FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Jay Heaps wanted the New England Revolution to get back to their strengths last weekend against New York City FC. He turned to Daigo Kobayashi to get it done.
“The things that we try to do – and we haven’t done it for a couple of weeks – where we really play and we’re fluid and the movement is there,” Heaps said. “That was the reason why I thought we went with Daigo in this game – to really see if we could be aggressive going forward.”
The move paid dividends. Kobayashi was heavily involved in the buildup to New England’s goal in the 1-0 victory, earning a secondary assist by playing a clever back-heel to Diego Fagundez, who then sent Lee Nguyen through on goal for the game’s only breakthrough.
But Kobayashi’s influence on the Revolution’s free-flowing style is about much more than assists. In fact, it was just the second assist this season for the Japanese midfielder, who has registered six assists and zero goals in 45 appearances since arriving in Foxborough prior to last season.
Instead, Kobayashi’s role is that of conduit. While he’ll rarely find himself shooting on goal or playing the final killer pass, he’s usually the creative force behind the scenes setting everything in motion.
Take, for instance, Kobayashi’s passing chart against NYCFC. He completed 21 passes on Saturday night, none of which occurred within 25 yards of goal. What Kobayashi does is play the pass before the pass, opening up the space for his teammates to do real damage.
“I think his class comes out,” said Heaps. “When he’s connecting with Lee and he’s connecting with Scotty (Caldwell) and Diego, you can see what kind of player he is. He’s a step ahead a lot of the time.”
“Daigo’s Daigo,” Fagundez said with a smile. “He has his own style. You don’t know what to expect from him. He can do the best trick in the world and you don’t even know what it is. He’s just a great player to have because he might be the quiet one, but he makes plays happen.”
Kobayashi’s quiet demeanor and under-the-radar contributions make it easy to forget that he was the only constant through last year’s record-setting regular-season run, playing in all 34 league matches.
He appeared to be on course for a similar role early this season after playing 90 minutes in three of New England’s first four games, but a hamstring injury suffered in early April and a back injury shortly thereafter sidelined him for nine straight matches.
Kobayashi is finally returning to health and form, however, starting four of the last five games.
“He’s really starting to feel fit again,” Heaps said. “He’s starting to feel good.”
That was evident last weekend against NYCFC, particularly on the aforementioned back-heel pass, which completely wrong-footed New York City’s midfield and created the space for Fagundez to spring Nguyen.
“I probably wasn’t expecting it,” Fagundez said with a laugh. “I was trying to get the ball back, and the back-heel came out. But it’s stuff like that that you can see from Daigo. Even in training, some new things will come out. That’s great to see.”
