{"id":32462,"date":"2015-03-13T12:38:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T16:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32462"},"modified":"2015-03-13T12:44:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T16:44:35","slug":"the-big-city-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32462","title":{"rendered":"The Big City Awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Brandon Bleek\/Prost Amerika<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, MASS. \u2013 Improvement across the pitch will be what Revolution coach Jay Heaps will be looking for during Sunday\u2019s first encounter with expansion side New York City FC at Yankee Stadium. And with good reason.<\/p>\n

The Revolution are coming off a humbling 3-0 defeat to the Seattle Sounders, a game in which the offense found itself stuck in a rut, and the defense didn’t exactly enjoy its best day after Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins terrorized the backline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be better in terms of all facets of the game,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cI thought we started the game well. I thought we did a good job at components of the game, but I don\u2019t think we were dangerous enough.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to find the root of New England\u2019s attacking woes during Sunday\u2019s match. While they were able to put together more passes in the attacking half (312) than Seattle (226), the Revolution only registered a single shot on frame through 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we got caught up in playing these long balls to Juan (Agudelo), and he had Chad Marshall there to really win every single ball in the air,\u201d Revolution striker Charlie Davies said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t play the smartest like we have in the past, we got away from playing and keeping possession in their half, and I don\u2019t think we found the flanks enough.\u201d <\/p>\n

Preventing the offense from going stale will certainly have to change in order to get something out of the Sunday\u2019s contest. But that won\u2019t be easy.<\/p>\n

With Jermaine Jones still recovering from sports hernia surgery, and Teal Bunbury unlikely to travel due to the right shoulder injury he suffered in Seattle, getting the offense in gear may prove problematic.<\/p>\n

But there is hope that the Revolution\u2019s fortunes will improve on Sunday. Lee Nguyen trained with the Revolution this week, and he could make his first appearance of the regular season. Kelyn Rowe showed flashes in Seattle, and if he can get on the same page with Agudelo, the locals could find the success that eluded them last weekend. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Revolution know that the defensive effort must be better, as well. Although New York City doesn\u2019t boast the same two-headed beast that Seattle used to terrorize the Revolution defense, they do have Spanish goal artist David Villa and U.S. International Mix Diskerud.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably gambled a little too much to start the game (in Seattle),\u201d Revolution left back Chris Tierney said. \u201cWe\u2019ll just look to tighten things up and play a little bit more of a safer game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tierney said that keeping the New York City in check early will allow the offense more time to plot against Jason Hernandez and Chris Wingert, both of whom struggled to keep pace with Orlando City\u2019s Kevin Molino and Kaka during last week\u2019s 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n

To the players and coaches, last week\u2019s defeat is nothing more than a dot in the rear view. But rest assured that plenty of lessons were learned from it as they approach Sunday\u2019s clash in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll just get back to it in training, and try to improve on the things we didn\u2019t do too well,\u201d Tierney said. \u201cWe have another big opportunity on the road this week, and we\u2019ll look to bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revs will look to put the memories of last week’s loss out to pasture against NYC FC on Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32463,"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":[891,49,941,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/fARRELL-1.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\/32462"}],"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=32462"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32466,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32462\/revisions\/32466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}