{"id":32644,"date":"2015-03-19T21:19:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T01:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32644"},"modified":"2015-03-19T21:20:18","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T01:20:18","slug":"revs-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32644","title":{"rendered":"Revs Notebook 3\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 Jay Heaps isn\u2019t looking at last year\u2019s final table to gauge the strength of Saturday\u2019s opponent. And with good reason.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Montreal Impact may have finished at the bottom of the Eastern Conference in 2014. And yes, Frank Klopas was fielding a host of young, unproven players at the time. But 2015 is a new year entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve only played one game in the league,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cI think you have to look at what they\u2019ve done in the Champions League, and they\u2019ve looked quite strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s strength (beating Alajuelense 2-0 in Wednesday\u2019s semifinal first leg) or luck (scoring a stoppage time goal to eliminate Pachuca), the fact is the Impact\u2019s current form is a far cry from last year\u2019s showing in the league. And it\u2019s no accident.<\/p>\n

With his club eliminated from postseason contention long before Labor Day last season, Klopas focused on building a strong Champions League campaign. He added veterans such as Dominic Oduro, Bakary Soumare and Eric Alexander, then drafted Princeton striker Cameron Porter. Now, they\u2019re 90 minutes away from a ticket to the tournament final.<\/p>\n

But even though the Impact will be eyeing an opportunity to become the first MLS team to reach a Champions League final since 2011, Heaps doesn\u2019t think that\u2019ll distract them from the task at hand on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they were preparing for both games,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a deep team and they\u2019re going to be ready to go whether it\u2019s with the same lineup or have a couple of changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

HOME SWEET HOME<\/strong><\/p>\n

After starting the season with back-to-back road games at a pair of hostile environments, there\u2019s no question that the Revolution are relieved to be back at Gillette Stadium for the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

In fact, after conceding five and scoring zero during their first two, Heaps mentioned just how important it is for the club to be back on familiar turf.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need them,\u201d Heaps said of the next two home dates. \u201cWe have to go out there and dictate (and) make it a tough place to play. That\u2019s when we\u2019re at our best; it\u2019s when Foxborough is a tough place to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the Revolution were 11-4-2 at home during the regular season, and went unbeaten in their final 12 home games, including the postseason. It was during the playoffs in which the true effect of the home support was felt, as a combined 52,982 turned out for the club\u2019s conference semifinal and final matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to the home opener and getting back in front of the Revs fans, who were so good last year,\u201d Revolution midfielder Andy Dorman said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be good to be at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

WASN\u2019T PART OF THE PLAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Juan Agudelo started up top for the first two matches, Heaps told the media prior to training on Thursday that the original plan was to put Charlie Davies at striker to start the season.<\/p>\n

But after Davies tweaked his calf prior to First Kick, a less-than-fit Agudelo had to answer the call in Seattle and New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting Juan fully back integrated in how we want to play, and things we want to do,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cIdeally, we would\u2019ve had – Charlie would\u2019ve been healthier. But Charlie took an injury early, and both of them are fighting for minutes and fighting for fitness, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

ONE LAST OVERTURE?<\/strong><\/p>\n

During Wednesday’s Season-ticket Holder Welcome Event, Heaps told the audience that the club nearly brought back veteran A.J. Soares prior to the start of the season.<\/p>\n

The Revolution coach acknowledged the same during Thursday’s media access, but kept his answer short on the details of that situation.<\/p>\n

“Before he signed (with Norway side Viking), we tried to have another contract conversation,” Heaps said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Heaps talks about the original plan for the striker’s spot, while Andy Dorman can’t wait to play at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32646,"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":[891,115,49,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Revs-11.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\/32644"}],"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=32644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32648,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32644\/revisions\/32648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}