{"id":34889,"date":"2015-05-20T10:14:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T14:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=34889"},"modified":"2015-05-20T10:14:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T14:14:30","slug":"five-questions-skcvne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=34889","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions: #SKCvNE"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

On Monday, Revolution general manager Mike\u00a0Burns confirmed that the\u00a0team\u00a0will not be\u00a0pursuing trialist Will Packwood.\u00a0This\u00a0is a good thing. After all,\u00a0the center back\u00a0position on the Revolution\u00a0is an exclusive club.<\/p>\n

Since A.J. Soares abruptly jumped across the pond\u00a0during the winter, the Revolution have signed exactly one\u00a0center back\u00a0since. A good one, as it turns out. In fact, London Woodberry has been a revelation…at right back.<\/p>\n

Back in January, Jay Heaps told the media that the search for\u00a0New England’s Next Center\u00a0Back (TM)\u00a0wasn’t as quite up to speed since Soares’ exit wasn’t exactly expected. Four months later, that search continues, even though injuries to Jose Goncalves and Darrius Barnes has the club on the verge of drawing straws for who plays next to Andrew Farrell.<\/p>\n

At the present moment, the Revolution have three natural\u00a0center backs on the active roster. On Saturday, all three of them were in the XI.\u00a0Whether Heaps, who wasn’t a bad center back himself during his playing days,\u00a0had his boots on standby is unknown.<\/p>\n

Granted, Packwood may not have been the answer. Burns likes to remind the media that the club doesn’t just sign a guy for the sake of it. Better to\u00a0stand down\u00a0than sign\u00a0the next\u00a0Ryan Cochrane. Or, God help us, Franco Coria.<\/p>\n

However, the\u00a0reality is that they’re essentially\u00a0in the same position they were in at the start of camp, if not worse, with Woodberry playing well\u00a0at not-center back\u00a0and Barnes out\u00a0until American football season.\u00a0And with a quarter of the current MLS campaign already behind us, it’s puzzling that issue still hasn’t been addressed.<\/p>\n

While that storyline appears to be in no rush to reach its conclusion, let’s jump right in, bold and unafraid, into the latest series of questions surrounding the local soccer team.<\/p>\n

1. Will Jermaine Jones be in the XI?<\/strong> Ordinarily, this wouldn’t even be a question. But after Jones’ 63rd minute exit vs. Toronto, Heaps\u00a0pointed out that his prized midfielder was carrying “a little bit of knock.”\u00a0Given that\u00a0Jones wasn’t listed on\u00a0Tuesday’s injury report would seem to suggest that, at very least, he’s healthy enough to play. While he may be recovered from that mysterious ailment, that doesn’t necessarily mean his spot in the XI is assured. Given that Sporting Kansas City\u00a0won’t be trotting out Graham Zusi for Wednesday’s match, Heaps may use the opportunity to\u00a0rest Jones\u00a0in order to have him fresh(er) for Saturday’s match against first-place DC United.<\/p>\n

2. What changes will Heaps make the to lineup?<\/strong> Whether Jones starts or sits when the opening whistle blows at Sporting Park, one thing appears to be certain: Heaps won’t be\u00a0using the same XI we saw vs.\u00a0Toronto. With plenty of depth at his disposal in the middle and up top,\u00a0Heaps has the luxury of spelling\u00a0the likes of\u00a0Charlie Davies, Juan Agudelo and\u00a0Lee Nguyen. Whether he\u00a0elects to do so\u00a0is another matter. If he does,\u00a0Diego Fagundez, Kelyn Rowe and Andy Dorman could all be in line for starting assignments at Sporting Park.<\/p>\n

3. Who’ll wear the armband?<\/strong> The captain by committee\u00a0concept is, um,\u00a0a different one, to say the least. After Heaps said that veterans like Jones,\u00a0Goncalves,\u00a0Dorman and Chris Tierney\u00a0are all candidates for the captaincy, it’s anyone’s guess as to who’ll don the armband in Blue Hell.\u00a0That said, if Heaps is looking for stability in a hostile environment, then Goncalves is the easy choice. With strong defense\u00a0the key to containing the lines of Dom Dwyer and Benny Feilhaber,\u00a0the Revolution would be well-served to have their Portuguese international serve as skipper in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

4. Which reserves may get a crack at some long-awaited playing time?<\/strong> While Rowe, Dorman and Fagundez could all find themselves in the XI, there\u00a0are others who\u00a0could stand to get some much-needed\u00a0playing time on Wednesday. Among them: Sean Okoli, Steve Neumann and Daigo Kobayashi. Okoli last saw action on Apr. 4 in Colorado, and\u00a0given the likelihood that Davies\u00a0won’t be in the XI, the former Sounder could very well come on late for\u00a0Davies’ replacement. Neumann, the super-sub himself, hasn’t seen action in\u00a0nearly a month, and would seem like an ideal candidate for\u00a0coming on late.\u00a0Last, but certainly not least, is Kobayashi, who was steadying presence while Jones recovered from sports hernia surgery. After battling a hamstring injury for last month-and-half, the veteran midfielder would seem to be a solid choice off the bench.<\/p>\n

5. Can the Revolution extend their unbeaten streak?<\/strong> If they do, they’ll probably have to get it done with a certain degree of ugliness.\u00a0Given that 1. it’s a midweek game, 2. the Revolution rarely play well at Sporting Park, and\u00a03. DC United is next, don’t expect another wild 3-2 affair like the one we\u00a0witnessed last September. Yes, you could argue that the Revolution roster is stronger than it was the last time they were in Kansas City. And yes, Peter Vermes’ team isn’t exactly the juggernaut it once was in front of their home fans. But Wednesday’s match\u00a0certainly won’t be a walk in the park. The Revolution\u00a0will need to bear down defensively, and be\u00a0quick and decisive on the break. Above all else, they must stay disciplined,\u00a0and they must be OK with the possibility of\u00a0walking off the the pitch with a 0-0 draw.<\/p>\n

What other questions surround the Revolution heading in Wednesday’s match? Let us know in the comments section!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What questions surround the Revs heading into Wednesday’s match in KC?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34893,"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":[891,1274,68,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Neumann-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\/34889"}],"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=34889"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34911,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34889\/revisions\/34911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}