{"id":41844,"date":"2016-03-22T21:15:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T01:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=41844"},"modified":"2016-03-22T21:26:38","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T01:26:38","slug":"blake-helps-union-thwart-revs-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=41844","title":{"rendered":"Blake Helps Union Thwart Revs Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

Photo credit: Paul Rudderow\/Philly Soccer Page<\/p><\/div>\n

For the second straight occasion, the Revolution were denied a victory by the Union on Sunday thanks to a sound defensive effort that included former University of Connecticut goalkeeper Andre Blake.<\/p>\n

The former first overall pick made two saves and helped organize a backline short on experience during Sunday’s 3-0 win, a performance that helped Philadelphia earn a share of first-place in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s definitely important,” Blake told the media after Sunday’s match. “You know, I told the guys before if we\u2019re going to make a run, it\u2019s going to start in the back. So it\u2019s not just the back four, but the entire team. We have to defend as a team, attack as a team, and that\u2019s something we\u2019re looking to build on.”<\/p>\n

The Jamaican international, who collected a club-record 10 saves the last time he faced the Revolution in Sept. 2015<\/a>, was also effective in his distribution on Sunday. His 73.9 passing accuracy number was more than seven percentage points better than his counterpart Bobby Shuttleworth.<\/p>\n

While the personal stats and scoreline were positives for the third-year keeper, perhaps the biggest talking point surrounding Blake on Sunday was about a shot he wasn’t able to stop.<\/p>\n

In the 35th minute, Revolution midfielder Lee Nguyen blasted a free kick from 25-yards that rocketed past the dive of the Union keeper. Fortunately for Philadelphia, the ball smacked off the left post, then caromed off the right post a split-second later before it gently rolled into the arms of Blake, who was still on the ground from his initial attempt to stop it.<\/p>\n

“Well, people normally say you\u2019re lucky when you hit the post,” Blake said. “But for me, I don\u2019t really think that way because the post is not inside the goal \u2013 it\u2019s more like the ball hit the post and goes in \u2013 so you know it\u2019s not like it even saves you if it hits the post and doesn\u2019t go in. It\u2019s just what it is but I\u2019m thankful for it not going in.”<\/p>\n

While some would indeed call it luck that Nguyen somehow managed to hit both posts without the shot falling through, it’s clear that Blake is a believer in the credo that fortune favors the prepared.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes, you also create your luck,” Blake said. “I think the guys have been working really hard weekly. We\u2019re all locked in, and believe in what we\u2019re doing, and believe there is a God, so yeah.”<\/p>\n

Blake may not have been nearly as busy as he was the last time he faced New England, but Union coach Jim Curtin was certainly pleased with what he’s seen from his young keeper, who was called up by the Jamaican National Team prior to Sunday’s contest.<\/p>\n

“Can\u2019t say enough, he is playing very well,” Curtin told the media after the match. “He\u2019s confident, he is a confident young goalkeeper. We\u2019re happy with the six points that we have. Andre is a big part of that. He gives us a guy that can win us a game.”<\/p>\n

Although Blake endured some punishment as a result of a few physical challenges from Revolution striker Juan Agudelo in the latter stages, it didn’t stop him from savoring his second straight win of the young season.<\/p>\n

“It was great,” Blake said. “As defenders, as a goalkeeper, when your striker can get you goals it takes a lot of pressure off us and that\u2019s great. So hopefully we can keep doing our job and the strikers can keep doing their job also.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former UConn keeper Andre Blake helped the Union thwart the Revs for the second straight occasion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41849,"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":[897],"tags":[1342,891,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Blake-1-1.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\/41844"}],"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=41844"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41858,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41844\/revisions\/41858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}