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New England Revolution
Overview
The
concept of bringing a professional soccer team
to Massachusetts was a natural idea when the
framework of Major League Soccer was being developed
in the mid-1990s. The area had a stadium that
was not only equipped for the sport of soccer
but also had a history of hosting sensational
soccer events. There was a committed owner who
had already made his mark on the region's sports
landscape. And a passionate and loyal fan base
was eager to welcome a team it could call its
own. Sure enough, on October 17, 1995, the New
England Revolution was born. Behind the leadership
of Owner/Investor Robert Kraft and the Kraft
family, along with General Manager Brian O'Donovan,
the Revolution secured Foxboro Stadium as its
home venue and settled in as one of the 10 original
organizations of Major League Soccer. The team
began its inaugural 1996 campaign under Head
Coach Frank Stapleton, fielding such top players
as Alexi Lalas, Welton, Mike Burns and, later
in the 1996 season, leading scorer Joe-Max Moore.
The first match in team history, on April 13,
1996, was a 3-2 loss to the Mutiny in Tampa
Bay but the Revolution came back exactly one
week later to post the franchise's first victory,
a 1-0 win at Giants Stadium against the NY/NJ
MetroStars. The next week, New England prevailed
in its first game at Foxboro Stadium, defeating
eventual champion D.C. United, 2-1, in a shootout.
The Revolution did not find a spot in the MLS
playoffs that year with a 15-17 record but a
foundation for professional soccer in Foxboro
had been established. 1997 In 1997, the Revolution
turned to Thomas Rongen as a replacement for
Stapleton, who resigned at the conclusion of
the 1996 season. The team made some notable
acquisitions during Rongen's first year. Goalkeeper
Walter Zenga, who was in the net for all 15
wins in 1997, and defender Brian Dunseth, the
team's first Project-40 player, were both allocated
to the Revolution, and forward Giuseppe Galderisi
came to New England in a mid-season trade. Once
again, New England finished at 15-17, but this
time the Revs advanced to the playoffs and did
so in exciting fashion. Paul Keegan's 88th minute
goal against the Dallas Burn in the season finale
on September 27th broke a tie and vaulted the
team into the postseason. D.C. United ousted
the Revolution in the first round and went on
to win its second consecutive MLS Cup. It was
a tremendous season of growth for the New England
squad, and the team's fan base loved every minute
of it. The team led the league in attendance,
with 342,762 fans watching Revolution soccer
in 1997. 1998 The following year the Revs brought
in Raul Diaz Arce, who was one of the league's
top-five scorers, to join Moore up front, but
the team struggled through an 11-21 season.
Moore and Mike Burns missed a sizeable portion
of the season while with the U.S. National Team
in Italy for the World Cup, and the team felt
the absence of two of its top players. In August,
Rongen and his staff resigned and Zenga, the
Revolution's former goalkeeper, took over the
coaching duties. New England went 3-3 down the
stretch under Zenga, posting three straight
shutouts at one point. 1999 In that offseason,
the Revs acquired John Harkes, Giovanni Savarese
and Dan Calichman to try to rebound from the
disappointment of the previous season. Zenga
inserted himself back into the Revolution net
for 25 games, serving as player/coach, and was
even named MLS Player of the Week in April.
Despite having three other Players of the Week
- Moore, Savarese and Ivan McKinley - early
in the season, the Revolution concluded its
fourth campaign at 12-20. For the second consecutive
year there was a late-season coaching change.
Zenga was relieved of his playing and coaching
duties, replaced by Steve Nicol for the team's
final two matches. 2000 But with the turn of
the century came a turn for the better on the
part of the Revolution organization. Sunil Gulati,
a longtime executive with Major League Soccer
and U.S. Soccer, was named Managing Director
of Kraft Soccer. O'Donovan was appointed Chief
Operating Officer. And with an eye toward stability
on the sidelines, former U.S. National Team
defender Fernando Clavijo was introduced as
head coach before the 2000 season. The Revs
engineered a draft day trade that brought scoring
threat Wolde Harris aboard and, among other
selections, they picked up defender Rusty Pierce
in the SuperDraft. Two-thousand was a year of
change for the league as well, with a move to
three four-team divisions and with the elimination
of shootouts. The Revolution had a lead in the
Eastern Division early in the season and then
went through some tough mid-summer stretches
but battled back to secure a playoff berth and
the best record (13-13-6) in franchise history.
