TUCSON, Ariz. – Just two weeks out from the March 8 season opener, New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps wanted to use Saturday night’s preseason meeting with the Colorado Rapids to continue pushing his players toward full fitness.
Heaps did just that in the 1-1 draw, using much of his starting group for upwards of 75 minutes, a sharp increase after most players had maxed out at 45 minutes through the first three preseason contests.
“I think the guys who haven’t played that long throughout this preseason felt good to get that much time out there as it gets close to the season,” said Andrew Farrell, who played 73 minutes in central defense. “We’re still working on getting our sharpness, but I think we showed in spells some great stuff.”
“You’re looking for the minutes to make sure that we’re progressing,” added Heaps. “We’re looking for moments within the game – moments we want to be better at and moments we thought we did okay.”
One of those moments which stood out on Saturday night was the Revolution goal, which arrived in the 54th minute, just six minutes after Gabriel Torres had given Colorado the lead.
Jose Goncalves, Andy Dorman and Juan Agudelo combined through midfield to tee up Diego Fagundez, who used a deft bit of skill to shift past a defender before chipping his effort over onrushing Rapids goalkeeper Clint Irwin.
It was the second straight appearance in which Fagundez shone, splitting his time between the left wing and a withdrawn attacking position just underneath the target striker.
“I thought Diego was one of our best players on the field,” said Heaps. “He came in, changed the game, did what we asked him to do and he’s showing a lot of life right now. It’s something we’re excited about.”
Fagundez and the rest of his Revolution teammates have two more weeks to continue fine-tuning ahead of the season opener against Seattle Sounders FC, which is incidentally the team the Revs will face in their next Desert Diamond Cup match on Wednesday night.
“We’re getting closer to the first game of the season and obviously we want to do well and finish our preseason very well,” said Goncalves, who played the longest on Saturday night with an 80-minute stint. “We still have two weeks and in those two weeks we have to work hard.
“Everyone’s not 100 percent yet, but we’re close.”
