{"id":11220,"date":"2012-04-19T23:59:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T03:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11220"},"modified":"2012-04-23T12:19:40","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T16:19:40","slug":"heaps-happy-with-the-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11220","title":{"rendered":"Heaps Happy with the Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Revolution may still be a work in progress, but Jay Heaps (with ball) is happy with the talent on his roster. (Photo: Chris Aduama\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – After Wednesday’s practice, Jay Heaps took a moment to reflect on where he feels his team is six games into the season.<\/p>\n

Sure, there are still improvements to be made. After all, the team’s 2-4-0 record would seem to indicate that they’re far from from becoming a finished product.<\/p>\n

But even though the team may not have made any blockbuster deals during the offseason, Heaps is nevertheless happy with the amount of talent already on the roster.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve made a lot of strides forward in the quality of players we have,” Heaps said. “Talent-wise, this is as good a team as any team that I\u2019ve ever been on.”<\/p>\n

That’s high praise from\u00a0the same Jay Heaps who went to four MLS Cup finals in six years with a Revolution team that featured the likes of Taylor Twellman, Clint Dempsey, Steve Ralston and Shalrie Joseph, among others. So such a remark isn’t without perspective.<\/p>\n

And while he\u00a0may see similarities between the clubs from the mid-2000s and the current one, Heaps wasn’t shy to invoke the name of one of his former teammates to distinguish a key difference.<\/p>\n

“Just man for man, (one) of the differences is (having) that little extra edge,” Heaps said. “That little bit of Dempsey, that little bit of edge, a little bite to us. So that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to get.”<\/p>\n

So far, the Revs have shown flashes of the flair displayed during the team’s Eastern Conference dynasty. Players like Lee Nguyen, Sa\u00ebr S\u00e8ne\u00a0and Kelyn Rowe – all new additions – have given the Revs’ attack a welcome air of unpredictability. And it’s obvious Heaps wants to see more of it as the season progresses.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t mean his roster is set in stone for the duration of the 2012 campaign. By no means.<\/p>\n

In fact, Heaps admitted that he kept an eye on the transfer wire before the window closed on Monday.<\/p>\n

“We’re always looking,” Heaps said. “It would be a disservice to our team and to the organization if we weren’t (always) looking.”<\/p>\n

Although the Revolution ultimately did not make a move in the transfer market prior to Monday, Heaps admitted that he may take a closer look during the summer transfer window. And he indicated that he won’t be looking for a player that would simply bolster his team’s depth.<\/p>\n

“To be very fair,” Heaps said. “We’re looking for game-changer type players.”<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Heaps is in no hurry to bring in a high-profile player just for the sake of it. Given the steps forward his team has made after a disastrous 2011 campaign, the first-year head coach seems content with his roster for now.<\/p>\n

“I like where this team is,” Heaps said. “I like where we\u2019re at and we just need to get tougher and just turn the screws on a couple of areas. But in terms of talent, it\u2019s there.”<\/p>\n

But, at the same time, he left open the possibility of orchestrating some major mid-season acquisitions to put the team in a position to make a push for the playoffs down the stretch.<\/p>\n

“We’re very comfortable where we are,” Heaps said. “Now, it’s a matter of one or two players that we need to add on at the end of the summer that I think will be difference-makers, if we go that route.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There may be plenty of room for improvement, but Jay Heaps likes what his players bring to the table so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8561,"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\/01\/JayHeaps1.png?fit=462%2C282","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11220"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11220"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11342,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11220\/revisions\/11342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}