{"id":24818,"date":"2014-04-03T11:40:15","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T15:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=24818"},"modified":"2014-04-05T00:22:28","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T04:22:28","slug":"davies-hungry-to-succeed-help-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=24818","title":{"rendered":"Davies ‘Hungry’ to Succeed, Help Team"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Charlie Davies\u2019 return to the field was a long time coming for Revolution fans,\u00a0especially\u00a0after a calf injury kept the 27-year-old forward out of preseason action.\u00a0But he certainly\u00a0made up for lost time in his season\u00a0debut last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Davies impressed in San Jose after coming on in the 62nd minute for Saer Sene. His pace threatened the San Jose backline, and created multiple chances in the final third as the Revolution tried to find three points on the road.<\/p>\n

His efforts\u00a0would pay off before the final whistle. Davies was fouled in stoppage time, and instead of taking his time with the free kick, he quickly played a pass to Scott Caldwell, who found the run of Lee Nguyen.<\/p>\n

Nguyen looked up once toward Bunbury \u2013 who made a central run \u2013 as he cut across the top the 18, before sending his shot into the bottom-left corner from about 15 yards out in the 93rd minute. The goal proved to be the difference in the 2-1 win, and it all stemmed from Davies\u2019 decision to restart quickly after being fouled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sensed a chance to get a chance at goal,\u201d Davies said. \u201cI thought we could have caught them sleeping, which we did. For me, I wasn\u2019t satisfied with the draw. I don\u2019t think the team was fine with the draw either, I think we deserved the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fortunate enough to see that it was a real chance for us, and thankfully Lee capped off a great finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Jay Heaps was\u00a0liked what he saw from\u00a0Davies\u2019 performance on Saturday, noting that the\u00a0forward’s ability to find space for behind San Jose\u2019s defense late in the game gave the Revolution more room to work with in the San Jose half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Charlie did an excellent job coming in and adding a different element,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cHe put pressure on their center backs. His first touch right away kind of set the tone, and he has the pace to get behind defenders. There\u2019s nothing worse than a guy who can get behind you in the 70th, 80th minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they have to drop off and respect it, and it allowed us to play a little bit underneath him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davies\u2019 substitute appearance against San Jose came after being included in Heaps\u2019 gameday 18 for the first time this season. Since missing preseason with a calf injury, Davies has spent his time playing catch-up in training.\u00a0But the\u00a0substitute appearance is just the beginning of getting back to top-form, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a frustrating start to the season due to being injured for most of preseason, and I\u2019ve really worked had this offseason to be ready for this year, not only for me personally, but to really help this team get to the next level,\u201d Davies said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis game against San Jose was a good first step toward achieving that. I think I was impactful, I was dangerous and I was able to help change the game. I think it was definitely a good first step. I still have a long way to go to get to where I want to be, so all signs were positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nguyen thinks the 27-year-old provided a burst of energy that made an immediate impact on the rest of the team in San Jose.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been hungry since the beginning of the season,\u201d Nguyen said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see him get his chance, and he made the most of it. He created a lot of chances, a lot of positive stuff when he came in, which was really good for our energy and our momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davies, who played for a total of 23 minutes in four substitute appearances for the Revolution in 2013, is hoping his performance will continue to earn him more playing time in the coming weeks. The 28 minutes he played in San Jose was the longest he\u2019s been on the field in a Revolution jersey, and there is no doubt that an in-form Davies could help New England find the back of the net more often.<\/p>\n

For now, Saturday provided Davies with a return to game action \u2013 something he had been anxiously waiting to return to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hungry,\u201d Davies said. \u201cI want to succeed, I want to help the team win. I feel like I\u2019ve put myself in a position where I was going to be ready to get on the field and perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019m just really anxious, excited, and I was chomping at the bit to get back on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie Davies hopes to parlay the form he showed in Saturday’s win into more playing time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":24819,"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":[552,115,107,49,1274],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CD-1.jpg?fit=499%2C258","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24818"}],"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\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24818"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24824,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24818\/revisions\/24824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}