{"id":31020,"date":"2015-01-24T01:06:51","date_gmt":"2015-01-24T06:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=31020"},"modified":"2015-01-24T01:12:49","modified_gmt":"2015-01-24T06:12:49","slug":"managing-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=31020","title":{"rendered":"Managing Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 Jay Heaps doesn\u2019t like to think too far ahead. The bigger picture can wait. The smaller one? Well, that\u2019s another story entirely.<\/p>\n

Less than seven weeks after brushing off the stray pieces of blue and gold confetti that showered the LA Galaxy at the end the MLS Cup final, Heaps and his players were back on the training grounds for the first time on Friday \u2013 and in no hurry to talk about setting their sights on a title.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go over the steps to get there,\u201d Heaps said. \u201c(But) if you start by saying \u2018We\u2019re going win MLS Cup,\u2019 then you\u2019ve already lost. For us, we look at the small steps and what we need to do, and right now, we\u2019re focused on today\u2019s session.\u201d<\/p>\n

The one-day, one-game and one-play at a time mantra has long served as the de facto mindset of the Revolution since Heaps was hired back in late 2011. This year, though, it may be needed more than ever.<\/p>\n

The Revolution enter preseason camp as more than just favorites to return to the MLS Cup final: some are predicting a championship. A championship that has eluded the club as far back as Heaps\u2019 playing days. But no pressure, of course. <\/p>\n

In fact, some pundits are saying that anything less than a trophy will be a disappointment given the expectations set by last year’s late-season sprint to the finish. So the tunnel vision Heaps has impressed over the years will be key to keeping an even keel throughout the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking it day-by-day,\u201d Revolution defender Chris Tierney said. \u201cWhat happened last year – I\u2019m over it, we\u2019re over it now. It\u2019s a new year, and a new set of goals, last year really doesn\u2019t matter going into Day 1 of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest goal? Finding more consistency. Last year, the Revolution stumbled out of the gate, then quickly caught fire during the middle of the spring (5-0-2) before slumping during the summer (0-8-0). It took a sensational, late-season surge (9-1-1) to catapult them into the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to avoid that,\u201d Heaps said in reference to the summer swoon that saw his club lose eight straight. \u201cWe want to have a season with very little dips, or extreme dips.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avoiding some of the valleys the Revolution journeyed through last season won\u2019t be easy. Tierney, who’s endured some of the club’s leaner years earlier in his career, knows that the opposition will be gunning for the Eastern Conference champions every week in order to make a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe top performing teams always have a target on their back,\u201d Tierney said. \u201cSo it\u2019s going to be difficult for us. Teams got to see a lot of us down the stretch, so we\u2019ll have to be able to adjust on the fly, we\u2019ll have to use our depth, and we\u2019ll have to find ways to get wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding ways to win won’t be as easy as it was last season. With a shorter offseason to work with, no World Cup break, and the possible mid-summer call-ups of Jermaine Jones and Lee Nguyen for the Gold Cup, the 2015 season may be an even tougher gauntlet than the one the Revolution navigated last year.<\/p>\n

But Heaps isn\u2019t concerned about that at the moment. He\u2019s not thinking about the summer, the fall, or the 2015 MLS Cup final, for that matter. <\/p>\n

\u201c(We’re focused on) what we\u2019re going to do in terms of (building up) of our fitness,” Heaps said, “and what we\u2019re going through the season, and knock off goals in terms of segments rather than just picking one target.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title talk? Stratospheric expectations? There was none of that on the first day of Revs camp on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31024,"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":[891,235,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Revs-preseason-3.png?fit=600%2C415","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31020"}],"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=31020"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31030,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31020\/revisions\/31030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}