With his Red Bulls team — especially the central defense — stretched thin, coach Mike Petke is hoping none of his three standouts gets banged-up or worn out in Wednesday’s MLS All-Star game in Portland.
“I’m more concerned with the travel, playing on turf and the minutes they’re going to play,’’ Petke said. “I’m not concerned with injury, because those things could happen any game. But definitely I hope they play 45 minutes at the most, they’re well-rested and ready to go for the more important game, which is Sunday.’’
Petke has good reason to be concerned. He will be without centerbacks Jamison Olave and Matt Miazga Sunday at Chicago. The last thing he needs is to lose MLS assist leader Thierry Henry, league scoring leader Bradley Wright-Phillips or World Cup midfielder Tim Cahill.
All played on Saturday, when the Red Bulls expended a lot of energy in a 10-man, 2-1 come-from-behind win over New England. Then they flew 2,400 miles to play in Wednesday’s glorified exhibition against Bayern Munich at Providence Park. The turf in Portland is far from the worst in MLS, the only artificial surface Henry — who has a chronic Achilles problem — typically plays on.
“When I spoke to Caleb [Porter, All-Star coach] weeks ago upon their selection, he said he’d play them no more than 45 [minutes)]’’ Petke said. “I know he’s a man of his word — he’ll stick to it. But obviously anything can happen. Who knows what could happen? Some of the guys could get injured. They might not have any subs left. Any crazy thing could happen.’’
The Red Bulls can ill afford for anything crazy to happen to any of that trio, having lost Miazga and Olave to suspensions — Miazga for his red-card tackle Saturday and Olave for grabbing Olmes Garcia’s genitals in the July 30 tie at Real Salt Lake. Yes, you read that right.
Veteran Ibrahim Sekagya is almost assured of starting at one centerback spot. It’s the other spot that’s the problem. Sporting director Andy Roxburgh confirmed the team was standing pat at Wednesday’s close of the MLS International Transfer Deadline, and recently-signed Damien Perrinelle still isn’t cleared to play, awaiting his ITC and P-1 visa.
That leaves Armando – who just served a two-game suspension for a dangerous play – and no other natural centerbacks on the roster, the rest fullbacks or midfielders to be used in a pinch.
“We have Armando Lozano who has experience in this league,’’ Petke said. “We have Roy Miller, who’s comfortable playing centrally, as he did after the red card this weekend and as he does with his national team in Costa Rica. We have those two for sure. After that, God forbid something happened to both of those two.
“It’d be a mix-and-match type thing. You could take your pick of guys going back there to [Richard] Eckersley, [Kosuke] Kimura, you could even slide Dax [McCarty] back there. But we’re hoping we’re not even going to come close to having to make a decision like that.’’