With all-star Tim Cahill sidelined for an estimated 3-to-4 weeks with a torn PCL, the Red Bulls have a gaping hole in the center of their midfield. With three straight Eastern Conference games on tap, starting Saturday at first-place Sporting KC, now the question is how will head coach Mike Petke plug that gap?
Even more than his six goals, Cahill will be missed for his tackling, work rate and aerial ability, even clearing balls out of the box on defense. Three-to-four weeks seems ambitious; but Cahill has proven to be both fit and blessed with a high pain tolerance. The Red Bulls can only hope that continues, because they’re 10-4-5 with him, but an inauspicious 0-3-0 without him.
“The fortunate part of it is we’re looking at 3-to-4 weeks recovery time; that’s if he sticks to the treatment, which of course he will, and if the treatment goes well,’’ said Petke. “That’s soccer; that’s life, and we have to figure out ways to just do without him.’’
Petke wouldn’t say who’ll start in central midfield Saturday, but it seems overwhelmingly likely that Eric Alexander – who has played largely out of position at right midfield, and done yeoman’s work – will be first in line to fill in centrally next to Dax McCarty.
“I mean, as you guys know I’m not about to say whose going to play where. But obviously Eric is a very big candidate to step in from his outside position, 100 percent,’’ Petke said yesterday afternoon.
“It’s something that we’re not rushing to make a decision on right now. I would sense by tomorrow morning practice, after more meetings I have today with the staff and then tomorrow morning coming in early and getting the guys at practice, we should have a pretty good idea of which way we’re going.’’
Alexander is actually tied for the team lead in games played with 22, and his 1,730 minutes are the third-most on the club. Alexander is a central midfielder by trade, but with nobody having stepped up at right midfield, he has largely been deployed there.
If Alexander does indeed get the nod centrally – and he’s done just that whenever the Red Bulls have missed any two of the trio of Cahill, McCarty or the since-departed Juninho – it will force somebody to have to step up at right midfield, something that heretofore simply hasn’t happened.
Petke said that won’t be newly-acquired Bradley Wright-Phillips, since the 28-year-old English attacker still hasn’t gotten his P-1 visa yet, and would have to make a trip back to London to complete the process before he’ll be eligible to play.
“Bradley’s not part of the equation because as far as I know he doesn’t have his P-1 visa,’’ said Petke. “So yeah, that’s going to take him going back to London I believe, which even if he was to get on a plane tomorrow to go I don’t think he’ll be ready to play Saturday. So I believe that Bradley is a non-factor in this situation.’’
Lloyd Sam offers the most going forward and the best 1v1 attacking ability; it’s his defense and work rate – or questions about said defense – that have given Petke pause, and have him considering moving either a fullback to play out of position or perhaps even trust an untested teenager instead.
“You know, you have a guy like Lloyd who has shown some good stuff coming on late in the game,’’ said Petke. “(But) there are some things about Lloyd as far as putting him in a 90-minute game with all the defensive work we’re going to have to do and quick going forward.
“A guy like Kosuke [Kimura], Brandon [Barklage] we can step up, Marius Obekop. We have some options, you know: It’s just a matter of who is going to fill the need of how we want to play and how we want to approach this game. Like I said, that’s something we’re talking a lot about today after this call and tomorrow morning before practice so we’re on board for practice tomorrow and we can start preparing.’’