FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Timing is everything…sometimes.
For the New England Revolution, having their first bye week of the season is a bit of a double-edge sword at this point in the season.
On one hand you have the first opportunity to really rest and step away from things for a moment, on the other, the club is on a 2-0-1 run over their last three matches, feeling much stronger since their early summer five-game slide, and not wanting to break momentum.
“We’re on a roll so obviously you want to keep playing,” said Charlie Davies. “But, I think it’s good because it gives us a little bit of a break and mentally guys can go and relax for a couple of days. Then we got to ramp up for Houston, then we get another couple of days, and then really we’re all-in the rest of the way. We have one thing on our minds and that’s playoffs, so we just got to take it game-by-game.”
The Revolution played out their first 24 games over, and between, the last 22 weekends of the season.
They become the last club in the league to get an off weekend, but you couldn’t tell that at all by watching training on Friday where the entire group had ratcheted up the intensity as high as it could get before departing on a three-day weekend.
“We just raised the level of intensity over the last month or so knowing we have a lot on the line,” said Davies. “The playoffs are right around the corner and we’ve got to make sure that we’re mentally prepared. We’ve got to be mentally prepared in training to make sure we’re mentally prepared in games. Today was a little bit of chippiness before the three day break.”
“It’s like any week, you want to gain on things that you’re doing within your team,” said coach Jay Heaps. “So the focus is 100% on our team, on getting the guys that need a little bit rest a little recovery, guys that we need more fitness that don’t have a game on the weekend to push those guys, and get our collective together.”
Given the current run of form for the team, coupled with the return of Jermaine Jones last weekend and a fairly healthy squad, the Revs certainly seem like a side that would rather be playing this weekend.
When they return to training next week they will continue their focus on Houston, whom they play on August 15th (GET TICKETS), but after that match they must again endure another bye week, right in the heart of the stretch run of the regular season.
“We have to get better, we know we can get better and we are getting better,” said Heaps. It’s a huge game coming up against Houston, so the focus is on that game and then we’ll deal with the week after that.”
