{"id":41881,"date":"2016-03-24T21:57:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T01:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=41881"},"modified":"2016-03-24T21:57:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T01:57:00","slug":"barnes-im-ready-if-called-upon-at-nycfc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=41881","title":{"rendered":"Barnes: I’m Ready if Called Upon at NYCFC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

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

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Nearly a full year has passed since veteran defender Darrius Barnes last stepped onto an MLS pitch, a lengthy spell that could end on Saturday if he has any say.<\/p>\n

With starting right back Je-Vaughn Watson absent due to a recent Jamaican National Team call-up, Barnes, who missed the bulk of last season following knee surgery, appears to be the top candidate to fill the role at New York City FC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see what Jay (Heaps) has in mind,\u201d Barnes told NESoccerToday.com<\/em> on Wednesday. \u201cHe\u2019s got a number of guys on the team who could fill various roles, and we have a deep squad, so we\u2019ll see. But I\u2019m definitely ready and available if I\u2019m called upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes, a versatile back who’s\u00a0seen action across the backline during his eight-year career, last saw action in an Apr. 11, 2015 contest against Columbus. Following the match, he told the training staff that something was wrong with his left knee.<\/p>\n

Days later, Barnes was diagnosed with a torn patellar tendon, requiring season-ending surgery to repair it.<\/p>\n

After the club picked up his option for 2016, Barnes returned for the preseason fully recovered, playing a combined 242 minutes over five games.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Barnes saw action in the Revolution’s first trip to Yankee Stadium last year when he came on in the 59th minute for an injured Kevin Alston.<\/p>\n

No doubt Barnes is eager to get back on the field, not only for himself, but to help the 0-1-2 Revolution get their first win of the season this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t let those results get us down,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cA couple of those results could\u2019ve gone our way, and they didn\u2019t. But we have a good team.<\/p>\n

“We know when we go out on the field and play our best, and play like we\u2019re capable of, we\u2019re one of the best teams in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darrius Barnes hopes to be back on the field for the first time in nearly a year on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41882,"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":[146,891,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Barnes-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\/41881"}],"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=41881"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41885,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41881\/revisions\/41885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}