Rais Mbolhi's Union Career Is Pretty Much Done
By Kevin Kinkead
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- At some point in the not-so-distant past, someone decided that Rais Mbolhi would never again play for the Philadelphia Union.
Maybe it was manager Jim Curtin. Maybe it was Rais Mbolhi. Maybe it was both.
An extraordinary week began with the news that Mbolhi had returned to Philadelphia after his April benching and return to Europe.
On Tuesday, backup goalkeepers Andre Blake and John McCarthy both went down with training injuries, leaving Mbolhi as the only healthy goalkeeper on the roster.
Curtin hardly gave Mbolhi any kind of endorsement at Wednesday's press conference.
Then, any questions about Saturday's starter in Vancouver went out the window when the Philadelphia Inquirer's Marc Narducci broke the following news on Friday morning:
#MLS DOOP Rais Mbolhi is not with the Union in Vancouver. Brian Sylvestre is on short term loan and will start in goal tomorrow.
— Marc Narducci (@sjnard) May 8, 2015
#MLS #DOOP Union's backup keeper tomorrow is expected to be Trey Mitchell
— Marc Narducci (@sjnard) May 8, 2015
Mbolhi's tenure in Philadelphia is surely done.
If the only healthy goalkeeper on the roster will not play for the team, for whatever reason, it's almost certain that he will be sold in the summer transfer window.
As for the new faces on the travel roster, Union fans should be familiar with Brian Sylvestre. The former Harrisburg goalkeeper had a monster game against Philadelphia in the 2014 U.S. Open Cup, keeping the Union off the scoresheet for the better part of 85 minutes before the City Islanders ran out of steam in a 3-1 extra time loss.
Trey Mitchell will backup Sylvestre. He had a brief stint with Chivas USA's reserve team.