Per a team press release, the New England Revolution have recalled right-midfielder Gabe Latigue and left-back Tyler Polak from their affiliate USLPRO club, the Rochester Rhinos, ahead of the two teams' Open Cup match on Tuesday night. Latigue and Polak will join the Revs in Rochester and then will report back to the Rhinos on Wednesday, May 29th.
This move is unsurprising as it allows the Revolution to keep their players from playing against them in the Open Cup match, and even allows them to use them during the match, if they so choose, at which point the players would become cup-tied to the Revs for the remainder of the tournament.
Other Revolution loanees currently playing with the Rhinos, defender Bilal Duckett and striker Matt Horth, were not recalled, however, and will be eligible to play in the match on Tuesday night. In Duckett's case, the right-back played in Rochester's 2nd round match-up against GPS Portland Phoenix--a game in which he scored the winning goal to send the Rhinos through--and is therefore cup-tied to Rochester.
Horth, on the other hand, is not cup-tied to the Rhinos, however was likely not recalled, I believe, as a good faith move by the Revolution in light of Rochester's injury situation with their forwards, which has left them somewhat thin up top recently. With Matt Luzunaris recovering from a surgery to his right leg after a horrifying break during a match against the Harrisburg City Islanders, the Rhinos will need all the help they can get and Horth will most likely play a role for the Rhinos in their Open Cup campaign.
As for Latigue and Polak, the two have played fairly significant minutes for Rochester, with Latigue being a perhaps more frequent contributor, at least up until midfielder J.C. Banks returned from injury earlier this month. For the Rhinos, this may be a significant loss in terms of their success in the US Open Cup run this season, but nevertheless the Revolution should not let their guard down, so as to avoid the same humiliation that saw them knocked out of the Cup last season by the City Islanders.
It will be interesting to see whether Polak and Latigue factor into the New England starting lineup on Tuesday night. Either way, let's hope the Revs can continue their current winning streak and move onto the next round of the US Open Cup where they would host the winner of the New York Red Bulls/Reading United match.