New England Revolution defender Avery John has become a busy man these days. The Trinidad and Tobago native has been starting regularly for the Revs in addition to getting international duty with his national side. After last night’s midweek clash with Real Salt Lake the Revs travel to Dallas this weekend and from there Avery flies back to Connecticut to prepare for the next week’s vital World Cup qualifier against the US.
Soccer 365’s Don Cuddy had a locker room chat with the big defender after the Revolution’s big 4-1 win in Gillette stadium:
365: You played well again this evening. Do you think you will be playing for Trinidad against the US?
AJ: Hopefully. Last couple of games when I went in I think I did a good job so, grace of God and if I don’t get injured, hopefully I should be playing.
365: This is a pretty hectic spell for you because you’re seeing a lot of field time with the Revs too.
AJ: Yeah I know but that’s good. I’m not complaining. The most important thing is to play and I just have to be professional and make sure I get the recuperation. Like you play today so tomorrow I come in, jog stretch, drink plenty of water and stay of my feet and just continue that.
365: Wouldn’t it be funny if you ended up playing against Taylor Twellman?
AJ: (laughs)That would be good.
365: Well you know what to expect from him.
AJ: Definitely. But right now, in football, anything can happen, regardless if you play with a guy or not. At the end of the day it’s eleven players so you don’t step on the pitch thinking; ‘Taylor Twellman is the danger man.’ The US is a good team and if you look at the Gold Cup, it wasn’t just one guy scoring all the goals. That’s what it’s like in international football. We’re coming away from home so we have to be professional because it’s going to be a difficult game. Everyone has to be up for it. We need it more than them to try to qualify.
365: When is the squad arriving?
AJ: Sunday. A couple of the European guys have got games on Saturday and I will be coming in from Dallas.
365: Is Dwight Yorke going to be joining you also?
AJ: Yes, we should have a full squad.
365: You should have quite a few supporters also.
AJ: Yeah, midway between Boston and New York both with a good Caribbean population. So we have to try and get a result for the supporters.
365: Do you think you can still make it to Germany?
AJ: Why not? We have a chance. Top three goes in and the fourth goes into a playoff. We’re tied with Guatemala on four points and Costa Rica has seven and we still have to play Costa Rica and Mexico. We’re not looking for second place. Obviously that gap is very difficult but we are just going to deal with the game ahead of us right now.
365: Tactically, you’re going to have to keep it pretty tight against the US.
AJ: The good thing about it is that we know that they are going to come at us because they are at home and they want to win. It’s good for us that they are not going to be sitting back. We want to get three points but to come to the US and get a point….well we’ll definitely take that.
365: So you don’t believe that the team will just come out and put the shutters up?
AJ: No, I don’t think so because that’s not going to help us at all. We have to come out and play and do our best.