FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – “Let’s get a set-piece goal.”
That’s the last thing Jay Heaps told his New England Revolution players before taking the field for the first leg of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series against the Columbus Crew this past weekend.
They listened to their head coach – and then some.
The Revs actually scored a pair of goals from dead-ball situations to race out to a 2-0 lead at Crew Stadium, en route to an eventual 4-2 win in the front end of the two-game, aggregate-goals series.
“It’s something we’ve spent a lot of time working on in training,” said Chris Tierney, who buried New England’s second set-piece goal direct from a free kick. “When you get your chances, you’ve got to take them. We got two today, so that’s a plus.”
Tierney’s 51st-minute stunner – a powerful curling effort which dipped over the wall and inside the upper corner – mostly boiled down to a perfect finish, but the opener from Charlie Davies was the result of a move which came straight from the training ground.
Taking advantage of the Crew’s high defensive line, Davies waited patiently before curling a late run in behind Columbus defender Tyson Wahl, latching onto Kelyn Rowe’s teasing service from the right flank. All that was left for Davies to do was bury a header from close range.
“You see the ball that Kelyn Rowe put in and the run that Charlie made for the first goal,” Tierney said. “That’s something we worked on in training all week. So the hard work paid off.”
Part of the Revolution’s preparation? A bit of deception. Both Tierney and Rowe stood over the free kick before Rowe teed up Davies, while Lee Nguyen stepped over the ball just before Tierney’s strike.
Having a variety of options standing over each set piece keeps the defenders on their toes, never knowing who’s going to strike the ball, or how they’re going to serve it.
“I think we’ve got some good options – right footers, left footers that can play in different kinds of balls,” said Tierney. “If you can have different guys with different looks, balls coming in at different heights and angles, it makes it difficult for any team you’re going to play against.”
It’s easy to understand why the Revs placed such an emphasis on set pieces in Columbus, where the Crew had conceded a total of just two goals in their previous six games.
And the Revs have found consistent success from dead balls against the Crew this year – including a trio of regular-season games, four of the Revolution’s seven goals against Columbus have been set pieces.
“They’re really good defensively, so you’ve got to take your chances,” said Heaps. “If you get free kicks, if you get opportunities, you’ve got to take them.”
