{"id":9317,"date":"2012-02-15T23:01:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T04:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=9317"},"modified":"2012-02-15T23:07:48","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T04:07:48","slug":"sene-will-help-up-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=9317","title":{"rendered":"S\u00e8ne Should Help Up Top"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sa\u00ebr S\u00e8ne, the New England Revolution\u2019s new striker, might be 6-foot-3, but despite that large frame the French striker isn\u2019t a typical target forward.<\/p>\n

Instead, S\u00e8ne, who has spent the last two seasons with German side Bayern Munich II, will help the Revs by using his skill and pace to get behind the opposition\u2019s defense, according to head coach Jay Heaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not an out-and-out target forward, but he\u2019s got enough pace to be able to get behind in certain situations,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cI think his strength is up top. He\u2019s crafty on the ball. He can set himself up, but what we need him to do is use smart runs to get in behind. I think he\u2019s not the fastest guy on the pitch, but he\u2019s certainly got pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

After finishing among the bottom three teams in the league in goal scoring in 2011, the Revs need all the help they can get. Shalrie Joseph, a midfielder, led the club in scoring with eight goals last season.<\/p>\n

Now Joseph, the team\u2019s captain, is hopeful the 25-year-old S\u00e8ne, who scored 19 goals\u00a0in 55 appearances with Bayern Munich II in the 3rd and 4th divisions of German soccer between 2009 and 2011,\u00a0can make a difference in the team\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be good,\u201d said Joseph. \u201cHe\u2019ll bring possession. He\u2019ll allow us to play our game. He\u2019ll hold it up good. He\u2019s a good finisher on the ball from the couple of weeks we\u2019ve seen him – he\u2019s got a lot of chances and he\u2019s been able to finish them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an ideal situation, S\u00e8ne would be paired up top with a physical target forward. Colombian Jose \u201cPepe\u201d Moreno could\u2019ve been that partner, but now seems unlikely to join the team despite signing a contract<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Instead, Heaps will likely have to look elsewhere to find S\u00e8ne\u2019s partner either within the team or by bringing in someone new. One such possibility is Blake Brettschneider, who showed glimpses of his ability to hold up the ball against Boston College on Wednesday<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Brettschneider\u2019s] a strong kid,\u201d Heap said. \u201cYou could see he can hold it up at times. We just don\u2019t have that physical presence right now up top, so we\u2019re taking a long hard look at him. We wanted to see him in a lot of situations today, which he put himself in, and I thought he did well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not Brettschneider makes the squad, Heaps knows his team still isn\u2019t ready for opening day. The rookie head coach is still working to add new players to his team and will continue to test out potential signings as the team continues its preseason in Tucson, Ariz. next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of work [still to do],\u201d said Heaps. \u201cFirst of all we\u2019ve got to get all our players. I think that we still have some players in question. Sa\u00ebr hasn\u2019t joined us yet. We\u2019re waiting on one or two more guys and we\u2019re actually going to have a couple more players into Tucson. We haven\u2019t officially finished identifying players, but at the same time now we have to establish who we\u2019re going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

With first kick on March 10th in San Jose fast approaching, time is starting to become a factor in completing the squad and figuring out what style best suits the team. Heaps will get his first real test of how far the team still needs to go next week when the Revs kickoff the FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup on February 22 against the defending MLS Cup Champions Los Angeles Galaxy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French striker isn\u2019t an \u201cout-and-out target forward\u201d, but has the pace and skill to cause defenses problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9318,"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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/senefeature.jpg?fit=490%2C240","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317"}],"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=9317"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9325,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317\/revisions\/9325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}