{"id":44920,"date":"2017-04-08T17:41:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T21:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=44920"},"modified":"2017-04-08T17:43:03","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T21:43:03","slug":"kouassi-smith-make-home-debuts-in-shutout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=44920","title":{"rendered":"Kouassi, Smith Make Home Debuts in Shutout"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 The expectations for Xavier Kouassi and Josh Smith were worlds apart coming into the 2017 season, but on Saturday the pair both played large roles in the New England Revolution\u2019s first shutout of the season, a 2-0 win against the Houston Dynamo, while each player made their Gillette Stadium debut.<\/p>\n

Kouassi, the Revolution\u2019s highly touted designated player, who the team brought in to replace Jermaine Jones last season, saw his home debut delayed the better part of a year after suffering an ACL tear prior to his arrival with the team. Along with the designated player tag comes high expectations and the defensive midfielder delivered against the Dynamo in just his third start since arriving at the Revolution. The 27-year-old lasted the entire match and was third on the team with 63 touches, while leading the team with five interceptions, contributing four tackles and completing 82.6% of his passes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like one wall in front of us,\u201d said defend Antonio Delamea. \u201cHe\u2019s taking all the second balls. I really like the way he\u2019s playing right now and I just hope he will continue like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ivory Coast native has fit right into the Revolution line-up after his long layoff due to injury and made an immediate impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he took a wrong step out there,\u201d said head coach Jay Heaps. I thought he was excellent defensively breaking up plays and it\u2019s just a role up your sleeves type attitude from him. He gets in on tackles and is excellent on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, meanwhile was the Revolution\u2019s 4th round pick (75th overall) in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft. Heading into preseason it was far from certain the team would even sign the rookie and highly unlikely that he would make much of an impact on the first team this season. That changed after newcomer Benjamin Angoua failed to impress in his first three games for the Revolution, opening the door for Heaps to give Smith his debut at center back in New England\u2019s 1-1 draw at Portland last Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s been great,\u201d said Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe, who started at left back on Saturday. \u201cHe plays like he does every game, whether he\u2019s a rookie or he\u2019s 30 years old and a veteran \u2013 he\u2019s a guy that\u2019s going to play the same way. He\u2019s very vocal and he\u2019s a strong player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s good play in his debut earned him another start on Saturday and the 25-year-old didn\u2019t disappoint. Going the full 90 minutes, Smith recorded three tackles, two interceptions and three aerial duels won. He also managed two shots getting forward on set pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome [to make my home debut],\u201d said Smith. \u201cIt was a great feeling. Playing at home meant a lot more to me than playing on the road. I think our fans, you could hear them 90 minutes long, and it was great. It pushed us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while the veteran Kouassi may be the finished product, Smith\u2019s teammates see a lot of potential for continued improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast time [Smith] showed us great potential and of course he needs to build on these performances,\u201d said Delamea. \u201cHe needs to improve everyday in training, in matches. I think he\u2019s capable of much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith will get his chance to continue to improve and Kouassi will get his chance to continue to show what makes him a valuable designated player as the Revolution return to the road to face the Chicago Fire next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newcomers play key role in team\u2019s first clean sheet of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44922,"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":[1574,891,1611,49,888],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Image-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C682","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44920"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44920"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44924,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44920\/revisions\/44924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}