{"id":43902,"date":"2017-02-04T19:05:36","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T00:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=43902"},"modified":"2017-02-04T19:05:36","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T00:05:36","slug":"the-10-shirt-a-good-fit-for-rowe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=43902","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Shirt a Good Fit for Rowe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s no shortage of optimism in MLS during the winter months, so it’s not surprising for coaches and players alike to envision best-case scenarios once the matches start to mean something.<\/p>\n

In Revolution camp, one player who’s already thinking big is none other than veteran midfielder Kelyn Rowe, who’s seen many of his early-winter minutes at the no. 10 spot with Juan Agudelo attending to National Team duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat number 10 role has a little bit more freedom to go kind of create the game, find the game as much as you can,” Rowe told the media after Friday’s preseason win over the Red Bulls. “When you\u2019ve got guys like Kei [Kamara] and Lee [Nguyen] up top, which I had today, it was easy to find.”<\/p>\n

Rowe was among a trio of Revolution starters who stretched their minutes beyond the halftime whistle. Perhaps it was no coincidence that all three were central midfielders, a group that Revolution coach Jay Heaps has never been shy to mix-and-match no matter what time of year it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to give it a little different look today, pushing Lee [Nugyen] a little bit higher, pushing Kelyn [Rowe] into that role,” Heaps told the media after the match. “We started Kelyn there, and I think he brings a little bit more of a vertical presence in there and he becomes almost a third striker because he\u2019s looking to run behind.”<\/p>\n

It’s a role that’s allowed Rowe to catch fire at different junctures during his six seasons in New England. While injuries pressed the former first round pick into a couple of tough assignments as a no. 8 as well as right back, Heaps seems intent to give Rowe more opportunities closer to goal.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s not just a playmaking number 10, he\u2019s definitely a penetrator,” Heaps said. “That\u2019s really good when you\u2019re playing against certain teams and can really offset a defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key phrase, of course, is “certain teams,” meaning Rowe won’t be called upon to play as a central attacking midfielder every Saturday. Indeed, Heaps has no fewer than three other players who could fill that spot in the XI, including the aforementioned Nguyen, Agudelo, and Diego Fagundez.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, when Rowe does get the opportunity, he’s confident he’ll be able to put a few balls into the back of the net with Kamara and Nguyen likely to get plenty of attention from opposing defenses.<\/p>\n

“Those guys are going to find the ball and if you can find runs off them, you\u2019re going to find it a bunch, because they\u2019re going to create crowds,” Rowe said. “Kei\u2019s going to bring two defenders, Lee\u2019s going to bring two defenders, and if I can find that gap, it could make it an easy goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kelyn Rowe’s getting plenty of minutes this winter in a role he’s found great success in during the past six seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43278,"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":[891,1300,235,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Rowe-11.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\/43902"}],"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=43902"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43904,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43902\/revisions\/43904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}