Bruce Arena sat calmly in the stadium he hopes will be anything but come Friday night, describing the process of choosing players to represent the United States in its next critical World Cup qualifier.

The Orlando Sentinel exclusively published the 26-man roster Sunday morning, hours before the majority of the squad arrives in Orlando for a week of training camp leading to a Friday match against Panama. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Orlando City Stadium.

“We’ve had so many injuries this year, everyone’s in and out, and even in a camp like this you wait until the last minute to see if everyone comes out of weekend games healthy, to see if guys who have had injuries are coming back,” Arena said from an office inside the stadium just before Orlando City played FC Dallas on Saturday. “On our roster, there’s like five or six players that we redlined, we’re not exactly sure what they’re going to look like when they come in.

“Hopefully by Wednesday we’re fully together and we have a complete understanding of our roster, who’s going to play, how we’re going to play and we’re ready to go.”

Some of those players include defenders Geoff Cameron and DeAndre Yedlin, back from hamstring injuries. Arena listed Kellyn Acosta, Jozy Altidore and Matt Besler as players dealing with recent injury as well.

All of them also are among the 10 players on caution, one yellow card away from suspension. The others are Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Paul Arriola, DaMarcus Beasley and Alejandro Bedoya.

That's why Arena again chose to call 26 players into camp, three more than are allowed to suit up for the game.

The team will split its training sessions between Orlando City’s training facility in Sanford and the stadium. All but four players will be in town Sunday. The rest fly in Monday.

The roster changes from last month’s qualifiers — a 2-0 home loss to Costa Rica at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey and a 1-1 draw in Honduras — include adding defenders Michael Orozco and Yedlin in place of Matt Hedges and Eric Lichaj; midfielders Juan Agudelo, Benny Feilhaber and Gyasi Zardes were called up, while Cristian Roldan and Fabian Johnson were not; and forward Jordan Morris was left off due to injury.

“The extra players this time is really just to give us cover in a lot of spots because, ya know, a 23-man roster you can afford a suspension or two and not have to be really that concerned about it, but not with the combination of some players coming off injuries,” Arena said.

Eighteen of the 26 players are from Major League Soccer clubs. There are three players each from clubs in England and Mexico and two from Germany, including 19-year-old Christian Pulisic.

Two Central Floridians are on the roster, Graham Zusi of Longwood and Winter Park native Dax McCarty, though no Orlando City players made the cut. Altidore and Bedoya grew up playing soccer in Florida as well, competing in Boca Raton and Weston, respectively.

Arena said if the U.S. makes it past the final two qualifiers, there will be opportunities for other players to contribute in November and next year, including Lions striker Dom Dwyer.

The U.S. is ranked fourth among six teams in the final round of qualifying, one point behind Panama and tied with Honduras. This is the tightest race between the third- through fifth- place teams going into the final two matches of The Hex since this qualifying format was adopted for the 1998 World Cup, according to a spokesman for U.S. Soccer.

The top three teams get automatic bids to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Fourth place will enter an intercontinental playoff situation against the fifth-place team from the Asian Football Confederation, which will be either Australia or Syria, and the rest will go home until the next World Cup cycle.

That is why this final home qualifier against Panama and the closing match in Trinidad and Tobago on Oct. 10 are so important.

This will be the first World Cup qualifier held at Orlando City Stadium and a sellout crowd of 25,500 is expected.

“I’m going to make a plea to the people in Orlando: We need you out supporting the U.S. team,” Arena said. “I think the last time out in New York, we didn’t have the kind of venue that we need to have in these games. That’s important. Hopefully we have a crowd that is very supportive of the U.S. team and they can maybe drown out the supporters of the visiting team if that’s the case.”

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION (Club; WCQ Caps/Goals)

GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Atlanta United FC; 15/0), Tim Howard (Colorado Rapids; 37/0), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake; 0/0)

DEFENDERS (9): DaMarcus Beasley (Houston Dynamo; 35/6), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City; 12/1), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City/ENG; 24/2), Omar Gonzalez (Pachuca/MEX; 16/0), Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana/MEX; 6/1), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 6/0), Jorge Villafaña (Santos Laguna/MEX; 4/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United/ENG; (8/0), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City; 20/3)