{"id":22799,"date":"2013-11-03T20:57:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T01:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=22799"},"modified":"2013-11-03T22:27:52","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T03:27:52","slug":"heaps-gets-by-with-a-little-help-from-his-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=22799","title":{"rendered":"Heaps gets by with a little help from his friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Andy

Andy Dorman applauds the crowd after the Revolution’s playoff victory on Saturday. (Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

The story of the New England Revolution\u2019s regular season has been the convergence of a talented 22-and-under core that includes players like Diego Fagundez, Juan Agudelo, Kelyn Rowe, Scott Caldwell and Andrew Farrell.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s been an entirely different storyline to the Revs\u2019 lead in and run through their first MLS Playoff appearance in four seasons, which began with a 2-1 victory over Sporting KC at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The Revolution\u2019s 37-year-old head coach Jay Heaps has also received significant contributions from two of the only thirty-somethings on the roster, calling on a little help from former teammates Matt Reis and Andy Dorman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re at halftime, so we are up 2-1 at halftime and the more goals we have, the more pressure we can put on them,\u201d said Reis, who made two saves and mostly shut down a pestering Kansas City attack. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a tough task going in (to Kansas City) and getting a result but I like our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll play the second leg of the series at 9 p.m. Wednesday in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big chess game,\u201d Reis said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing the same formations, we\u2019re matching up out there, so there are a lot of little things we have to move around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The old eagle in net was in postseason form, coming up with reactive saves on a Teal Bunbury 38th<\/sup>-minute chance and Dom Dwyer in second half added time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis reflexes are pretty amazing,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s been a better goalie in the league that has reflexes like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old keeper, who joined the Revs in 2003, two years after Heaps, has strung together a serious late-career revival, proving he\u2019s still among the best with one of the best seasons of any keeper in the MLS, albeit in limited games.<\/p>\n

Reis became the first goalie in league history to make 10 or more starts and go undefeated, taking a 7-0-4 record over 12 starts into the postseason. The one game where Reis did not factor into the decision was a 4-2 home loss to the Montreal Impact on Sept. 8, the low point of fall soccer in New England.<\/p>\n

He was shown a controversial red card at the outset, sending Montreal to a 1-0 lead on the resulting penalty kick, but Fagundez leveled in the 26th<\/sup> minute, taking Reis out of the equation as Shuttleworth allowed in three more to take the loss.<\/p>\n

The Revs\u2019 longest-tenured player, Reis \u2013 now in his 11th<\/sup> season with the team, and 16th<\/sup> year in the league \u2013 also qualified for and finished first in MLS in goals against average at 0.72 per game, which includes five shutouts in 12 chances.<\/p>\n

Dorman held up his end replacing Caldwell as New England\u2019s box-to-box midfielder. He made himself useful in the 55th<\/sup> minute, getting on the end of a pinball play that started with a Fagundez shot. Dorman finished it, coolly.<\/p>\n

That triumph was his first MLS goal since July 2007, having left the club for the Scottish Premier League after losing to the Los Angeles Galaxy, 1-0, in the 2007 MLS Cup, the last of three consecutive finalist finishes for the Revolution.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Dorman was in New England from 2004 to \u201907, appearing in all three of those cup finals and playing in 102 league matches over that stretch.<\/p>\n

Heaps waxed poetic about Dorman after a 3-2 result in a must-win game against the Columbus Crew on Oct. 19. \u201cAndy Dorman, from the time he got here \u2013 I don\u2019t know how many years ago, when I was a teammate of his \u2013 to this game, tonight you felt very comfortable with Andy Dorman out there,\u201d Heaps said.<\/p>\n

He appeared sporadically throughout the 2013 season, but gained Heaps\u2019 confidence with the team\u2019s back against the wall late in the year, subbing in for Caldwell in the 56th<\/sup> minute of an Oct. 5 draw, 2-2 at the New York Red Bulls.<\/p>\n

The Revs equalized \u00a0after Dorman came on \u2013\u00a0though he was subsequently ejected as part of the game’s controversial finish \u2013\u00a0securing a crucial point that helped them to the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and a semifinal berth.<\/p>\n

Dorman returned for New England\u2019s regular season-ending home-and-home series with the Columbus Crew, going all 90 minutes in both wins.<\/p>\n

The Welshman \u2013 who replaced the suspended Lee Nguyen in the starting lineup\u00a0\u2013\u00a0starred in the Revolution\u2019s home finale, a 3-2 win in front of a season-best crowd of 26,458 out in Foxboro. Dorman drew the whistles that preceded A.J. Soares\u2019 32nd<\/sup>-minute set piece goal and Lee Nguyen\u2019s 69th<\/sup>-minute penalty. He then assisted on Fagundez\u2019s match-winner seven minutes later.<\/p>\n

Heaps called the performance \u201cgigantic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won everything in the air that he could get his head to, he controlled the middle,\u201d Heaps said after that win. \u201cTo me, it showed he was a player that wanted to win it and he was the one who got the game-winning assist.\u201d<\/p>\n

That performance assured Dorman would keep his spot in the lineup for the season finale, even with Nguyen’s return.<\/p>\n

Heaps\u2019 confidence in Reis came to the fore in August after a summer slump.<\/p>\n

Bobby Shuttleworth had started 20 consecutive matches, but Reis got the call in a 2-0 shutout against the Chicago Fire and Mike Magee on Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

Reis has spent the last three months as Heaps\u2019 first-choice keeper, starting 11 of the Revs\u2019 last 12 matches \u2013 the lone outlier was a 3-2 loss to Chicago on Sept. 14 with Shuttleworth in goal as Reis served his suspension for the red card against Montreal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Head Coach Jay Heaps’ former teammates — Andy Dorman and Matt Reis — have proved vital to his team’s success down the stretch. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22804,"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":[9,7,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/dormanfeature5.jpg?fit=490%2C240&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22799"}],"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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22799"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22806,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22799\/revisions\/22806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}