RESERVE PLAYERS COULD GET A CHANCE AGAINST CHICAGO
The Rapids face the Chicago Fire on Wednesday night without two key players. Pablo Mastroeni received a red card on Saturday night against the Columbus Crew and will serve his one game suspension. Julian Baudet came off the pitch in the second half of the Columbus match with a sore knee. While it is certain that Pablo won’t play, Julian is a game time decision.
Coach Smith doesn’t like to show his hand when it comes to lineups but did mention that this might be an opportunity for some reserve players to step in and prove themselves.
Two players that are ready to step up to the challenge are rookie midfielder Ross LaBauex, and center back Scott Palguta.
Ross LaBauex saw significant playing time in the Open Cup qualifiers. His combination of athleticism and skill has impressed the coaching staff. The young midfielder knows he is still a work in progress but is eager to get on the field and prove he is worthy of more minutes.
Ross seems like the ideal candidate to replace Pablo in that defensive midfield role. Although he doesn’t know if he’ll get the nod, Ross stated that “it’s looking good just cause Pablo got the red and I play defensive mid too. So we’ll see, I’m hoping, it’s always good to hope.”
Ross, a Chicago native, has extra motivation to get on the field tomorrow night . His “mom, grandma, uncle, aunt, two cousins, and a lot of friends” will be in attendance at tomorrow night’s game.
Although playing in front of his family is an added bonus, Ross believes that “getting a victory would be the best thing, regardless of what I do, as long as the team wins I’ll be happy.”
Another player that might get an opportunity is defender Scott Palguta. Scott struggled with tendinitis during preseason and has slowly worked his way back into the rotation. Scott was happy to get on the field on Saturday but isn’t getting his hopes too high about starting against Chicago.
“It was nice to get a few minutes on Saturday, but We’ll see about Chicago, there are a couple guys struggling with injury we’ll have to see how they feel tomorrow, we don’t know the lineup just yet.”
Despite the possibility of a few players missing neither Ross nor Scott believes the team will change anything.
Ross stated, ” I don’t think we’ll do much differently, we are on a good run right now, our tactics are working our formations are working. I think we are on the incline, I think we can only get better from here on as long as we work hard and play our game we can win it.”
Similarly, Scott doesn’t think the team will make major adjustments but believes their 2-2 tie earlier this season will motivate the team to look for the win.
“I don’t think so, [Chicago] I think, even though we are 10, 11, 12 games into the season, they are still trying to find themselves a little bit, they’ve been up and down a little bit form wise. The game here is going to be in the back of our mind, obviously that tie is a game we thought we should’ve won, so I think we’ll approach tomorrow night with a little bit of chip on our shoulder, that even though we are on the road we’ll be thinking 3 points the whole time.”
Coach Smith also stated that he was pleased with what he saw from Jamie Smith on Saturday. Additionally, Coach Smith is entertaining the idea of giving Claudio a chance against Chicago. He didn’t state if it was off the bench or starting.