{"id":44280,"date":"2017-02-25T21:07:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T02:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=44280"},"modified":"2017-02-25T23:38:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T04:38:30","slug":"ht-adjustments-key-for-revs-in-ddc-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=44280","title":{"rendered":"HT Adjustments Key for Revs in DDC Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

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

Months from now, what transpired in Saturday’s Revolution-Red Bulls preseason finale will largely be forgotten by many. But the match itself may have a lasting effect on the victors according to one of its key actors. <\/p>\n

Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe, who scored the opening goal in the 52nd minute, was far from impressed by the way his team operated in the first 45 minutes against a reserve-laden Red Bulls squad. But the Revolution was able to make the necessary adjustments in the second half, a development that Rowe believes could be good omen for the regular season.<\/p>\n

“(It’s important) especially during the middle of the season when everyone\u2019s kind of tired, or the end of the season when we\u2019re really pushing to get a playoff spot or get that first two spots in the East,” Rowe told the media after the match. “We\u2019ve got to be able to make adjustments mid-game. I think we did that very well.”<\/p>\n

While the first half wasn’t exactly a comedy of errors for the Revolution, it wasn’t their best half of football, either. Yes, there were moments of promise, but the final product simply wasn’t there. <\/p>\n

The hiccups weren’t limited to the final third, either. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they weren’t playing the Red Bulls first-teamers, leaving the Revolution overconfident. Whatever it was, the locals seemed to come out soft during the first half.<\/p>\n

“We played two different halves,” Revolution center back Antonio Mlinar Delamea told the media after the match. “The first half wasn\u2019t good from us. I think the biggest problem was that we were losing second balls. We let them pressure us the whole time and we had problems, as you can see.”<\/p>\n

Revolution coach Jay Heaps took stock of the situation, and wasn’t shy to address the situation during the interval.<\/p>\n

“We needed to make some adjustments,” Heaps told the media after match. “We didn\u2019t start the game real well in terms of a positive way about us. So it was good to have a good conversation at halftime, and a good response from the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of that response came from the midfielders and forwards, who exerted additional pressure on the young and untested Red Bulls. <\/p>\n

“But the second half, I think we stepped higher, we tried to press them,” Delamea said. “We pushed them into two mistakes that led to the goal.”<\/p>\n

The first led to a sequence in which Diego Fagundez played a well-weighted ball through to Rowe, who easily beat keeper Rafael Diaz in the 52nd minute.<\/p>\n

While Kei Kamara and Lee Nguyen both left chances worthy of the big-eyed emoji on the pitch, the second time was the charm for Nguyen in the 89th minute as Je-Vaughn Watson advanced deep into New York territory before putting it in front of the attacking midfielder for the simple finish.<\/p>\n

It’s far too early to tell whether the adjustments seen in Saturday’s game will become the Revolution’s calling card in 2017. As far as Delamea’s concerned, seeing a similar reaction in next weekend’s First Kick clash in Colorado will suffice for the time being. <\/p>\n

“We need be able to have those mid-game changes throughout the whole year,” Delamea said. “But this first game especially.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a subpar first 45, the Revs made the necessary adjustments at halftime to lead them to victory. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44292,"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":[891,235,1098,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Revs-1-2.png?fit=600%2C416","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44280"}],"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=44280"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44293,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44280\/revisions\/44293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}