simple, Edson and Herculez have had real good stretches, scored a lot of goals,” Bradley said. “Brian has been such an important player, but it’s tough when you have an injury at an inopportune time.”