HARRISON, N.J. — Jay Heaps will be sleeping a little easier tonight.
Since taking over the New England Revolution’s head coaching job at the end of 2011, Heaps and his staff have worked tirelessly to build a solid core of young talent. But it’s the addition of veteran midfielder Jermaine Jones that has provided what he hopes is the final piece, with the Designated Player scoring a late goal to propel the Revs to a 2-1 road win over the New York Red Bulls in the first leg of the Eastern Conference Championship on Sunday.
“[It’s rewarding to be here] because it goes back to how hard it was. Lots of sleepless nights from day one,” Heaps said after the match. “We were a playoff team last year and knew we needed to add just a little bit more. Jermaine has really helped us get over the top in terms of how we play and what we want to do.”
Jones scored the winning goal in the 86th minute and assisted Teal Bunbury’s opener to help the Revolution move to 11-1-1, including postseason matches, since his arrival. But Heaps believes it was the US national teamer's attitude that was most critical in Sunday’s win.
“We knew he was a great footballer, a great competitor,” Heaps said about Jones. “He’s all of the above, but when you pack in the competitiveness, it’s contagious. He wants to win every time he steps on the field. He’s exactly like what our guys are like, but that much more of a leader on the field.”
After taking the early lead in the 17th minute, the Revs managed to frustrate several Red Bulls attacks but still succumbed to an equalizer before the break. And although New York successfully bottled up New England playmaker and MVP candidate Lee Nguyen well into the second half, he broke free to help set up the Jones winner on another deadly Revs counterattack during these playoffs.
“I thought our [first] goal was excellent, but we never really got our rhythm going,” Heaps admitted. “[In the second half] we felt the game was opening up a bit and really felt they were going to release numbers to go for the win. I felt that if we were able to defend, we’d get opportunities.”
And that opportunity did come late on, in the fashion that Revs fans have grown so accustomed to. After a Red Bull turnover, Nguyen finally found space in midfield to run at the New York defense, slid a pass to Bunbury on the right, who centered for Jones all alone on the doorstep.
For center back A.J. Soares, the play was very fitting, since it was the type of move that got the Revs here in the first place.
“We are a young team, we are good on the break, and that's what we do. We don't want to get away from who we are,” Soares said. “We have to play how we play and that's going out and getting after teams. There is no time we are going to sit back and absorb the pressure. That's not who we are. We want to go out there and press the other team and try to take the game.”
