FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It’s not uncommon for a player to play on a Wednesday night and then feature again three days later on a Saturday. It happens all the time in Major League Soccer.
What’s rare, though, is flying across the Atlantic Ocean in between.
That’s the challenge facing Juan Agudelo this week. The 22-year-old striker started for the U.S. National Team on Wednesday night in Cologne, Germany, and then caught a flight back to the States on Thursday ahead of the New England Revolution’s meeting with the Chicago Fire on Saturday night.
Revs head coach Jay Heaps spoke with Agudelo while the player was still in Europe and he confirmed that he came through the international appearance perfectly healthy.
“Obviously we want to make sure he came through physically, and he came through physically fine,” Heaps said on Thursday. “Now it’s the flight. He gets in today, so we’ll assess the situation tonight.”
Agudelo is expected to train with the Revolution on Friday and Heaps said he should be available in some capacity on Saturday, but to what extent will be determined in the next two days.
“We want to take care of him physically with a lot of games coming up,” Heaps said. “With the travel that he has, we just want to make sure we’re not putting him at any risk.”
After staying on the bench for the Americans’ dramatic come-from-behind win over the Netherlands last Friday, Agudelo started and played 45 minutes in the midweek victory over defending World Cup champion Germany. It was his first start for the U.S. in almost four years.
“I think it was an important start for Juan,” Heaps said. “We’re excited that he was able to get in such a big game.”
Agudelo could well be playing in more big games for the U.S. in the coming months after being named – along with Revolution teammate Lee Nguyen – to Jurgen Klinsmann’s 35-man preliminary roster ahead of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Jermaine Jones was not included on the roster because of injury.
Klinsmann must trim that 35-man squad down to 23 no later than 10 days before the start of the tournament – which is set to kick off on July 7 – so there’s no guarantee that either will end up on the final roster. But being named to the preliminary squad sends a clear message nonetheless.
“I think it says a lot about those guys,” said Heaps. “They’re working hard and it’s exciting to be named to that Gold Cup roster.
“Also, though, we want to manage what’s going to happen and impact our team, so the next couple weeks will be very telling as to how much time (they’ll miss) or what players are selected.”
