Jordan Adebayo-Smith Follows Through on Preseason Prediction
Prior to the start of the 2023 MLS NEXT Pro season, Jordan Adebayo-Smith told The Blazing Musket that one of his goals was to lead Revs II in goals. He smashed it.
Prior to the start of the 2023 MLS NEXT Pro season, Jordan Adebayo-Smith told The Blazing Musket that one of his goals was to lead Revs II in goals. He smashed it.
With 12 goals on the season, Adebayo-Smith now has the third-most goals in Revs II history and played a major part in the second team earning its first-ever playoff birth.
“Obviously, I feel like I did well. I feel like there’s always room to improve,” the striker said regarding his performance in 2023."
With the amount of goals he scored, Adebayo-Smith had plenty of opportunities to celebrate. He broke down what goes through his mind after he scores and what goes into his cellys.
“So sometimes there’s like adrenaline kicking in so sometimes I’m just trying to run to the corner but then I’ll see a lot of people doing the [Marcus] Rashford cellys so I just did it,” the 22-year-old said. “I felt like I really didn’t have a celly but I just saw Rashford scoring a lot so that just came to mind, just like a superstition that every time he scored he did it so it’s kind of like a little superstition.”
While Adebayo-Smith was the one launching balls into the back of the net, he credits video analyst Alex Fairchild, as well as Clint Peay and Marcelo Santos for helping him realize his potential in his debut season with Revs II.
Peay is now with the first team, serving as interim coach of the squad after the resignation of Bruce Arena and Richie Williams being granted time off. Players such as Omar Gonzalez have talked about Peay’s collaborative approach but Adebayo-Smith highlighted the coach’s motivational abilities.
“[Peay] pushes us to be better,” the 22-year-old said. “He wants us to be fearless. Especially for me whenever that I got a chance in front of goal, just take it, don’t fear missing.”
Adebayo-Smith added that Peay helped boost player’s confidence and helped them improve every day.
While Adebayo-Smith was able to accomplish a personal goal, Revs II also had an unprecedented season. The second team earned their first-ever playoff birth finishing second in the Eastern Conference.
In MLS NEXT Pro, playoff opponents are chosen in a uniquely American manner. Teams are able to select who they play.
New England ended up selecting Philadelphia Union II. A side they are quite familiar with as Revs II went undefeated against “Doop Deux” in 2023.
With New England finishing second in the Eastern Conference, they would have faced Philly in a traditional playoff format and the striker admitted that Revs II didn’t want to complicate things.
“I feel like we didn’t want to complicate it too much so we just went for the seventh seed,” he said. “But also it helps because we played Union three times and beaten them three times.”
Adebayo-Smith added that everyone was aware of who New England was going to select which made it a fair process.
With his performance with Revs II, Revolution fans are beginning to wonder if the 22-year-old could compete for a spot on the first team. With Gustavo Bou’s contract expiring and Giacomo Vrioni struggling for consistency, New England could use some help at the position.
The club also appears to be at a crossroads with the likes of Justin Rennicks continuing to get older and failing to make a true impact. While Adebayo-Smith wants to make the jump to MLS, that wasn’t at the front of his mind during the regular season and likely won’t be on Sunday.
“That’s always been a thing in my head, to move up with the first team,” the 22-year-old stated. “I just thought all year, ‘just focus on doing well with the second team,’ not really focus too much on every game and trying to impress to move up that game, just take the season as a whole, improve on myself, and then that hopefully will show and then hopefully will get opportunities next year.”
Jordan is an exciting player to watch on the pitch. Hope he gets a shot to be on the first team.
I hope they offer him a spot on the first team - we need more striker options off the bench and he seems like he has a lot of upside, can offer a different dimension than we currently have and has a ton of potential.