New England Soccer Today

Rowe Trains; Alston & Knighton Absent

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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe was a full participant in Wednesday’s training session days after he exited in the latter stages of Saturday’s match due an apparent injury.

Rowe donned the blue pinnie during the squad’s small-sided scrimmages on the training ground behind Gillette Stadium. The blue pinnie is often assigned to a player who’s playing offense for both sides, thus keeping him from going hard on any defensive challenges.

“Kelyn’s doing great,” Revolution coach Jay Heaps said following the conclusion of training.

Midfielder Jermaine Jones exited training midway through the session while Kevin Alston and goalkeeper Brad Knighton were both absent. Heaps confirmed that both players’ absences were due to personal reasons.

The Revolution will train through Friday before they’re given the weekend off. Unlike their previous bye week, the team will resume training on Monday instead of Tuesday.

Notes:

*Heaps told the media that the regiment this week’s bye – which comes only two weeks after their last one – is quite similar to the one that came after their win over Toronto FC on Aug. 1. “It’s not different than other bye weeks, it’s the same thought process that goes into it, it’s all about pushing certain guys, and giving certain guys a little bit of (extra) time. I don’t look at it as being a rest period, I look at it as more of a focus on the last push of the season, the last nine games.”

*One person who’s not a fan of this week’s bye is striker Charlie Davies, who told the media after the last bye week that he was “chomping at the bit to get back on the pitch.” Said Davies on Wednesday: “I feel like it comes at an unfortunate time. I think that the one bye is good, but then, you don’t want to lose fitness and you don’t want to get out of a rhythm.”

*Davies said that Saturday’s win over Houston – which was delayed by lightning twice for a total of 170 minutes – was a good barometer of how much the team’s mental focus has improved since the early part of the summer. “It was an extremely tough game to be mentally prepared and focused throughout the 90 minutes – which happened to take over three-and-a-half hours or so. A game like that where we can come out with three points shows how strong we are mentally, and I think we can use that a little further down the road when, come playoff time, where we can dig deep and remember that we had to play over 300 minutes.”

*Concord, Mass. native Will Packwood remains in camp with the Revolution while he continues to search for a club.

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