{"id":24262,"date":"2014-03-10T08:08:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T12:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=24262"},"modified":"2014-03-11T11:44:33","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T15:44:33","slug":"rookie-sanchez-seeks-constant-improvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=24262","title":{"rendered":"Rookie Sanchez Seeks Constant Improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: New England Revolution<\/p><\/div>\n

BOSTON \u2013 Confidence is everything when you\u2019re playing at the highest level, and it was something that Jossimar Sanchez needed to get back going into Revolution preseason camp as a non-rostered participant.<\/p>\n

Less than four months before he was selected by the Revolution in the 2013 Supplemental Draft, the University of Connecticut defender broke his leg in a midseason match against Marquette.<\/p>\n

The recovery process lasted nearly a year before he was able to train with the Revolution, but even then, nothing was guaranteed. \u00a0All he was afforded was a chance. A chance that he know he couldn\u2019t take advantage of until he put the injury fully behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into this preseason, I just wanted to be as confident as I could,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t doubting myself as a player, it was just confidence going into tackles, and things like that, being off the ball for seven months was a challenge, so that also affected me, but I was able to come out of it with a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that positive \u2013 earning a professional contract \u2013 didn\u2019t come without a long and arduous recovery. He spent countless hours in the sweltering heat of a New England summer working on the basics behind the scenes. After all, you have to crawl before you can walk again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe injury was a setback, 100% it was,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI was able to keep training at school, and then bring my confidence back up and come in, I like to think, stronger and fitter than I was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

New England, which kept Sanchez\u2019s rights despite not having him under contract, invited him to train in Foxborough toward the tail end of last summer before bringing him back for the 2014 preseason. And according to Sanchez, the objective the coaching staff handed to him was simple, yet challenging at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just wanted me to play as hard as I could,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI\u2019m playing right back, which is kind of a new position for me, I\u2019m used to playing the center, but they just guided me through it and helped me out every day with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite manning a new spot, Sanchez showed himself plenty capable at right back during the preseason. He played in six of the club\u2019s seven games, and showed a knack for delivering a decent throw-in, as well. Not bad for a guy who, essentially, was getting his first taste of the pro game.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing out of college, I felt like (the competition in MLS) was close,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cBut MLS is different, the speed\u2019s fast, everyone\u2019s strong, and it\u2019s a good environment. It was fun and the level of competition is very impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez admits, though, that he is far from a polished product. While he may have made his way onto the roster, he\u2019ll continue to approach his new job with the same credo that helped him attain it.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust get better every day,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI\u2019ve been working hard since before I got here and now that I\u2019m here on the team, keep working hard and pushing myself to do better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hard work paid off for Jossimar Sanchez after the Revs signed him last month. But he’s far from finished with putting in long hours. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[1],"tags":[240,49,235,1274,1289],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24262"}],"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=24262"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24281,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24262\/revisions\/24281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}