{"id":43894,"date":"2017-02-03T20:10:54","date_gmt":"2017-02-04T01:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=43894"},"modified":"2017-02-03T20:22:57","modified_gmt":"2017-02-04T01:22:57","slug":"kamara-catching-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=43894","title":{"rendered":"Kamara Catching Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

Who knew a fashion statement could have such an impact the Revolution’s preseason fortunes?<\/p>\n

Shortly after scoring in his second straight preseason match, Revolution forward Kei Kamara was quick to credit his hairstyle for his recent run of success.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not me, it\u2019s the bun,” Kamara quipped with the media after the match. “I just keep knocking it off the bun. “Preseason is really about just working on stuff, working on stuff and team building, team bonding, and really try to find a style of play and how you\u2019re going to go into the season.”<\/p>\n

A chance to get acclimated was something Kamara wasn’t afforded when he first joined the Revolution via trade from Columbus last May. Joining a new team in the middle of the year is rarely an easy proposition, and that was especially true in Kamara’s case.<\/p>\n

Despite landing in New England with great expectations – not to mention a million dollar contract following a 22-goal campaign – it took the Sierra Leone international nearly two months to find the scoresheet for the Revolution in league play. But with the debut strike finally behind him, Kamara went on to grab six more before season’s end.<\/p>\n

While Kamara may have proven his scoring prowess during the second half of 2016, Revolution coach Jay Heaps has long been a believer in the idea that it’s never too early to get into a rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that he gets confident scoring goals,” Revolution coach Jay Heaps told the media after the match. “He\u2019s scored them in different ways \u2013 the other day was out of the run of play, this one was off a set piece. Very good for him to feel the group, score different ways, but I really like what he\u2019s bringing.”<\/p>\n

With Kamara finding his form early in preseason, Heaps is confident that his star striker will continue to be a force once the regular season rolls around.<\/p>\n

“The goals are going to come if he plays the way he\u2019s playing,” Heaps said. “He\u2019s great on the ball right now, he\u2019s working hard defensively, he\u2019s creating things from his defensive pressure, and that\u2019s key for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As much as Kamara may joke about the impact his man-bun is having on the Revolution offense this winter, there’s nothing tongue-in-cheek about what his current production could mean for a team looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2016.<\/p>\n

“When you play games again, it\u2019s about winning the games,” Kamara said. “It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a friendly game or not, it\u2019s about winning. You can\u2019t win games without goals.”<\/p>\n

If that’s the case, then the club might want to consider taking out an insurance policy on the Kamara’s magic man-bun before the start of the regular season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kei Kamara has caught fire early in his first preseason camp with the Revs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43895,"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":true,"_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":[891,558,235,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Kei-13.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\/43894"}],"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=43894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43898,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43894\/revisions\/43898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}