{"id":32998,"date":"2015-03-29T09:23:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-29T13:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32998"},"modified":"2015-03-29T09:23:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-29T13:23:23","slug":"jack-of-all-trades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=32998","title":{"rendered":"Jack of All Trades"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – While some players continue to search for consistency, veteran defender Darrius Barnes is putting on a clinic – and not just at one position, either.<\/p>\n

Last week it was at center back, filling in for a suspended Jose Goncalves. This time around, he took up the right fullback spot in New England\u2019s 2-1 win over San Jose.<\/p>\n

The versatile defender didn\u2019t miss a beat switching from the middle of the pitch to the outside, keeping the Earthquakes\u2019 attack in check and picking up an assist on the game-winning goal in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a decision to make this week and it wasn\u2019t easy, bringing Jose back in and moving Darrius out,\u201d Revolution head coach Jay Heaps said. \u201cI thought Darrius had an excellent week of training, he had excellent game last week so it was hard to take him off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought again tonight he proved why you put him in there. He\u2019s fighting for everything, he has some real good experience behind him now and every challenge he gets into now you feel like he\u2019s going to come out with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The center back pair of Barnes and Andrew Farrell last week combined with outside backs Chris Tierney and Jeremy Hall to keep Montreal off the board entirely. With Goncalves back from his one-game suspension he earned after a red card against New York, Heaps elected to keep Barnes in the lineup, moving him to right back and keeping Hall on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019m comfortable with,\u201d Barnes said of the switch. \u201cI\u2019ve been in the center, I\u2019ve been on the right. I just want to be on the field at all times. To go out there and contribute and help the team succeed on the field, I think it was a great performance by the whole entire squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of statistics, Barnes didn\u2019t have any eye popping numbers besides his assist (two interceptions, two clearances) but that\u2019s more of a testament of his ability to track and mark his man. Barnes helped keep a San Jose side that had scored five goals in just the past two games scoreless in the run of play. The Earthquakes\u2019 lone goal came from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we did a pretty decent job defensively,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cWe were able to keep them at bay and keep their key players from having dangerous opportunities. As a group we were able to get behind the ball and keep them at bay. I think we did a great job and to get the first three points of the season is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes picked up his first assist of the season and first since New England\u2019s 2-1 win over Houston last October.<\/p>\n

Off a set piece near the corner of the 18 along the left flank, Chris Tierney whipped in a service that Barnes laid out for to get his head on. His header sent the ball bouncing off the turf close to the near post and Kelyn Rowe was able to bury it for his second goal of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something we worked on just getting across the box,\u201d Barnes said. \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

The big decision moving forward will fall on Heaps, who will eventually have to make a decision on if and where Barnes fits into the starting lineup when Kevin Alston, who is currently out with a right hamstring strain, returns to full health.<\/p>\n

Until then though, expect Barnes to play wherever he can and continue his consistent play and show off his versatility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A week after starting at center back, Darrius Barnes was slotted on the right – and didn’t miss a beat. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33028,"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":[146,891,888,76,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Barnes-21.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\/32998"}],"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=32998"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33082,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32998\/revisions\/33082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}