{"id":29554,"date":"2014-11-29T23:29:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T04:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=29554"},"modified":"2014-11-30T14:11:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T19:11:35","slug":"lineup-change-helps-lift-revs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=29554","title":{"rendered":"Lineup Change Helps Lift Revs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 When Jay Heaps looked at the tape of Sunday\u2019s Conference Final first leg match up against the Red Bulls, he sensed that a change to the lineup for the second leg would have to be made in order to keep their adversary at bay.<\/p>\n

After watching Red Bulls\u2019 winger Lloyd Sam use his speed to wreak havoc on the Revolution defense until Kevin Alston was inserted at left back and Chris Tierney was pushed up into the midfield, Heaps went with the same approach in Saturday\u2019s MLS Cup final-clinching 2-2 draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt when we made that move in New York, it really solidified us and allowed us to be a little bit more aggressive, actually,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cIt\u2019s a defensive move, but it allows us to be a little bit more offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, that move freed up Tierney, the team\u2019s best crosser, to lay siege on a disheveled New York backline. And that was especially evident on the series-clinching play when he sent a perfect ball to a poorly-marked Charlie Davies, who nodded it through in the 70th minute. It was Tierney’s second assist after setting up Davies on the Revolution’s first goal in the 41st minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris can get up as a winger and he can do certain things,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cUnfortunately, we had to take Kelyn (Rowe) out of the lineup. I think Kelyn\u2019s been playing great and he was excellent off the bench tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may have been a tough choice for Heaps to leave Rowe on the bench, but the move paid dividends on both offense and defense.<\/p>\n

With Tierney providing width and creating chances from his spot in the midfield, Alston matched Lloyd\u2019s pace step-for-step in the rear, and neutralized the Red Bulls\u2019 winger for much of the afternoon. After completing 75.8 percent of his passes on Sunday, Sam\u2019s completion rate dipped to 56.8 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put Kevin on him one on one and I don\u2019t think anyone in this league is getting by Kevin Alston one on one,\u201d Tierney said. \u201cI think we adjusted well to it, and obviously it worked out for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Tierney wasn\u2019t the only doling out praise for Alston\u2019s efforts on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a lockdown defender,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cHe frees up Chris to be a little bit more of a winger and then the service comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n

That service was undoubtedly crucial to the Revolution\u2019s success on Saturday. While some may have initially questioned the need to tweak the lineup less than a week after their 2-1 triumph at Red Bull Arena, Heaps knew he could trust two of his most trusted veterans to deliver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Chris and Kevin, being on our team, the two most senior guys \u2013 heck, I had uniforms on when I played with those guys \u2013 and having them both out there was really important,\u201d Heaps said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Heaps’ decision to start Kevin Alston at left back, and push Chris Tierney into the midfield, paid dividends in Saturday’s second leg matchup against NY. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29555,"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\/Alston-1.png?fit=481%2C257","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29554"}],"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=29554"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29633,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29554\/revisions\/29633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}