{"id":39254,"date":"2015-11-02T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T14:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=39254"},"modified":"2015-11-02T10:27:07","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T15:27:07","slug":"learning-on-the-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=39254","title":{"rendered":"Learning on the Job"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – At the start of every season, Revolution defender Andrew Farrell sets out to become a better version of the player he was the previous year. And that doesn’t change even if his role does.<\/p>\n

After manning the right back’s spot for the majority of his first two seasons in MLS, the former first overall pick made the switch to full-time center back prior to the start of the 2015 campaign. His expectations?<\/p>\n

“This year was a big one for me in transitioning from right back to center back,” Farrell said. “It kind of went the same way (for me) as the season went for us: I had ups and downs this year, and you try to not do that as a player. You want to be consistent.”<\/p>\n

To be fair, consistency was a tall order for a number of footballers in Foxborough, and the team’s struggles reflected that. But that didn’t stop Farrell, who spent time at center back in college, from trying.<\/p>\n

After an abysmal start to the season in which the Revolution conceded five goals in their first two, Farrell finally found a good patch of form once spring rolled around. In the midst of a nine-game unbeaten run, Farrell’s performances sharpened enough earn him a nomination for MLS Player of the Month for April.<\/p>\n

“I felt really confident,” Farrell said. “I like the position a lot, and I liked it college. Having the backing of the coaching staff and having them put faith in me, and keeping me in there (was good).”<\/p>\n

While Farrell rebounded well from those first two games, it wasn’t long before he encountered a few more struggles.<\/p>\n

“It’s not in one year that you will make massive improvement, but you make step-by-step, day-by-day improvement,” fellow Revolution center back Jose Goncalves said. “It’s a difficult transition because you must make different movements.”<\/p>\n

During a particularly trying pair of early-summer games, Farrell conceded a penalty and was red carded vs. Vancouver, then registered a rather uninspiring performance against New York. In that game, he was part of a defensive united that allowed three goals in the first 12 minutes of the match.<\/p>\n

“It’s one of those (things) where it’s always tough to learn when you’re losing,” Farrell said. “But we also won a lot while I was back there, too, so it’s all a learning process.”<\/p>\n

Indeed, immediately after that forgettable Red Bulls loss, the Revolution reeled off a seven-game unbeaten run that included five straight wins. <\/p>\n

If there is one thing Farrell – who called his 2015 campaign “an alright season” – isn’t happy about, it’s the way he and his teammates bowed out of the postseason in one fell swoop following last week’s knockout loss at DC. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he believes that, with a full year of plying the center back trade under his belt, the best is yet to come as he continues to get more comfortable.<\/p>\n

“I think I had some really good performances, and some ones I’d love to forget,” Farrell said. “So it’s still a work in progress. It was a good first year at center back, but I think I’m still learning the position still, and a lot of things I can improve on that can help this team get to be where it needs to be.”<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Farrell has no regrets about the way he handled the challenges, and is optimistic about what the future holds for both him and his teammates in 2016. <\/p>\n

“I really enjoyed it,” Farrell said. “I love the position, I love to play. Hopefully next year, we can go all the way, and I can keep growing as a player.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much like the Revs’ 2015 season, Andrew Farrell admits that his first year as a full-time center back was a mixed bag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39259,"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":[213,891,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Andrew-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\/39254"}],"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=39254"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39269,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39254\/revisions\/39269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}