{"id":37825,"date":"2015-08-22T14:55:46","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T18:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=37825"},"modified":"2015-08-22T14:55:46","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T18:55:46","slug":"davies-resurgence-of-nguyen-revs-not-a-coincidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=37825","title":{"rendered":"Davies: Resurgence of Nguyen & Revs Not a Coincidence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 One man may not make a team, but the way Revolution striker Charlie Davies tells it, there is at least one player on the squad who\u2019s individual success sets the tone for the rest.<\/p>\n

After struggling to channel the form that made him an MVP finalist last year, Lee Nguyen has scored three goals and collected two assists in his last four games. The Revolution\u2019s record over the course of span: 3-0-1.<\/p>\n

\u201c(He\u2019s) helping us defensively, creating turnovers and then being able to get all the way up top and create goals, and score goals,\u201d Davies said. \u201cThat makes us so much more dynamic, and when he\u2019s playing at his best, we\u2019re playing at our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Davies, the creative midfielder\u2019s resurgence is no accident. Earlier this season, Nguyen publicly protested the terms of his contract, and was left off the XI in a May 2 clash against the Red Bulls after sitting out training leading up to the rematch of last year\u2019s Conference Championship.<\/p>\n

With the contract squabbles in the rearview mirror, Nguyen has started to look like the same player who bagged a league-best 18 goals for a pure midfielder in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe obviously had some difficult times during the season, personal issues and contract issues,\u201d Davies said. \u201cBut I think he\u2019s finally put that behind him and is focused on playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even though the midfielder’s offensive numbers have started to climb, it\u2019s what Nguyen has done when he doesn\u2019t have the ball that made him truly dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the most talented midfielders in the league,\u201d Davies said. \u201cWhen he\u2019s fit and playing at his best, and playing both sides of the ball, which not many no. 10\u2019s can do as well as he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davies believes that if Nguyen can continue to showcase the same form down the stretch, the Revolution will be in a good position to make another strong playoff push down the stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to have him starting to put everything together,\u201d Davies said. \u201cI think you can see that over the past 4-5 games, so when he\u2019s playing at his best, he\u2019s really helping us.”<\/p>\n

MIXED FEELINGS ON ANOTHER BYE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Revolution coach Jay Heaps often likes to say that he tries not to worry about what he can\u2019t control. In that vein, he wasn\u2019t complaining about the timing of the team\u2019s second bye week over the last three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not different than other bye weeks,\u201d Heaps said earlier this week. \u201cThe same thought process goes into it: it\u2019s all about pushing certain guys and giving certain guys a little bit of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Heaps didn\u2019t dwell on the downside of the scheduling quirk, Davies expressed concern about what another break could do to the team\u2019s recent momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it comes at an unfortunate time,\u201d Davies said. \u201cI think that the one bye is good (because) you don\u2019t want to lose fitness and you don\u2019t want to get out of a rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n

GETTING THE MENTAL EDGE<\/strong><\/p>\n

While last weekend\u2019s win over the Dynamo was worth just as many points as any of the other eight wins the Revolution have earned this year, Davies said that lengthy lightning delays between the first and final whistles truly tested the Revolution\u2019s resolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an extremely tough game to be mentally prepared and focused throughout the 90 minutes \u2013 which happened to take over three-and-a-half hours or so,\u201d Davies said. \u201cA game like that in which we can come out with three points shows how strong we are mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie Davies believes that when Lee Nguyen is at his best, so too are the Revs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37826,"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":[1272,552,891,115,107,1274,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Lee-12.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\/37825"}],"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=37825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37830,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37825\/revisions\/37830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}