New England Soccer Today

What They’re Saying: #NEvVAN

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

With Saturday’s home opener  between the New England Revolution (0-2-0, 0 points) and Vancouver Whitecaps (1-0-1, 4 point) at Gillette Stadium only hours away, let’s take one last look at what the coaches and players were saying in the days leading up to it.

Revolution coach Jay Heaps:

“They’ve added some very good players, (Matias) Laba is an excellent acquisition for them and a player that really is good for this league and also attacking players in (Pedro) Morales and (Sebastian) Fernandez, two players who’ve already scored goals for them, and not just scored goals, but impacted how they play and then their depth is really good with (Kenny) Miller, (Kekuta) Mennah, and (Darren) Mattocks so they’re a very difficult team.”

“Every team right now is still finding the right rhythm, and I mean I’m sure they can do some analysis on us as well. But I think that sometimes when you go down a man, or go up a man, that doesn’t always just imply that you’re going to take advantage, because the other team changes a couple of things they’re doing, but in the end, they did a nice job to get a result on the road.”

Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson:

On his decision to leave center back Jay DeMerit in Vancouver for Saturday’s match (via mlssoccer.com):

“When I took the job, obviously, it was a case of – I’ve got three 34-year-olds within my squad. Jay, Andy (O’Brien) and Kenny (Miller). So I mapped out a plan of what I wanted, and how I thought I could best protect these guys because it is a 34-game season – regular season, plus playoffs, plus Canadian cup.”

Revolution midfielder Lee Nguyen:

“Vancouver’s a great team and obviously it’s a different look this season, this team with a new coach. They’ve gotten off to a good start, and they’re obviously coming here to try and get three points. It’s our job to prevent that, and we’re also looking at getting our first three points at home, so and I know Daigo (Kobayashi), Brad (Knighton) and I would all love to get three points against our old club, so I’m excited.”

Whitecaps center back Jay DeMerit (via whitecapsfc.com):

“(New England is) coming off two losses so they’re going to want to put points on the board. They have all the inspiration needed to put in a good home performance and we’re going to have to combat that and make sure we go in ready from minute one.”

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