Union’s Andre Blake recovering from illness for Open Cup final; Auston Trusty faces marathon workload

After missing the Union's win over Kansas City on Sunday because of an illness, goalkeeper Andre Blake seems set to be fine for Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup final at Houston (8 p.m., ESPN2 and Univision Deportes).

Blake was scratched from Sunday's lineup just over an hour before kickoff, forcing John McCarthy into action. Blake trained Monday but wasn't quite at full strength yet and left the field before the rest of the team. The sense among the Union's coaching and medical staffs was that it was a short-term bug.

"He'll be fine," manager Jim Curtin said before the team left for Houston on Monday evening. "I think it would take a lot to keep him out of a final, and all signs are pointing to him being OK."

Curtin also declared Ray Gaddis to be fine after the ankle injury he suffered in Seattle, and said Ilsinho is just about back from a strained quadriceps suffered at the start of the month.

"He looks very good [and] explosive," Curtin said. "The same tricks and nutmegs and different things that you see on a daily basis. I'm happy with where he's at."

A bigger concern might be defender Auston Trusty. The Media native is in fine health, but he is set to play his fourth game in 11 days. He played every minute of the last three games, and played them all quite well, but a stretch like this can test even a 20-year-old.

"We have a good idea of where Auston stands, the load he can handle, and he hasn't shown any negative signs," Curtin said. "He's become a player I can't take off the field, with his performances. As long as the body continues to perform well physically, the data tells us what it tells us, our eyeballs still tell us what they tell us, he's a guy that I can believe can handle this load."