{"id":19755,"date":"2013-06-06T08:23:38","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T12:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=19755"},"modified":"2013-07-22T16:59:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T20:59:59","slug":"bengtson-goal-drought-bothers-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=19755","title":{"rendered":"Bengtson: Goal Drought “Bothers Me”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Revolution<\/a>

Revolution striker Jerry Bengtson, who departed for World Cup Qualifying on Monday, hopes a strong set of games with Honduras will parlay itself into greater success at the club level. (Photo: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz)<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – One player who’s been conspicuously absent from the Revolution’s recent goal bonanza is the very same player who many thought would be at the forefront of the offensive charge this year.<\/p>\n

Forward Jerry Bengtson, who signed a designated player deal with the club last July, hasn’t scored in his last 10\u00a0league matches. Through 11 games in 2013, he only has one\u00a0goal –\u00a0a statistic that\u00a0the striker\u00a0admitted after Sunday’s game that he was well aware of.<\/p>\n

“Yes, it’s definitely bothering me,”\u00a0Bengtson said through a translator.\u00a0“But it’s just something that’s personal; I just have to keep working hard for it.”<\/p>\n

Since scoring the game-winner in a 1-0 season-opening win at Chicago, the Honduran striker’s\u00a0struggles aren’t only limited to finding the back of the net. In his last four games, he’s failed to fire a shot on frame at all. Worse, it appears he’s lost his starting spot up top, with his last appearance in the lineup coming on May 8.<\/p>\n

“Everytime I step on the field, I just try to perform in the role that the coaching staff asks me to do,” Bengtson said. “I feel like I’m putting the effort in and I hope the rest of the stuff will come\u00a0on its\u00a0own.”<\/p>\n

Teammate Juan Toja sympathizes with Bengtson’s predicament. Toja\u00a0believes that even the best players encounter\u00a0struggles\u00a0at some point in their careers, and that Bengtson’s\u00a0situation will eventually resolve itself.<\/p>\n

“In soccer, these things happen,” Toja said. “I think he’s been working hard, but the goal hasn’t come. I’m sure the goal will come and it’s going to change. It’s hard for a forward when you don’t score for\u00a04-5 games, but I think he’s going to score soon and he’s just going to (score a lot of goals).”<\/p>\n

Toja also alluded to the idea that the transition to playing in the United States\u00a0for Latin American players “isn’t easy.”\u00a0 Although Toja, a native of Colombia, can’t say for sure that the adjustment to\u00a0a new\u00a0league and new culture\u00a0is affecting\u00a0Bengtson’s play, he didn’t rule it out as a possibility.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if it’s exactly that,” Toja said. “But it happens. It’s happened in my career, having trouble learning a new country and language, and sometimes it’s hard to get involved. Coaches have different rules, there’s a different way of playing, and it’s a different\u00a0way of living.”<\/p>\n

Though Bengtson didn’t say whether\u00a0the transition from Honduras to the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0has affected his play,\u00a0he’s optimistic\u00a0that his recent call-up to the\u00a0Honduras National Team\u00a0for a pair of World Cup Qualifiers on\u00a0Friday (at Costa Rica) and\u00a0Tuesday (vs. Jamaica) will help him\u00a0reclaim some of the confidence he’s lost in New England.<\/p>\n

In his last\u00a010 caps with the Catrachos<\/em>, he’s scored seven goals, his\u00a0most recent\u00a0coming\u00a0in a 2-2 draw against Mexico in a Mar. 22 World Cup Qualifier.<\/p>\n

“That’s what I’m hoping to accomplish with the (Honduras) National Team,” Bengtson said.\u00a0“Get a couple of goals there, and then get that confidence back coming here.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bengtson doesn’t seem concerned that his playing time has dwindled over the past month, especially\u00a0in light of\u00a0the Revolution’s recent form.<\/p>\n

“As long I’m following what the coaches want, that’s all I’m trying to do,” Bengtson said. “Hopefully, I’ll score\u00a0(with\u00a0Honduras)\u00a0and get more confidence and bring it back to New England.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jerry Bengtson feels the weight of his goal drought, and hopes that he can return from World Cup Qualifying with a renewed sense of confidence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19761,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[122,320,121,315,49,1274],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/JB27.png?fit=480%2C257&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19755"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19775,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19755\/revisions\/19775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}