{"id":45047,"date":"2017-04-15T22:23:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T02:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=45047"},"modified":"2017-04-15T22:24:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T02:24:38","slug":"heaps-explains-decision-to-start-watson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=45047","title":{"rendered":"Heaps Explains Watson Start"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

It was another week, another different face for the Revolution at left back on Saturday at Chicago. But coach Jay Heaps didn’t make any apologies, even after the shorthanded 3-0 defeat to the Fire.<\/p>\n

After tabbing longtime starter Chris Tierney two weeks ago, then giving the nod to midfielder-turned-defender Kelyn Rowe vs. Houston, Heaps went with versatile veteran Je-Vaughn Watson at Chicago.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to strengthen our midfield,” Heaps told the media after the match. “We wanted to win balls in the midfield, which I thought we were doing. I thought the game plan was actually going well.”<\/p>\n

It went well for the Revolution early, to be sure. With Rowe back in the midfield, the attack looked sharp and the guests hardly looked like a team that was in the midst of suffering their worst defeat of the early season.<\/p>\n

But the decision to start Watson, who was making his 2017 debut, came back to haunt Heaps and his team in a big way.<\/p>\n

Six minutes after Watson earned his first caution of the game, the Jamaican international proceeded to pick up another for sending Luis Solignac to the ground on a hard tackle in the 27th minute. <\/p>\n

“We have to be more disciplined,” Heaps said. “Knowing that it’s a road game, you can’t be too reckless and put ourselves in a tough spot.”<\/p>\n

Watson’s dismissal Saturday was the second time he was sent off before halftime as a member of the Revolution. He was ejected in the 36th minute of last year’s 3-0 loss at Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

As much as Watson’s red card hurt the Revolution’s chances at obtaining a result, Heaps didn’t single it out as the only reason for the comprehensive defeat.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Revolution coach pointed to the goals conceded right before the half, then right out of the chute in the second half as co-conspirators behind Saturday’s dreadful performance. <\/p>\n

“That’s not football, that’s mentality,” Heaps said. “The red card, and the two goals right before and after the half really frustrate all of us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revs coach Jay Heaps talked about the decision to start Je-Vaughn Watson on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45048,"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":true,"_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":[891,1245,115,1460,1617,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Heaps-1-1.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\/45047"}],"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=45047"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45052,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45047\/revisions\/45052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}