{"id":9452,"date":"2012-02-21T04:30:42","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T09:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=9452"},"modified":"2012-02-21T10:21:37","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T15:21:37","slug":"heading-to-tucson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=9452","title":{"rendered":"Heading to Tucson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Midfielder Chris Tierney is excited for increased competition at the FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup and ready to put the past two seasons behind him. (Photo: Chris Aduama\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

The New England Revolution will finally get their first real preseason test on Wednesday in Tucson, Ariz., when they kick-off the FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup against the defending MLS Cup Champions Los Angeles Galaxy.<\/p>\n

While new head coach Jay Heaps is hoping for positive results from his team, the most important aspect of the preseason tournament is getting his squad ready for the start of the MLS season on March 10th.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to get MLS ready,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in some identification mode, we\u2019re still a little bit in there, but at the same time now we turn it up a notch in terms of how long guys are going to play, the intensity of the matches and the overall outcome of the matches. We want to make sure that we put our best foot forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tournament aspect of the matches doesn\u2019t really come into play for Heaps. While winning the tournament would be a bonus, it isn\u2019t the goal of participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about how we\u2019re going go in and progress,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cWe want to make sure we\u2019re getting minutes to the right guys, but at the same time we\u2019re still in identification mode, so we\u2019re still going to be looking at some players and some formations. We\u2019re not 100% set exactly what we want to do. We know we have an idea of what we want to do, but that can change with injuries and personnel. At this point, it\u2019s really an important two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tierney excited for increased competition<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Heaps is looking forward to using the tournament to get his players ready for the season, some of his players are just as excited about the opportunity to test themselves against some of the league\u2019s best. Midfielder\/defender Chris Tierney, who has been with the team since 2008, believes it\u2019s the best preseason competition the team has faced in the five preseasons he\u2019s taken part in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited about it,\u201d said Tierney. \u201cI think it\u2019s the highest level tournament that we\u2019ve played in preseason since I\u2019ve been a part of this team, so it\u2019s exciting to go test ourselves against the top notch MLS sides. It\u2019ll be a good test for us to see where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team currently holds a 3-0-0 record in the 2012 preseason, but those victories have come in two games against Boston College and a game against FC Tucson, a USL Premier Development League (America\u2019s unofficial fourth division) expansion team. Clearly playing the likes of the MLS Champions Galaxy, 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League Runner-up Real Salt Lake and the New York Red Bulls, a play-off team last season, in the Desert Diamond Cup is a huge step up in opposition.<\/p>\n

Though Tierney\u2019s looking forward to the opportunity to see where the team\u2019s at and compete against quality competition, he, like Heaps, recognizes the real focus has to be preparing for the season opener, not winning the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just go play and focus on yourself and what you\u2019re doing to try and get ready for the season,\u201d said Tierney. \u201cYou know you always want to win games and get results, but at the same it is preseason so we have to take care of ourselves and focus on the things that are going to make us better come March 10th.\u201d<\/p>\n

Style and preparation change under Heaps<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fans should get a first glimpse the team\u2019s squad and style under coach Heaps during the tournament, which will be broadcast live on MLSSoccer.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tierney believes the squad is already deeper than it has been in the past and that Heaps\u2019 new style of play should be more enjoyable from a fan\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Jay [Heaps] is implementing a new style of play which is going to be more exciting to watch,\u201d said Tierney. \u201cI think we\u2019ll score more goals, be more positive than we probably have played in the past. It\u2019s a welcome change for us and I think we\u2019re all excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And a new style isn\u2019t the only thing Heaps has brought to the team, according to Tierney. The former Revolution defender turned head coach has changed how the team practices and prepares for games and the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Jay\u2019s brought in a new level of professionalism that might not have been there before,\u201d said Tierney. \u201cStevie [Nicol] definitely had his own style which worked for him for many years, but I think Jay is a little more up-to-date in terms of taking care of the physical side of things and really doing the homework and taking care of the details in terms of going over video and talking to guys individually and making sure we\u2019re in top shape physically. That\u2019s definitely a welcome change for us as players.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all those changes, Tierney\u2019s ready to put the past behind him and move forward with an overhauled team and coaching staff. The past two seasons were huge disappointments for the club, and unsurprisingly Tierney\u2019s tired of hearing about it and looking forward to moving on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re sick of talking about last season, the last two years,\u201d Tierney said. \u201cThis is a new team: new players, new coach. We\u2019re not looking at it as revenge for last year or anything like that. We\u2019re just excited about the group of players we have here now and the changes that the club has made to help us do better this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Revs open the Desert Diamond Cup against the Galaxy on Wednesday with kick-off set for 8 PM EST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revs ready to take new style of play to Desert Diamond Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9453,"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":[14,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/tierneyfeature3.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\/9452"}],"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=9452"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9497,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9452\/revisions\/9497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}