I went and read some old stories. Voice you were correct that Arena played a 3-5-2. However, most of the articles I have read said that it resembed more of a 5-3-2 or 4-4-2 because of Reynas and Lewis's roles. Esp. Reyna was in a more of a "hybrid right midfield / Defender role" (as reported by ESPN.com. I believe that Arena moving from a 4-4-2 to whatever he played the rest of the cup was more out of throwing in a wrinkle that the Mexicans did not expect rather than believing that the 3-5-2 is the best formation. Hence, his return to a 4-4-2 since the cup.
I am not sold that Arena needs to pick an 11 and have them play most of the WCQ's together. What if he had done that before 2002? Mastroeni would not have been ready after Armas's injury. Mathis was the poster child for the team going into the Cup, but showed up not fit and also took some small knocks. Had he been exclusively in the 11 for most of WCQ and friendlies, we would have been behind the 8 ball. Plus the following players all started in WC 2002: Friedel, Agoos, Hejduk, Mastroeni, Pope, Sanneh, Obrien, Donovan, Beasley, McBride, Stewart, Reyna, Mathis, Berhalter, Lewis, Wolff. That means that 16 different players started in the Cup. In addition to those 16, the following saw significant minutes: Jones, Moore, Llamosa. You only take 23 players to the Cup, so 19 players saw time. Of the 4 that did not get on the field, 2 were GKs that were not going to play unless Friedel got hurt.
I have not even looked at the different players used for WCQs during that time. I would assume that we never had the same lineup for any of the final 10 WCQs, but i could be wrong. Maybe I will look that up someday. They have plenty of time to gel. They play a friendly or two before they leave normally, 2002 they played Netherlands. Then once over there, they played 1 or 2 closed scrimmages before the Cup started.
I agree that Keller will get the nod, unless he is injured or severely poor leading up to the cup. In that case, Howard would get the start. Howard will be the #1 backup. He is playing under intense pressure, that no other American player has experienced ever.
My point is that if Arena is not going to use the same starting 11 game in and game out in the WC, why use it now? One of the main reasons that the US had as much success as they did can be attributed to Arena's decisions in personnel and tactics. He was able to keep much better teams off balance.
