{"id":34548,"date":"2015-05-09T00:48:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-09T04:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=34548"},"modified":"2015-05-09T00:50:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T04:50:11","slug":"heaps-we-didnt-put-the-game-away-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=34548","title":{"rendered":"Heaps: ‘We Didn’t Put the Game Away Early’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

Friday\u2019s closing-time collapse may have been tough to stomach for the Revolution, but according to coach Jay Heaps, the waning moments isn\u2019t where the squad truly fell short in the 2-2 draw at the Citrus Bowl. <\/p>\n

Despite dominating the first half, all the Revolution had to show for it was a slim one goal margin, which could\u2019ve been widened with better finishing front of goal. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe could\u2019ve been up more,\u201d Heaps told the media after the match. \u201cI think, ultimately, that\u2019s what cost us the game. We didn\u2019t put the game away early enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Revolution came out strong, and used high pressure to back the technically-sound Orlando City into its own half. And it was only a matter of time before the breakthrough arrived.<\/p>\n

In the 19th minute, Scott Caldwell pickpocketed Amobi Okugo and sent it ahead from Charlie Davies. The Revolution raced at goal, and fired a shot that beat Donovan Ricketts to put the guests ahead.<\/p>\n

That movement opened the door for back-to-back, point blank chances in the 41st minute. Chris Tierney whipped a cross into the box for London Woodberry, whose shot smacked off the post. The rebound fell to Davies, who watched his header kiss the crossbar before it was ushered out of harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we did everything right in the first half,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cIf we finished the half with another goal, then we could\u2019ve taken a breath a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Heaps may have been disappointed with the scoreline at the half, Kelyn Rowe finally grabbed the elusive encore to Davies\u2019 opener in the 71st minute. But not long after, the Lions came back with a fury.<\/p>\n

With the Revolution dropping numbers, Rafael Ramos crossed it for Cyle Larin, who towered over Jermaine Jones and steered it through to cut the lead in half at the 75th minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I don\u2019t like,\u201d Jones told the media after the match, \u201cis that if you score goals so late, and you\u2019re 2-0 in front, the whole team has to work more (defensively), and you have to sit back and don\u2019t give so much space for Orlando, and they used it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Space wasn\u2019t the issue in the 90th minute when Aurelien Collin scored the equalizer. While the Lions\u2019 center back found himself in cramped quarters when Luke Boden crossed it in the box, Collin muscled his way over Jones and Andy Dorman to erase the deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that they have guys who can cross the balls really good,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThey scored two goals from crosses, and in that light, it\u2019s too easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many will cite the late-game gaffes as the reason for the disappointing draw, there\u2019s little doubt that the missed opportunities of the first half allowed Orlando City to sneak back into the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall flow of the game \u2013 it was some our best stuff, and some of our worst stuff all in one,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cSo we have some film to look at, and we\u2019ll keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Heaps rued the missed chances seen during the first half of Friday’s 2-2 draw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34549,"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":[891,1109,1274,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Revs-01.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\/34548"}],"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=34548"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34553,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34548\/revisions\/34553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}