FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – When Sainey Nyassi departed for international duty in Gambia earlier this week and left New England without their starting right midfielder for Wednesday's SuperLiga semifinal, Revolution boss Steve Nicol needed someone to fill the gap.
Instead of opting for the untested Roberto Linck or the recovering Nico Colaluca, Nicol selected forward Kheli Dube to patrol the right flank in the Revs’ 2-1 SuperLiga final defeat to Monarcas Morelia.
WATCH: HIGHLIGHTS: NE 1, Morelia 2
While Dube may have made his first appearance since July 20 in an unfamiliar position, the Zimbabwean striker said he felt pleased just to take the field after spending a month on the sidelines with a knee injury.
“It feels good just to be playing,” Dube told MLSsoccer.com after Wednesday's final. “It's so much different than playing forward, but I just needed to do what the coach asked me to do. I wish we could have won, but it is what it is.”
The decision to deploy Dube on the right wing may have raised some eyebrows, but Nicol said he thought the Revolution striker possessed the willingness to work for the team in his makeshift role in midfield.
“I thought he did fine,” Nicol said after the Revolution's training session on Friday. “It's a tough job. When you're playing wide, there's a lot of work you're expected to do. You're expected to defend and you're expected to attack. He definitely has the engine to do it, but he has the ability as well. He's capable of coming inside as well as staying wide.”
The key for making the adjustment rested with picking up the right spots, according to Nicol. By dropping into useful positions without the ball, Dube contributed defensively while also bursting forward from time to time to support the attack.
“He asked me to be in the right spots and make sure to get forward when I had a chance to get forward,” Dube said. “I think I did pretty well doing that, but it doesn't help when we don't win the game.”
Dube may have a chance to rectify a critical one-versus-one miss against Morelia and work on his midfield positioning against Seattle on Saturday. With Nyassi still away on international duty, Dube could feature in Nicol's starting XI as a midfielder once again.
