{"id":18864,"date":"2013-04-04T09:42:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T13:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=18864"},"modified":"2013-04-04T09:42:12","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T13:42:12","slug":"dont-forget-about-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=18864","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Forget About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Revolution<\/a>

Revolution center back Stephen McCarthy is fully healthy after picking up an injury during the preseason. (Photo: Kari Heistad\/CapturedImages.biz)<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 In a sense, all Stephen McCarthy can do at this point is train hard and wait his turn.<\/p>\n

After suffering a head injury toward the tail end of the preseason, the Revolution\u2019s 2012 defender of the year has watched the back four has jelled into one of the strongest units in MLS \u2013 without him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get back on the field if you\u2019re not heading the ball,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cI just started to really use my head last week and it was totally normal, so now it\u2019s just trying to get the timing back.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, so good. Although he didn\u2019t make the gameday 18 in each of the Revolution\u2019s first three matches, he finally saw his name on the team sheet for Saturday\u2019s match against FC Dallas.<\/p>\n

Sure, he would\u2019ve welcomed the opportunity to rip off the training top and jump onto the pitch. But that doesn\u2019t mean the man they call “Macca” isn\u2019t close to doing to just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you, I\u2019d have no hesitation putting him in any game,\u201d Revolution head coach Jay Heaps said. \u201cI don\u2019t like to see a player like Macca not getting games he could be getting, but (that\u2019s why) we have competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the injury and lack of playing time, Heaps believes that the way McCarthy\u2019s trained has actually had a direct impact on the starters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what Macca\u2019s doing actually \u2013 with how well he trains and how well he plays – affects how our two center backs are playing,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cBecause both center backs now know that Darrius (Barnes) and Macca are willing and able and ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, McCarthy knows that the wait involved with his recovery hasn\u2019t exactly put him in a favorable spot to reclaim his job. He knows that every time the defense posts a clean sheet, it\u2019s a stronger endorsement of the starters \u2013 a group he was once part of not long ago.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he isn\u2019t going to be bitter about it. First and foremost is his health, to which he has no qualms about taking enough to time to heal rather than rushing back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always tough to not play,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cBut you just have to keep staying positive and moving forward. I\u2019m feeling good, though.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now healthy, Revolution center back Stephen McCarthy is anxious to prove that he belongs back on the pitch. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18867,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/SMC15.bmp","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18864"}],"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=18864"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18869,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18864\/revisions\/18869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}