The Chicago Fire play in Charlotte tonight.
Chris Brady, however, may be in action this afternoon, as the U.S. Men's National Team plays a friendly against Peru. Noah Allen, Puso Dithejane and Robin Lod may see national team minutes this morning (Allen for the Greece U21s). Robert Lewandowski and Anzor Mekvabishvili both played yesterday. And Robert Turdean is in Spain for three matches as U.S. U-17s prepare for their World Cup tournament.
That is what happens when a league schedules matches during a FIFA international window, when teams are required to release players for senior team call ups, and when many choose to do so for youth teams as well.
As a result, as the Fire look to end a seven-game winless skid that now includes two losses in a row, they'll have to do it without their starting goalkeeper. And the only natural striker to have any serious first-team experience. And other key contributors.
Against a team in Charlotte that has only one loss in league play since the World Cup break – the biggest factor going in their favor is that that loss was to the Fire in the reverse fixture played at the start of August.
Charlotte FC
The Fire, of course, are not the only team to lose players this break. Charlotte will be without four players, including two key contributors in Idan Toklomati and Pep Biel, who are respectively the team's second- and third-highest goal scorers this year.
That caused Head Coach Dean Smith to tell media bluntly, "I have no understanding how we as a league are playing during an international break."
They will, however, have Pep Biel, who leads the team with 12 goals (he also leads the team in assists, with 10), and Allan Saint-Maximin, the crafty French left winger who has been excellent for Charlotte since arriving there this summer.
Saint-Maximin, taking the roster spot that Wilfred Zaha vacated, has helped elevate the team and may change the trajectory of a club that aims to become the "Seattle Sounders of the East," according to Zoran Krneta, the team's sporting director.
With Saint-Maximin playing down the left wing, Abada has become much more effective, and the group, getting service from Biel, finally looks like a complete attacking trio.
Without Abada, though, the question is how Charlotte's attack will fare: Biel can also play on the right wing, but that removes him from his best playmaking spot, and Rodolfo Aloko, the other natural right wing on the squad, is one of Charlotte's other international call-ups.
Chicago Fire
And how does Gregg Berhalter look at the challenge of losing six members of his squad – in addition to those who are out with injury?
"I think it's just dealing with it," the Fire head said at media availability on Thursday. Still, the team, he said, is "not making any excuses. We built this roster for a reason; that we'd still have a strong squad, and we've been playing shorthanded the last couple weeks with Anton [Salétros] missing and [Mbekezeli Mbokazi] still missing, and that's all part of it," saying that he expects a "next-man-up mentality" from his group.
The next-man-up may actually be a very young man, with Berhalter saying "we are going to call players up" from the second-team, noting that the Next Pro squad had a very young average age and still competed against much older squads.
One of those players will be Dean Boltz. Asked about the lack of another natural striker on the first team in the wake of Lewandowski's call-up, Berhalter said that "we are going to recall Dean Boltz from the second team. He's a natural striker, a younger player, and then we have a number of attacking players that we can move into that position. Will it be like Robert? No, of course not. We'll be like Robin [Lod], who has a really good understanding of that, potentially. When we have done that, it has looked like a hybrid-type striker but we'll still ask similar things. You know, arriving in the penalty box, getting in on the end of crosses, stretching the back line."
The next-man-up might be a more familar face, however, with the Fire head coach stating that both Anton Salétros and Mbekezeli Mbokazi were "questionable" for that match after the Swedish midfielder and South African defender trained with the group this week. That's a significant upgrade for the team: The Fire have severely missed both in their absences, and the return of either would be a boon as the team looks for their first win in over a month.
