{"id":34462,"date":"2015-05-07T07:58:21","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T11:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=34462"},"modified":"2015-05-07T08:11:59","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T12:11:59","slug":"growing-into-his-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=34462","title":{"rendered":"Growing into His Role"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Jeff Bernstein<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite using eight different players along the back line, the Revolution boast one of the top defensive units in MLS. They have collected four clean sheets, one shy of the MLS lead, and have conceded only three goals in their last seven games.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, this defensive success has come in the wake of injuries to starters Kevin Alston, Jose Goncalves and the versatile Darrius Barnes, who could miss the rest of the season after having left knee surgery. Since losing Barnes to injury, the Revolution have not had a misstep defensively thanks, in part, to the emergence of unheralded third-year pro London Woodberry.<\/p>\n

After watching the squad’s first seven matches from the sidelines, Woodberry has started each of the last three games for coach Jay Heaps as a right back, shifting from his natural center back position. The quick transition has come naturally to the 23-year-old from McKinney, Tx., but his role should continue to grow as he becomes more comfortable with the move.<\/p>\n

His growing comfort level and expanding role were on display in the Revolution’s 2-1 win over formerly unbeaten foe, the New York Red Bulls. Woodberry recorded his first career assist in the ninth minute of the Revs win when he lofted a well-weighted cross to Charlie Davies for the game’s opening goal. His recent form not only drew the attention of his teammates, but also that of Heaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really happy with London,\u201d Heaps said after the match. \u201cThat was his third game in a row, and I think he\u2019s got really good feet and he\u2019s kind of like Andrew Farrell, he\u2019s a natural center back. We saw him play in college quite a bit.<\/p>\n

“His feet are really good and I love that he\u2019s hitting early ball. Early in the game he hit the cross there and then there were a couple of others after that so we really like the way he\u2019s putting the ball in the box. It\u2019s almost giving us a match to Chris (Tierney) on the other side so that teams have to defend both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Jeff Bernstein<\/p><\/div>\n

While Tierney is far more well-known for his crosses and ability to help create, Woodberry knows his ability can help spread the field and add to the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just brings another dynamic to our attacking style team you know,\u201d Woodberry said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a bunch of guys with a lot of different weapons and I think me coming in on the right is just another addition to what we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The focus for Woodberry is now on growth at the position.<\/p>\n

He has competed in just 11 MLS games, with his most recent three being the first three since the end of the 2013 season. While Woodberry has made strides, he is still not playing with the full defensive complement the Revolution have to offer.<\/p>\n

The Revolution have been without starting center-back and skipper Jose Goncalves during Woodberry’s recent emergence. With Goncalves set to return to the starting lineup after coming on as a late-game substitute last weekend, Woodberry will have to adjust his style to fit with Farrell, who’s been playing the left center back’s spot in Goncalves’ absence while Jones has occupied the right.<\/p>\n

While this\u00a0development has the potential\u00a0to\u00a0shake\u00a0a young player’s confidence, Woodberry is mindful that the Revolution, despite their recent success,\u00a0are still\u00a0a work in progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think going forward we\u2019ve got a good team and we know what we possess with our quality,” Woodberry said. “So it\u2019s coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not long ago, London Woodberry was fighting to make the roster. Now, he’s a vital part of the defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":34464,"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":[891,1009,1274,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/London-28.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\/34462"}],"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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34462"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34510,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34462\/revisions\/34510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}