{"id":32712,"date":"2015-03-22T01:47:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T05:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32712"},"modified":"2015-03-22T01:47:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-22T05:47:19","slug":"a-new-wrinkle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32712","title":{"rendered":"A New Wrinkle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 Jay Heaps isn\u2019t in any hurry to scrap the one-striker formation, but that didn\u2019t stop him from giving Revolution supporters a glimpse of what many have clamored for during Saturday\u2019s scoreless draw.<\/p>\n

For the first time since Juan Agudelo was re-acquired two months ago, Heaps kept the physical forward on the field when he called Charlie Davies\u2019 number in the 62nd minute, putting both strikers in play as the Revolution hunted for the game-winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something we worked on,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cCharlie is returning from an injury, so his minutes have to be limited, but he was great all week in training and was buzzing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The one-two punch of Agudelo and Davies may not have yielded the goal the Revolution have craved since they kicked off the season in Seattle, but Heaps was nevertheless encouraged by what he saw.<\/p>\n

While the presence of both strikers didn\u2019t give the Revolution a 4-4-2 look \u2013 the formation many fans have argued for with two talented strikers on the roster \u2013 Agudelo\u2019s ability to drift wide opened opportunities for Davies in the center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought there was some space for (Davies),\u201d Heaps said. \u201cI think we underplayed him a couple of times. Charlie\u2019s got some wheels and he can really open up back fours, and I think a couple of under hit balls. If we\u2019d over hit those he would have been in, and that also allows us to now play Juan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davies\u2019 pace flummoxed the Impact back four, and he was immediately fouled less than two minutes after he entered the match to set up a dangerous free kick.<\/p>\n

Like Davies, Agudelo is a striker by trade, but his ability to stretch defenses on the wing was apparent during the Saturday\u2019s match. And after he was neutralized by the Impact back four \u2013 who spent much of the match clogging the central channel \u2013 a switch to the wing allowed him more space to operate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (Agudelo) did a nice job when he went out while he was able to occupy a defender,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cWe had a lot of play through him once we moved him out wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the offense opened up with the duo on the field, neither player was able to record a shot on goal with the Impact committing numbers to the rear, especially after Hassoun Camara was sent off shortly after Davies\u2019 introduction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a striker, I think me and Charlie, we have to have at least two shots a game,\u201d Agudelo said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t even able to get one and Charlie wasn\u2019t even able to get one, so I think that\u2019s an important thing we need to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

That situation should improve once both players return to full fitness, and the attack, which created a handful of chances during the second half, starts to find its rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, things aren\u2019t clicking the right way,\u201d Heaps said. \u201cBut I\u2019m not worried yet because I think we\u2019re having chances. I felt like the last two games we were dangerous. We\u2019re missing by inches not by feet. We weren\u2019t dangerous at all in Seattle but the last two games we\u2019ve been dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Juan Agudelo and Charlie Davies shared the field for the first time this season on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32714,"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":[552,891,1304,1274,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/CD-JA-1.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\/32712"}],"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=32712"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32715,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32712\/revisions\/32715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}