Chris Tierney. Photo/Kari Heistad
FOXBORO, Mass. – By most measures, Chris Tierney had already been having an excellent game.
The New England Revolution were well on the way to their first 2017 victory, as they led Minnesota United 4-2 on Saturday afternoon in the Gillette Stadium home opener. Tierney was making his 200th start for the Revolution. He had even assisted on the game’s first goal, his cross from the left side of the field finding Juan Agudelo, who headed home to put the Revs in front in just the fourth minute.
But Tierney’s game was about to get even better.
Referee Ricardo Salazar called a penalty kick for the Revolution—their second of the game—in the 51st minute, when Minnesota’s Collen Warner clipped Lee Nguyen just inside the box. Nguyen had already buried New England’s first penalty of the game—against his former teammate, goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth, whom the Revolution traded to the Loons this off-season. But, rather than attempting to go two for two from the spot on the day, Nguyen chose to hand the ball off to Tierney.
“I think some of the thinking was that Bobby has seen Lee’s penalties, Lee would practice them against Bobby every day in training,” Tierney said after the game. “We thought we’d give him a different look. Bobby’s seen all of us take penalties obviously, but we thought we’d just switch it up.
“More than anything it was a gesture from Lee to give me an opportunity to get my name on the scoresheet.”
For the record, Tierney buried the penalty, firing to the upper right corner of the net while Shuttleworth went the opposite direction. And the Revolution held on to win 5-2 and earn their first points of the season.
But there was more to the Revolution’s second penalty than meets the eye, as it provided a snapshot into the team’s leadership.
Nguyen is the team captain. On the pitch, the buck stops with him. So observe: it was both unselfish and astute from Nguyen to allow Tierney to take the second penalty, not only for the sake of allowing Tierney to score in his 200th start, but also to force Shuttleworth into a guessing game.
On the flip side, Tierney, 31, has been with the Revolution since 2008 and has emerged as a team leader. Tierney addressed the team prior to Saturday’s game against Minnesota, looking to get his teammates primed to win their first match of the season after starting with back-to-back road losses.
“It was time to draw a line in the sand,” said Tierney after the game when asked about his remarks to the team. “We’ve been frustrated with our first two results, two tough road games. We had some small mistakes that cost us games. There are certain times in the season where you just have to win the game. This was one of those days.”
Normally, it wouldn’t be worth it to notice two senior players taking on leadership roles. But here, it matters. After New England’s season opening loss to Colorado, Nguyen got thrown some shade and snark by his former teammate, AJ Soares, who alleged, via Twitter, that Tierney should be captain.
Whether Soares is right or wrong is irrelevant, though it did create a negative talking point for the Revolution, whether they chose to acknowledge it or not.
However, what transpired during the second penalty call on Saturday showed own, major truth: every captain should be a leader, but not every leader needs to be a captain.
Tierney is a native New Englander. He is the team’s player representative with the MLS Players Union. He has scored in an MLS Cup and has been with his hometown team throughout his MLS career. He probably is perfectly qualified to be the team’s captain, but for now, he isn’t.
And he’s getting on with it. Tierney wasn’t impressed with the way the Revolution played Minnesota on Saturday and believes he and his teammates need to be better for next Sunday’s match at Portland, who are unbeaten at home.
“We scored five goals, but we’re not happy to concede two,” Tierney said. “We won 5-2 but didn’t play nearly to our potential. We need to get back to training and continue to work hard and improve defensively. The goals we gave up were sloppy, to say the least. We have to tighten up to play a Portland team that’s absolutely flying right now.”
And there you have it. Tierney doesn’t need the captain’s armband to sound like a captain.
If you want to reach Julian, follow him on Twitter @juliancardillo or email him at julianccardillo@gmail.com
