FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – A fresh face appeared on the training field last Tuesday morning as New England Revolution forward Brian Wright rejoined his teammates in Foxborough after returning from his loan to USL Championship side Birmingham Legion FC.
“We’d just come back from playing St. Louis,” Wright said regarding the timing of when he received the news. “We had a day off and I was at home, and I got a text message from [Director of Soccer Operations] Jason [Gove], actually, and then I got a call from Remi [Roy] and [Birmingham president and GM] Jay [Heaps]. Found out on Monday of last week, and then just had to hop on a flight direct and came to training the next day.”
Why did New England bring back Wright? Well, the answer is two-fold.
“Lack of goals, for one,” said head coach Brad Friedel. “And two, we have eight games in 29 days, so we have a lot of fixtures coming up and we need a lot of bodies.
“Brian has a tremendous strike on him. We’ll see if he can work his way into the team. We didn’t send him away on loan – nor did we send Zach [Herivaux] away on loan – because we didn’t like him, but we wanted him to start getting games. He got a couple games, but now we have this stretch, and let’s see how he fights for competition for places.”
Wright is ready to give it his all to earn his spot, and now can do so with more experience under his belt.
“The transition’s been smooth, the time down there’s been good, and just happy to be able to get some minutes regularly, and then hopefully come back here and show what I’ve learned,” said Wright.
Being able to get regular minutes has been a big step for the 24-year-old forward. Through three appearances with Birmingham, Wright has registered both a goal and an assist to garner USL Championship Team of the Week honors, not to mention additional confidence.
“It’s crucial that you get those minutes regularly, so come game time you’re not in a funk or anything – you’re smooth out there, timing and everything is down,” said Wright.
As the Revs head into the busiest stretch of the season, their schedule features three midweek matches in addition to four Saturday kickoffs before the end of May, which inevitably means there will be a lot of lineup rotation.
New England will continue their hectic stretch against the Montreal Impact on Wednesday, April 24, and with another game against Sporting Kansas City this upcoming Saturday, Wright may just get his opportunity soon.
