FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Lee Nguyen’s patience was tested on Saturday night.
The New England Revolution’s dynamic midfielder spent the first 40 minutes of their meeting with Orlando City SC under constant pressure, tracked by opponents at every turn.
“I think Lee was moving well,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “The first 30 to 40 minutes, he had a guy on him everywhere he went, so I thought he moved well and didn’t get frustrated.”
“It’s been like that more so this year,” said Nguyen, who earned that attention with an 18-goal performance in 2014. “[Jay’s] been telling me just keep moving, finding the pockets and the guys around me will find me the ball.”
Heaps’ advice paid huge dividends, as Nguyen assisted on all three of New England’s goals in a comprehensive 3-0 win over visiting Orlando City.
Nguyen sprang Diego Fagundez for the opener with a delicate chip just before halftime, while a clever back-heel teed up Chris Tierney for the capper in the fourth minute of stoppage time. In between, Nguyen’s incisive pass sent Teal Bunbury into space to play the final ball to Juan Agudelo.
“It was just great movement off the ball from guys,” said Nguyen, always quick to pass credit. “I was fortunate to have options. That’s what you want when you have the ball – you want to have a couple options and hopefully you pick the right one.”
Nguyen consistently picked the right one on Saturday night to continue his recent resurgence, giving him three goals and five assists in New England’s last seven games. His eight assists this year are a career-high, besting the seven he registered in 2013.
“He’s just an awesome player,” said Fagundez. “It’s awesome playing right next to him.”
The numbers say Nguyen is finding his form at precisely the right time – the Revs have seven games remaining in the regular season and are comfortably above the red line in the East – but Heaps said Nguyen is the type of player who can’t always be judged solely on statistics.
“I’ve seen games where Lee had zero assists, zero goals and was better than he was tonight,” Heaps said. “I thought he was really good obviously – he had three assists, I don’t want to knock that at all – but I really can’t look at stats when I look at film.
“[With] Lee, I don’t look at it as goals and assists, I look at the impact he’s having in the game. Today obviously it came down to the assists and he was able to break it open.”
