Yesterday Red Bull sporting director Jeff Agoos said even though Albert Celades was trying to get his visit to the U.S. consulate moved up from Friday to today, in a worst-case scenario he expected the midfielder to fly back to the U.S. with his P-1 visa tomorrow night and be available for Saturday’s home opener. Apparently that’s not going to happen.
The latest I’m hearing is that not only were the Red Bulls and Celades unable to get that meeting expedited to today, but that with his meeting scheduled for Friday in Madrid he now isn’t likely to make that cross-Atlantic flight on such short notice.
“We hope to have him back for the game on Saturday, but obviously that’s up to the discretion of the U.S. consulate,” Agoos had said yesterday. “He could fly back after and be available. It’s not ideal; that’s why we’re trying to get it moved.”
Maybe the visa process is going to take longer than expected; or maybe “not ideal” just turned out to be too circus-like on second thought. Either way, the short version is they don’t expect Celades _ whom the MLS Players Union lists as making just $100,000 base salary BTW _ to be back until Monday at the earliest. That means don’t expect to see him on the field vs. the Revolution.
That’s bad news for a Red Bull team that 1) got drilled 3-0 in the season-opener by an expansion club, 2) couldn’t keep possession or compete in the midfield, and 3) is without Jon Conway, Carlos Johnson, Seth Stammler, Andrew Boyens and Alfredo Pacheco, and has left back Kevin Goldthwaite’s status up-in-the-air.
Goldthwaite didn’t train today, resting his sprained ankle heel. If he can’t go Saturday, left-wingers Danleigh Borman and Khano Smith are options at fullback, and I’d bet on the former getting the start there since he worked there in camp and again yesterday once Goldthwaite got hurt. What do you guys think of this latest bit of bad news? And how do you see them lining up? They don’t have a lot of options, and I see them looking like this….
__________Kandji___________Angel_________
___Smith____________________Richards_____
___________Sassano____Ubiparipovic________
_Goldie/Borman_Mendes_Petke______Hall____
________________Cepero_________________