{"id":29670,"date":"2014-12-02T23:34:39","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T04:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=29670"},"modified":"2014-12-02T23:39:11","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T04:39:11","slug":"chemistry-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=29670","title":{"rendered":"Chemistry 101"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 It is the chicken-or-the-egg question of team sports: Does chemistry breed success, or does success beget chemistry?<\/p>\n

Revolution midfielder Teal Bunbury may not have the exact\u00a0answer to that one, but it\u2019s clear that the team he plays for has benefited from both.<\/p>\n

With the club set to compete in its first MLS Cup final since 2007,\u00a0the veteran winger\u00a0recently shed some light on what he believes is the biggest reason for the team\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the cohesiveness with all the guys,\u201d Bunbury said. \u201cIf it\u2019s on the field and even off the field, just the chemistry we all have and the enjoyment we have when we play, I think that\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that cohesiveness isn\u2019t just a product of the personalities in the locker room. To Bunbury, who was also a part of the 2013 title-winning Sporting Kansas City side, that sense of unity extends beyond the names listed on the roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of everything,\u201d Bunbury said. \u201cIt\u2019s the ownership group, it\u2019s the fans that are a part of it, it\u2019s the coaching, and it\u2019s the players. So it\u2019s a mixture. We\u2019re a team and obviously it\u2019s the philosophies of the coaching staff, but also the players we understand what we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That understanding has made for some particularly tongue-in-cheek scenes. While Lee Nguyen was being interviewed by a large media contingent following the second leg of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Jermaine Jones playfully posed as a reporter and held his smartphone out\u00a0to capture quotes from Nguyen. Additionally, Nguyen has been regularly showered by chants of “M-V-P!” coming from the direction of Charlie Davies’ locker.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, out on the training pitch, a healthy number of players often partake in a handful of different individual skill contests, and almost every time, a sudden blast of collective laughter can be heard from the sidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s light,\u201d Revolution coach Jay Heaps said of his team\u2019s collective vibe. \u201cI think that\u2019s one thing we have: a really good balance, a good locker room banter, a good kind of joking.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean Heaps runs a loose ship. By no means. With a solid veteran core comprised of Davies, \u00a0Jones, Jose Goncalves, and Chris Tierney in place, the players know when to put the jokes aside and get to business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re having a good time,\u201d Heaps said following a recent training session. \u201cBut at the same time, an hour ago, the screws were really tight and the guys were pushing each other. So to me, it\u2019s a great balance, and when you have leaders like Jose and Jermaine that have been in big games, they know that now\u2019s the time of the week where you stay focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, as light-hearted as the Revolution might appear to be after a match or training session, it\u2019s clear that their demeanor on the pitch is anything but easy going.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all professionals here,\u201d Bunbury said. \u201cWe all want to win, but at the end of the day, we\u2019re doing something we love, and all the players try to give it their all in training. When the game comes, we get to enjoy it, and show the fans what they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A strong sense of team chemistry has helped put the Revs on the doorstep of a championship. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29671,"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\/12\/cd-aj-ln.png?fit=483%2C257","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29670"}],"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=29670"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29677,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29670\/revisions\/29677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}