Nemeth hopes to give Revs life
FOXBORO — The scrimmage was winding down when Zach Herivaux stole the ball and delivered a perfect pass into the box. Krisztian Nemeth, who was being guarded closely, got his right foot on the offering but sent his shot wide of the target.
Once training was over, Nemeth was asked if the finish would have been more precise provided he had his normal fitness level.
“Of course,” said a smiling 28-year-old Nemeth, who was acquired Aug. 10 from the Columbus Crew.
On a sun-splashed day with the temperature in the low 80s, the 5-foot-10 Nemeth might have appeared a tad off-kilter sporting a long-sleeve jersey. But considering Nemeth last played for AlGharafa, a Qatari side based in Doha, it’s clear he is already considering his new place of employment, well, cool.
Nemeth is now back in MLS after a 28-game stint with Sporting Kansas City in 2015. He’s optimistic about this new challenge.
“It’s more than a month, like a longer wait. Like 11 months to find a solution coming back to MLS. So, in the end, it was good and I am happy to be here,” said Nemeth. “That’s how it happened, a long process. For my second situation, it was different because I played before in the league so, a different system, a little bit competition out here, not like it is normally but, yeah, I am happy to be here.
“Now, we have to win to be in the playoffs. I will take a little extra time to be 100-percent fit, but I want to help the team in any way.”
Don’t be surprised if Nemeth or the Revs’ other newcomer, defender Claude Dielna, make his way into the team tonight when the Revs (8-10-5) visit Yankee Stadium to take on Eastern Conference power New York FC (13-74) — owners of the second best record in MLS. The teams battled to a 2-2 tie in the Big Apple on May 31.
“It’s important that we get them in and get them acclimated and understanding the roles that we expect from them,” said Revs coach Jay Heaps. “Claude is a little bit easier in the sense he’s either one or two with the roles, where Krisztian is going to be a chemistry thing to find out where he fits best in our group. But, in terms of how they’ve been able to get here, and their attitude since they’ve been here, it’s been awesome, just two selfless characters that want to help the team and no egos. Hey, when you get to this point in the season, it’s all hands on deck and that’s where we are at.”
“That’s critical and we talk about it. In an ideal world, we’d get these players earlier in the (transfer) window, earlier in the year, but the situation is what it is — 11 games left, and there has to be real effort on their part to adjust and the same with our group. We have to adjust and find what their strengths are. It’s a balance between the two. You’re hoping for players that are hungry to be part of something.”
The Revolution are coming off a 1-0 victory over Vancouver on a Teal Bunbury goal to improve their home record to 8-2-2. Now, the Revs must improve an abysmal 0-8-3 road mark to have any chance of making the playoffs.
“We got to find a way to get it right on the road,” said Heaps, who tried to aid his club by laying out the practice field in the constricted dimensions of the Yankee Stadium pitch. “There is something we do going into each game, something we feel we can take advantage, the best way we feel we can take advantage of a team, try to take away their strength, and put together a group on the field that we feel are going to be able to handle the tough rigors of a road game.
“It helps that we’ve played there once this year. We just have to get the spacing right. But, at the same time, you can’t totally prepare for the class of a few of their players. So there’s a lot of communication, but when you’re talking about David Villa, (Maxilimiano) Moralez, (Jack) Harrison, (Rodney) Wallace or (Jonathan) Lewis, it doesn’t matter what size field. It’s a tough team to play against.”