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Coming from tiny Slovenia, Delamea says rigors of MLS travel are “something new”

Antonio Delamea vs. FC Dallas

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Antonio Delamea spent the first nine years of his professional career in Slovenia, a country roughly three-quarters the size of Massachusetts. The longest road trip in the league was approximately 120 miles, a distance that could be covered in around 90 minutes.


The travel requirements in Major League Soccer, however, are slightly more strenuous.


With the New England Revolution, Delamea’s closest road trip is to New York, a distance of 200 miles that takes around three-and-a-half hours by bus or one hour by plane. One of the longest: this weekend’s 2,500-mile trek to Portland, Oregon, which requires almost a seven-hour direct flight.


“It’s something new for me,” Delamea said with a chuckle when asked about the travel.


Already the 25-year-old center back has made a pair of preseason trips to Arizona (2,200 miles) and regular-season journeys to Denver (1,700 miles) and Dallas (1,500 miles), and while Delamea admits that he’s still adjusting to the rigors of MLS travel, he says he’s felt no ill effects on game day.


“I think I’ve adjusted very [well],” Delamea said. “I have some problems maybe with flying (such long distances), but I can handle that, because we always [travel] a day or two before the game.


“It’s easy to adjust. I don’t think it will affect much of my game.”