FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – One of New England Revolution head coach Brad Friedel’s primary objectives this preseason was to emerge with everyone unscathed for the start of the new campaign. He’s almost accomplished that goal with the majority of the roster at or nearing full health entering the season, coupled with those on the roster feeling in peak physical fitness condition.
“The biggest takeaway [from preseason] is that everyone’s motivated, and really fired up and ready for the season to start,” said Teal Bunbury. “I think a big amount of that is credit to our fitness level. We’ve been putting in a lot of work so I think now we’re really excited to implement that into games.”
A trio of players – Juan Agudelo, Krisztián Németh and Claude Dielna – has recently overcome minor preseason injuries. Agudelo and Németh returned within the past week, playing their first preseason minutes in Tucson, Arizona against Sporting Kansas City last Wednesday.
“It’s definitely coming along,” Agudelo said on Tuesday morning when asked about his sharpness. “I felt great today in training. We were put through some tests of running and everything was feeling good.”
Dielna was removed from the same Sporting KC game after an early kick to his Achilles tendon, but returned for the preseason finale against the Houston Dynamo and is good to go ahead of Saturday night’s season opener against the Philadelphia Union.
While that threesome is back in action, there’s an additional trio that’s continuing to work on their health/fitness: Zach Herivaux, Lee Nguyen and Isaac Angking.
With regards to Angking, the club released the following statement: “Isaac had a non-soccer related medical emergency. He is improving. A timeline is currently unavailable.”
Herivaux, who rolled his ankle during the preseason trip to Tucson, is nearing a return as he’s worked off to the side with the athletic training staff early this week, while Nguyen continues to build his fitness after missing the first three weeks of camp.
