{"id":32166,"date":"2015-03-02T00:24:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T05:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32166"},"modified":"2015-03-02T00:25:56","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T05:25:56","slug":"ironing-out-the-kinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32166","title":{"rendered":"Ironing Out the Kinks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

If the primary objective of Saturday\u2019s preseason finale was to replicate regular season action, then the Revolution crossed it off in a fashion that coach Jay Heaps could truly appreciate: with a flourish. <\/p>\n

Not only did they score a preseason-high three goals, but they also kept the sheet clean in a 3-0 romp over FC Tucson at Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz. A trio of players scored while Bobby Shuttleworth posted the first shutout of the preseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to use this game to kind of get all of the kinks out,\u201d Shuttleworth told revolutionsoccer.net on Saturday. \u201cIt was nice to come out here and (post) the shutout, and get the movements down, and get our intensity going, and hopefully, we can bring that into next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next week \u2013 specifically the regular season opener at Seattle on Mar. 8 \u2013 was, without a doubt, the driving motivation behind the Revolution\u2019s best performance of the winter. Sure, the competition wasn\u2019t fierce against the fourth-division FC Tucson. But it didn\u2019t matter one bit to those in the navy blue kits.<\/p>\n

After all, the strength of their opponent wasn\u2019t in their hands after they were pitted against the PDL side following the group stages of the Desert Diamond Cup tournament. So all the Revolution could do was stick to the same gameplan they\u2019ve employed every year for their preseason finale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all about getting sharp,\u201d Revolution midfielder Teal Bunbury told revolutionsoccer.net on Saturday. \u201cThe regular season\u2019s a week away, so we wanted to make sure we didn\u2019t get any injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

But staying healthy and improving their form from front to back weren\u2019t the only items the Revolution wanted to focus on for the tournament finale. <\/p>\n

With Diego Fagundez, Kelyn Rowe and Juan Agudelo all looking to finish the preseason on a strong note, Heaps wanted to see the trio \u2013 and those around him \u2013 play with greater urgency. He wanted to see his regulars perform as a cohesive unit, which is, perhaps, the greatest challenge for nearly every club during the preseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also wanted to play the game fast,\u201d Bunbury said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to be too slow on the ball, we wanted to get those final bumps out of the way\u2026so we come into the regular season flying.\u201d<\/p>\n

And they\u2019ll need to bring every bit of whatever momentum they gained from Saturday\u2019s match into their First Kick clash. <\/p>\n

With the schedulemakers putting the Revolution on the road against the Seattle Sounders who, by the way, sported the best record in MLS last year, there won’t be any time for sanding down any remaining rough edges. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a tough test for us,\u201d Shuttleworth said. \u201cSeattle\u2019s a very difficult place to play, and we need to be ready to go from the start this year, and I think we will be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Improving their cohesion and playing with purpose were two hurdles the Revs successfully cleared on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32168,"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\/03\/DIEGO-2.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\/32166"}],"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=32166"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32172,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32166\/revisions\/32172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}