FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – London Woodberry waited one year, nine months and 22 days between his eighth and ninth career MLS appearances, but he always believed he’d get another chance.
“I tried to keep positive,” said Woodberry, who spent the 2014 season with Arizona United of the USL. “At the end of the day I love playing the game, so that’s really what kept me moving. Luckily I got an opportunity to come on trial with New England and got offered a spot on the team.”
Woodberry made a promising start to his career two years ago, playing in eight of FC Dallas’ first 17 games during his rookie season. But after a five-minute appearance on June 29, 2013, he surprisingly lost his place and was ultimately waived ahead of the 2014 campaign.
It wasn’t until this past weekend, starting and playing the full 90 minutes at right back in the Revolution’s 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Union, that Woodberry made his triumphant MLS return.
“It was really special,” said Woodberry, who fittingly made his return at PPL Park, where he’d last appeared with FCD almost two years ago. “I’d been waiting for the opportunity and luckily it came early in the season. So I’m just looking to build off of that now.”
Under ideal circumstances, Woodberry would still be waiting for that opportunity. It was only a slew of injuries along the backline to Darrius Barnes, Jose Goncalves and Chris Tierney which required head coach Jay Heaps to start the 23-year-old defender in a pressure-packed spot.
The Revs wanted to get the impressive Woodberry minutes, Heaps said, but if given the option they would’ve preferred to hand him his debut at Gillette Stadium a bit deeper into the season.
“We wanted to handpick the scenario where he got his time, but we couldn’t do it,” Heaps said. “This was a game on the road. You usually like to let a guy get his feet wet at home.”
Any reservations about how Woodberry would handle the occasion at PPL Park were short-lived.
“His very first touch of the game, you could just sense that he was going to have a good game,” said Heaps. “He defended well. He was everywhere. I thought he was one of our best players.”
The statistics support Heaps’ assertion. Woodberry won seven duels – second only to U.S. National Team center back Jermaine Jones – and added three interceptions, eight clearances and a passing percentage well over the 80 percent mark. In short, he was strong in all facets.
It was a performance which didn’t go unnoticed by his teammates, who all made it a point to single out Woodberry for praise during their postgame comments to the media.
“Big congrats to London,” said Teal Bunbury, who came off the bench to assist on Charlie Davies’ equalizer before scoring the game winner himself. “He was unbelievable to me. He was the man of the match. Nonstop winning balls and playing great balls out of the back.”
“I was most impressed with London Woodberry,” said Davies. “To come in and really dominate the right side; no one was even nervous with him on the field. He did a fantastic job for us. It’s unbelievable when you have players who can just show up and you can count on them.”
Woodberry’s contributions weren’t limited to the defensive side of the ball. He was an integral part of New England’s attack down the right wing, whipping in a team-high seven crosses and tying playmakers Bunbury and Lee Nguyen with two key passes.
General consensus was that Woodberry didn’t look much like a player who hadn’t made an MLS appearance in almost two years, or even a player who didn’t know he was starting until Saturday morning, just before the Revs boarded a flight for Philadelphia.
“I just tried to keep my mind off the game,” Woodberry said of his mental preparation after being informed he was going to get his long-awaited chance to return. “Waiting late in the day for a game, it’s a lot of anticipation building up to it, so I was just trying to keep my mind off the game, which is difficult.
“But when the whistle blew, I was ready to play.”
Yes, he most certainly was.
