{"id":32996,"date":"2015-03-28T21:51:29","date_gmt":"2015-03-29T01:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32996"},"modified":"2015-03-28T21:51:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-29T01:51:29","slug":"a-fortuitous-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32996","title":{"rendered":"A Fortuitous Breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2014 For the first goal, the Revolution were willing to take it anyway it came.<\/p>\n

After going the first three games without a goal, New England found the back of the net for the first time of the 2015 season in the 21st minute off a deflection.<\/p>\n

A steal from Daigo Kobayashi near midfield quickly put New England on the attack. Kobayashi found Lee Nguyen alone the right flank, who took the ball wide. Nguyen then found Rowe near the corner of the box and the fourth-year midfielder unleashed a shot.<\/p>\n

The ball took a deflection off the head of San Jose defender Shaun Francis, giving goalie David Bingham no chance as the ball flew into the net.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a perfect strike or set up play by any means, but they all count the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it was going to be on target, that was my goal,\u201d Rowe said. \u201cI was at the top of the 18 on the right side, put that ball on target. You\u2019ve got Charlie, you got Juan, you got Lee, you have other guys pouncing on the ball. It was one of those if it goes in it goes in but if not we\u2019re going to get a good rebound and have a good chance there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a welcome sight for New England, who were held without a goal through the first 290 minutes of the season despite legitimate scoring chances over the past two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a fortunate deflection but you take it anyway you can for the first one,\u201d Revolution head coach Jay Heaps said. \u201cWe were excited with our first half and the way we went out in the first half and even the start of the second. But unfortunately it became a real game and it was a good job to hold on. It probably shouldn\u2019t have been as close but it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowe finished with a career-high seven shots, five of them on target \u2014 all of them coming in a dominant first half from New England.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit of both [opportunity and wanting to get the first goal],\u201d Rowe said of his chances. \u201cObviously everyone wants to get the first goal and once we did, we created so many chances after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As New England continued its pressure, it was Rowe that doubled the Revolution\u2019s lead. This time, there was no lucky deflection needed.<\/p>\n

Off a set piece on the left flank near the corner of the 18, left back Chris Tierney whipped in a cross that right back Darrius Barnes dove onto to get a piece of. He was able to knock the ball down with his head and Rowe latched onto the bouncing ball and put it in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those where you gotta be aware,\u201d Rowe said. \u201cYou\u2019re inside the box on a free kick, anything can happen. Darrius is a guy that’s always going to get his head on the ball. For me, I was going to the near post and I turned around and it was there. It was one of those you have to put in the back of the net.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something we worked on just getting across the box,\u201d Barnes added. \u201cSet pieces are something we want to get better at. I just took it upon myself to get in the mix and get something on frame. I asked Kelyn if it was going in and he said no so I\u2019ll give it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In total, New England finished with 20 attempts on goal – 14 of which came in the first half – and had eight shots on target. Breaking the scoreless drought is something Rowe believes elevates the team\u2019s confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it picks it up a little bit,\u201d Rowe said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy going three games without a goal and only having one point. Especially at home its good to find those goals. It\u2019s good to play well and create those chances. I think going forward the confidence is going to be higher and you\u2019ll find goals from other guys as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

New England will look to add to its goal total next Saturday with a trip to Colorado to take on the Rapids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn’t the way they drew it up, but Kelyn Rowe’s deflected effort snapped the Revs’ scoring drought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33012,"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":[891,1300,49,1274,76,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Rowe-12.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\/32996"}],"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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32996"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33013,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32996\/revisions\/33013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}