{"id":38248,"date":"2015-09-17T05:40:22","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T09:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=38248"},"modified":"2015-09-17T09:15:32","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T13:15:32","slug":"a-constant-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=38248","title":{"rendered":"A Constant Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – With the amount of change that New England has had in its lineup this year, there\u2019s been one constant in the midfield.<\/p>\n

Scott Caldwell.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Braintree native is the lone player on the team to appear in all 29 of the Revolution\u2019s games so far this season, has a team-high 28 starts and leads the club in minutes played with over 2519, nearly 200 more than the next field player.<\/p>\n

No matter his partner in the center of the pitch, Caldwell doesn\u2019t seem to miss a step. He\u2019s started 11 games with Andy Dorman (5-5-1) in the middle, 10 with Daigo Kobayashi (5-3-2) and seven with designated player Jermaine Jones (3-0-4). The lone game Caldwell didn\u2019t start was the second of the season in a loss against New York City FC. He subbed on in the 71st minute with the team pushing forward for an equalizer.<\/p>\n

And despite the change, Caldwell\u2019s role remains relatively the same. He sits back in more of a defensive role and helps protect with the defense. When the opportunity arrives, he can get forward, as seen with his pair of goals in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott\u2019s role doesn\u2019t change a ton,\u201d Revolution head coach Jay Heaps said. \u201cHe sits [back] when Jermaine\u2019s in there and he holds and protects and plays really well. I think Daigo\u2019s role is a little more offensive if Scotty is in there with him, he knows he can he find a little bit. If it\u2019s Jermaine and Daigo then it\u2019s Daigo that sits a little bit more. We really like the way we have that midfield balance and each one has a little different role when they\u2019re around.\u201d<\/p>\n

One small change to his role in Wednesday night\u2019s 2-1 over New York Red Bulls was due to the absence of Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot different,\u201d Caldwell said about his role. \u201cWe don\u2019t have Jermaine to win air balls so you can probably see that as a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Caldwell didn\u2019t necessarily win the majority of his aerial challenges, he took on more of a role in doing so. It paid off for the Revolution.<\/p>\n

In the 65th minute, a corner kick from Kobayashi was punched clear by New York keeper Luis Robles. Caldwell then sprinted to the loose ball and beat Lloyd Sam to the punch and sent a header back into the area. That header forced Kemar Lawrence to stand his ground at the six yard box and head it clear. That header deflected off of London Woodberry and right back to Caldwell, who hit a one time through ball with his left foot to find a wide open Kelyn Rowe behind the defense. Rowe buried his chance, which proved to be the game-winner.<\/p>\n

And with Rowe so wide open behind the defense, the obvious first thought was that he was offside.<\/p>\n

But he wasn\u2019t and that\u2019s because Lawrence had to stay home to deal with Caldwell\u2019s header and he was the lone player to keep Rowe onside and allow him in for the winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily the ball came back to me and Kelyn was in a great spot,\u201d Caldwell said, admitting he didn\u2019t see Rowe at the far post. \u201cI wasn\u2019t shooting it, I\u2019m not going to finish one from there but I didn\u2019t know he was going to be there, I was hoping. He made a great run, he was very opportunistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

When partnering with Kobayashi, Caldwell still stays back in a more defensive role but knows that some more responsibilities may fall to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just know I have to go up for more,\u201d Caldwell said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a loose ball and I think have a chance at it I\u2019m always going to go up for it. I always have to be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

And beyond the assist on the game-winning goal, Caldwell provided stability to a defense that saw two outside backs making their first appearances since early July.<\/p>\n

New York was entering the game with 11 goals in their previous four matches and with 21 goals combined from their starting midfield \u2014 and 34 assists on top of that \u2014 it was a tall task for Caldwell and the Revs back four.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough but we just have to keep our on ball defending tight so they can\u2019t get a service off,\u201d Caldwell said. \u201cI thought our outside backs and outside mids did a great job at that. And when it did get in the middle, besides their goal, we were able to protect our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought tonight was really good especially against an excellent midfield,\u201d Heaps added. \u201cI really respect the way New York\u2019s midfield moves. I mean Dax McCarty and Felipe, and Sacha has a lot of freedom and those guys are a good midfield, as good as it gets in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n

New England has now won six straight games, becoming the first team in MLS to do so in 2015. In that stretch, the team has scored 14 goals while just surrendering three goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all been playing together so much all season really,\u201d Caldwell said. \u201cWe\u2019re all in training and we\u2019re out there together. We can play with anyone in there and we\u2019re comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caldwell and the Revolution have yet another quick turnaround as they travel north to take on Montreal on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the Revolution line-up has gone through many changes this season, Scott Caldwell has been the one steady presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":38273,"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":[891,888,191,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Scott-6.png?fit=600%2C416&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38248"}],"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=38248"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38274,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38248\/revisions\/38274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}