The Fire announced on Friday that their scheduled match against USSF Division 2 side NSC Minnesota Stars has been canceled. The match was originally scheduled for this Sunday at National Sports Center Stadium in the Twin Cities suburb of Blaine, Minn. before falling through.
Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos planned on using the match to give some lesser used players – including the four trialists currently in the Chicago camp – some minutes.
“[We need the opportunity] to play some players [who are] not playing very frequently,” De los Cobos said this week. “Players that are in tryout, we try to see these guys because I [see] two of these guys as very interesting players and I wished to see these guys in the match.”
The two trialists De los Cobos mentioned are Malaury Martin, a 21-year-old French midfielder who captained his country's U-19 team in the 2007 European Championships, and a 30-year-old Serbian player whose name has not been released.
“I think we need to strengthen our team,” De los Cobos said. “We need to strength some positions. It’s possible if we see these guys performance maybe it’s a good opportunity for us.”
Unfortunately for the Fire’s first year head coach, he won’t be given the opportunity to see any of the four trialists in a match. As such, the Fire’s decision on whether or not to sign any of these players will likely be largely based on how the potential signees perform in training over the course of the next few days.
<p><em><strong>Join the Debate! MLSsoccer.com's "<a href="http://mls.neulion.com/mlsvp/console.jsp?catid=1916&id=6048" target="_blank">ExtraTime Radio</a></strong><strong>" is LIVE every day during the World Cup, 5-7 pm ET. Call in at 888-MLS-GOAL.</strong></em></p>
