{"id":10071,"date":"2012-03-07T13:29:49","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T18:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=10071"},"modified":"2012-03-07T14:07:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T19:07:34","slug":"revs-vets-ready-for-new-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=10071","title":{"rendered":"Revs Vets Ready for New Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Revs captain Shalrie Joseph believes an improved squad will lead to more exciting soccer in 2012 season. (Photo Credit:\u00a0Joshua Pearson<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Entering the 2012 season, goalkeeper Matt Reis and midfielder\/captain Shalrie Joseph are clearly the veteran leaders of the New England Revolution. The two are about to begin their 10th year on a young squad in which no one else has been with the club for even six seasons.<\/p>\n

Yet the two are experiencing something new just like everyone else \u2013 their first season under head coach Jay Heaps. Heaps was a teammate of both players for their first seven years with the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is strange [being coached by a former teammate],\u201d said Reis. \u201cBut at the same time Jay\u2019s done a great job of being prepared and having a clear sense of where he wants us to be and where he\u2019s taking us. It\u2019s refreshing; it\u2019s nice to have a new voice in here and hopefully it pays off.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Joseph doesn\u2019t completely share Reis\u2019 view of it being strange to play under a former teammate, he did agree that Heaps has had a positive impact on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so weird,\u201d said Joseph. \u201c[Heaps] is a good guy. I\u2019ve known him as a player. He was always a good player. He came in, he worked hard, he pushed himself and he was probably one of the most emotional players I\u2019ve been around.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day I learned from him,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat\u2019s translated for him as a coach. He comes in here and we know what he\u2019s about. He pushes us every day to work hard, to play together, to stay as a team and just be ready to work for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both players have been impressed with how Heaps has brought in new creative players to help the team keep possession. As the starting goalkeeper on a team that gave up 58 goals last season, Reis is excited about how improved possession, along with an improved defense, could make his and the defense\u2019s jobs easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think not only is our defense getting better, it\u2019s also the fact that we\u2019re trying to keep the ball a little bit more,\u201d said Reis. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of helping us out that we are not having to defend for most of the game.<\/p>\n

Joseph, meanwhile, believes the added creativity will help the team score more goals and make it more exciting to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get it together we\u2019re definitely going to be a team to watch,\u201d said Joseph. \u201cWe have a lot of good players, a lot of creative guys and if we can get these guys the ball in the attacking third we\u2019re going to score a lot of goals this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a different style,\u201d he added. \u201cThe players are definitely different. We\u2019ve got a more possession oriented team. All the guys here are very good with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Revs captain also feels the team is further along in preseason than they were at the same time last season and that starts with having a better squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re a lot more advanced,\u201d said Joseph. \u201cDefinitely a lot of different players and a lot of better players with the ball and in the locker room we all get along. That is going to translate onto the field. If we can get a good start on Saturday in San Jose that\u2019s going to be really good for our confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those changes have left Reis hopefully that the team can improve over a disastrous 2011 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we definitely have a lot of good players,\u201d said Reis. \u201cWe\u2019ve added quite a bit and changed quite a bit. Hopefully we\u2019ll get a few more in and win more than five games this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Revs leaders know even with all the new talent the team has onboard, the onus is still on them to bring the team together and make sure everyone\u2019s ready on opening day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all comes from this locker room with the veteran guys like me and Matt and even Benny [Feilhaber] and Kevin [Alston],\u201d Joseph said. \u201cIf we can get that starting eleven working together we\u2019re going to be one of the teams that everybody wants to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reis and Joseph see improvements in Revs squad ahead of 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/josephfeature7.jpg?fit=490%2C240","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10071"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10071"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10084,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10071\/revisions\/10084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}