Davies Exits Match With ‘Mild Strain’ in Hamstring
- Updated: March 12, 2016
Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Charlie Davies has been playing soccer for a long time. And even at the age of 29, it’s safe to say the Manchester, New Hampshire native is an MLS veteran.
That experience was the reason Davies elected to hit the turf in the 33rd minute in New England’s 0-0 draw against D.C. United.
Inside the opening half hour, Davies said he felt a “mild strain” in his left hamstring when he went to track down a long ball from midfielder Diego Fagundez. Davies played on, hoping for a scoring chance. It came in the 29th minute when the striker went airborne for a bicycle kick off a cross from Teal Bunbury but his bid was blocked away.
Minutes later, Davies went down and was subbed off for Juan Agudelo in the 34th minute.
“This is the veteran in me,” said Davies. “I felt like a mild strain if you will. I felt like I’d give it one more chance to have a scoring opportunity and it came with Teal crossing. I tried the bike, I tried to improvise. And then I just felt like OK, that was my chance, now it’s time to be smart and come off. It’s early in the season, if I’m going to have something like this happen, I’d rather it now then later on in the season.
“Obviously I’m still in good spirits because I know it’s something that will heal quick. We have two big games coming up, Philly and New York, both Eastern Conference teams. We’ll see if I’ll be able to go later on next week. If not I know I’ll be fine for New York.”
Davies was his normal smiling self after the game, noting that he’s able to walk without pain and all the signs so far have been positive.
“It wasn’t like a full sprint type of hamstring strain, it was more trying to accelerate,” Davis said. “I guess, if there’s any part of your hamstring to strain, I guess I strained the right part. I’m looking forward to getting back on the field and helping this team win some games.”
Davies didn’t have a shot on target in his time on the pitch — his lone shot was the blocked bicycle kick. He completed 75% of his passes in his 33 minutes of work.
“I haven’t got a full assessment,” Revolution head coach Jay Heaps said. “We’re on hold on that. But he walked off alright and got treatment. We’re hopeful he has a good week.”
Agudelo came on and took his place on the right wing while Teal Bunbury pushed into the striker spot.
“It changes things a little bit,” Heaps said of the sub. “I thought Teal went in and did a good job of creating length in the field and getting behind. Juan was ready to go, I thought Juan had a good game. It’s one of those, we preach all week that we have guys that can play at any time and I thought Juan stepped up and did a nice job.”
Agudelo pushed high on the wing and assumed the lone striker spot for good when Bunbury was subbed off for Kelyn Rowe in the 74th minute.
Bunbury was credited for two shots, both of them off target. Bunbury’s bid in the 24th minute was rocketed into the side netting at the near post after a nice pass from Diego Fagundez.
Agudelo registered two shots but neither made it through to D.C. United keeper Travis Worra. In the 53rd minute his shot from outside the area was deflected away by a defender. Agudelo’s second bid was also denied by a defender as his shot from 12 yards out went out for a corner.
The 23-year-old nearly had an assist as well, when he got on the end of a rebound off a shot from Lee Nguyen but his back heel into the heart of the area went unanswered.
“Teal’s really fast so it opens up the field,” Heaps said of the overall tactic changes. “I think he got behind them a lot more than Charlie did. But Charlie also has different runs that he makes, he gets himself open for crosses and different things. Juan is more of a physical player and battles a little bit. It’s a move we would go to at some point anyway, that was our thought processes. One of our ideas was to maybe go to that formation anyways, but just not in the first half. It gives us a different look. When Juan is up there, he’s definitely at No. 9 on the wing, and he can hold the ball. You saw in the second half he likes the ball being played into his back. Teal likes to be wider and make the slicing runs when he’s on the wing.”
Despite only playing roughly a third of the game, Davies said there was certainly frustration that New England wasn’t able to get all three points in the team’s home opener.
“This is a game where we had many opportunities to take advantage of a chance to score and it didn’t happen today,” Davies said. “We felt DC came in here today just to get a point, they weren’t playing to win this game. Let’s put it that way. We know that teams will do that coming here. It’s not an easy place to come play. But with that being said, we have to capitalize on the chances that we had. It’s only the beginning of the season, we have high expectations and high hopes for this season. It’s good to see guys are frustrated and guys want to win.
“We feel like this is a prime opportunity to get three points when we play here at home. With that being said, it’s only the second game of the season. Things are looking good for us, we’re confident. We know things will eventually go our away. We just have to keep working hard.”
Davies and the rest of the Revolution will have a whole week to rest up before the team travels to Philadelphia to take on the Union on Sunday, March 20th at 2:30.
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