{"id":31707,"date":"2015-02-15T15:36:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-15T20:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=31707"},"modified":"2015-02-15T15:44:25","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T20:44:25","slug":"the-desert-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=31707","title":{"rendered":"The Desert Awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 After a week\u2019s worth of training indoors at the Dana Farber Fieldhouse, the Revolution will head back to Arizona on Monday for the homestretch of preseason camp.<\/p>\n

Although the club already has already played a pair of preseason scrimmages, Revolution coach Jay Heaps said that the four-match Desert Diamond Cup tournament is when his club is truly put to the test.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to this tournament because it\u2019s paced out, every Wednesday and Saturday,\u201d Heaps told nesoccertoday.com<\/em>. \u201cSo it gives you a good rhythm of what a season could look like, but it\u2019s also a lot of games and some good training.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Revolution will kick off the 10-day tournament on Wednesday against Real Salt Lake, whom they\u2019ll play for the second time this winter. In an 80-minute scrimmage on Jan. 31, the locals staked a 2-1 win in a match that Heaps used two very different lineups for each half.<\/p>\n

This time around, though, don\u2019t expect wholesale halftime changes. With the Revolution more than halfway through preseason camp, Heaps has a much better idea of how he\u2019ll put together his regular season lineups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first part is assessing everything,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cNot only as we build fitness, but as we get closer to the tournament, it\u2019s starting to positionally place people for the year. Now, guys are starting to place themselves in the lineup or different areas on the roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

While watching the players position themselves for starting spots \u2013 or roster spots, for those on trial \u2013 will be the primary focus for the coaching staff, those who\u2019ll step onto the pitch are looking at the tournament through a somewhat different light.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, the ultimate goal is to stay healthy once the Desert Diamond Cup is over and done with,\u201d Revolution striker Charlie Davies told nesoccertoday.com<\/em>. \u201cI think for us to stay healthy this whole season is the most important thing. We don\u2019t want to lose any guys to injuries, especially long-term injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why Davies views the tournament in that light. Last year, he missed much of the four-match series due to a nagging calf strain, and wasn\u2019t able to consistently contribute until the summer. Plus, with Jermaine Jones already out for first few matches of the season, staying injury-free will certainly be paramount.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0staying healthy\u00a0isn\u2019t the only concern at the forefront of the players\u2019 mind. With the regular season just around the corner, Davies believes that the tournament is an opportunity to hone the mental focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second part is just getting fit and trying to continue our mentality which is win games ,and do what we have to do to win,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe play Seattle two weeks before we play them in the regular season, so that\u2019ll be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two things that both the coaches and players have both agreed can improve down in Tucson is cohesion and fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all not quite on the same page yet, and I don\u2019t think everyone is quite as fit as they can be,\u201d Davies said. \u201cSo it\u2019s about getting fitness down and the chemistry down and just continuing to grow as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may not look like it outside, but spring \u2013 at least to Revolution supporters \u2013 is only three weeks away. Three weeks to tighten the screws, and get back up to regular season speed. And if that also means escaping New England for a couple of weeks, then so be it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to getting back down there so we can get out of this cold,\u201d Revolution midfielder\/defender Jeremy Hall said, with a smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revs head back to Arizona this week for the Desert Diamond Cup. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31709,"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":[891,49,235,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Juan1.png?fit=600%2C415&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31707"}],"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=31707"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31713,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31707\/revisions\/31713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}