{"id":29406,"date":"2014-11-24T19:03:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T00:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=29406"},"modified":"2014-11-27T00:13:31","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T05:13:31","slug":"focus-on-the-flanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=29406","title":{"rendered":"Focus on the Flanks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

HARRISON, N.J. \u2013 The Revolution knew that if they were going to have any chance of getting a result from Red Bull Arena on Sunday, staying strong and disciplined along the periphery would be paramount. <\/p>\n

Experience and game film had already taught them \u2013 sometimes cruelly \u2013 that to neglect the edges would be signing one\u2019s own death warrant against the likes of Thierry Henry and Lloyd Sam. To counteract the danger posed by the dangerous duo, the Revolution came out of the gate with a single focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey stepped up and pressed,\u201d Red Bulls coach Mike Petke told the media regarding the Revolution\u2019s play early one. \u201cThey had that header from (Jermaine) Jones which was one of about three of four clear chances they had, and that woke us up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may have poked the beast in some respects, but it also forced Henry to drop back deeper \u2013 an assignment he\u2019s never shown himself to be particularly fond of. With Andrew Farrell and Teal Bunbury squeezing the savvy playmaker early, the Revolution were able to pop the can on an opportunity in the 17th minute.<\/p>\n

Jermaine Jones collected a ball from Lee Nguyen on the opposite side of the box, and drew a pair of defenders his way. With his back turned, he saw Bunbury on his left, and pushed it his way. The converted winger performed a dazzling stepover, went central, and buried a shot from distance.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the sequence cast a spotlight on reserve left back Ambroise Oyongo, who filled in for the suspended Roy Miller. But according to Bunbury, it didn\u2019t matter who was marking him, or how well he was being marked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t too much scouting that went on,\u201d Bunbury said of the matchup. \u201cI just knew it was going to be someone who hadn\u2019t been playing too much and Farrell and myself just tried to exploit that area, and I feel like we did it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The battle may have been won, but the war was far from over. With over 70 minutes remaining, there was plenty of time for the Red Bulls to respond.<\/p>\n

Down a goal early at their home park, the hosts renewed their efforts to the attack. They found pay dirt not long after when Bradley Wright-Phillips steered directed a rebound off the bar originally authored by Peguy Luyindula in the 17th minute.<\/p>\n

But the Golden Boot winner\u2019s equalizer didn\u2019t spell doom for the Revolution, even at Red Bull Area, where they\u2019d never won before. Instead, the outside backs and wingers stayed on the same wavelength in order to prevent another from spilling through.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith speedy wingers like Lloyd Sam, who\u2019s a quality player, you have to try to button up defensively,\u201d Revolution left back Chris Tierney said. \u201cHe\u2019s a handful, so you have to make sure you cover each other in those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Caldwell provided much of the cover along the left with Sam threatening, while Bunbury and Farrell were able to keep a lid on Henry for much of the first half. Though when Henry started to hit his stride in the second half, Jones dropped back to aid his teammates\u2019 efforts on the right.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such a presence in the midfield,\u201d Revolution striker Charlie Davies said. \u201cBreaking up plays\u2026they never really got comfortable. He was phenomenal again today for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kevin Alston\u2019s 62nd minute introduction only served to reinforce the defense, and keep the Red Bulls from breaking through.<\/p>\n

Though it appeared the Revolution were in protect mode with the score at 1-1 and the series heading to Foxborough on Saturday, Jones couldn’t resist the urge to exploit a hole in the hosts\u2019 defense and scored the game-winner in the 86th minute. <\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a pretty victory, by any stretch. But the team\u2019s play along the flanks showed its commitment to the game plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a crazy hectic game for everybody,\u201d Bunbury said. \u201cIt was kind of like a track meet, back-and-forth, but our guys stayed concentrated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The attention paid to the flanks allowed the Revs to secure their first win at Red Bull Arena on Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29407,"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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-1.png?fit=481%2C258","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29406"}],"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=29406"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29520,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29406\/revisions\/29520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}