The Chicago Fire eliminated the Revolution in
the opening round, but not before the Revs captured
their first ever playoff win, a 2-1 victory
at home over the Fire on September 19th. 2001
New England used its offseason to re-sign many
of the key components from its most successful
campaign ever, including Harris, Ted Chronopoulos
and Leonel Alvarez. Notable among the team's
newcomers was midfielder Andy Williams, acquired
in a March waiver draft, and Cate, a Brazilian
midfielder who was signed as an allocation near
the April 7th start of the season. The Revs
staggered out of the gate, losing their first
six games - all but one of which were on the
road - before staging an important three-game
win streak in mid-May. Those victories came
after a wild start to the month, as the team
dealt John Harkes and Eric Wynalda to the Columbus
Crew and Chicago Fire, respectively. In June,
the Revs failed to lose a game. They went 1-0-3
and defeated the Mid-Michigan Bucks in the opener
of the U.S. Open Cup tournament. They also made
a trade with the Miami Fusion, picking up Massachusetts
native Jay Heaps in exchange for Brian Dunseth,
and signed Bolivian goalkeeper Jose Carlo Fernandez.
Despite a handful of memorable victories during
the remainder of the MLS season, including a
5-1 win over Dallas that broke the team's all-time
single game scoring mark, the Revs failed to
keep pace with the competition for the final
few playoff spots and finished on the outside
looking in. The more impressive story out of
New England headquarters was the U.S. Open Cup
tournament. After bowing out in the opening
round in 2000, the Revs followed up the Mid-Michigan
win with victories over the A-League Charleston
Battery, the Crew (quarterfinals) and D.C. United
(semifinals) to proceed to the championship
game. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Galaxy advanced
in the opposite bracket. Unlike New England,
L.A. clinched a spot in the MLS playoffs as
well and reached MLS Cup, losing the championship
game for the third time in franchise history.
The Revs had a six-week layoff between their
last regular season game and the Open Cup final,
which was held on October 27th in Fullerton,
CA. Harris provided the Revolution with an early
1-0 edge, which the team took into the second
half. Ezra Hendrickson responded for L.A. in
the 70th minute, and Danny Califf iced the championship
for the Galaxy with a goal in the 92nd minute.
While the loss stung, reaching a championship
match was an important milestone for the club.
It gave the players and coaches a chance to
experience the feel of a winner-take-all game
and it showed the rest of MLS that the Revs,
despite little postseason success within the
league, were capable of competing for a title.
2002 The first few weeks of 2002 saw a league-wide
shake-up, in which two franchises - the Tampa
Bay Mutiny and the Miami Fusion - were contracted,
leaving their former players available to the
remaining 10 MLS teams in a Dispersal Draft
on January 11th. The Revolution, holding three
of the top six selections, chose forward Mamadou
Diallo, defender Carlos Llamosa and midfielder
Steve Ralston in the first round, and later
called the names of Jim Rooney, Shaker Asad
and Alex Pineda Chacon. Just under a month later,
in the 2002 SuperDraft, the Revs selected forward
Taylor Twellman with the second overall pick.
With a revamped roster and the anticipation
of entering a brand new home, the $325 million
CMGI Field, the Revolution seemed destined for
a banner campaign. Such promise, however, did
not materialize immediately. The Revs went 1-2-1
on their season-opening four-game road trip
before taking on the Dallas Burn in the first
event ever at CMGI Field on May 11. Twellman
introduced himself to his new home crowd in
fine fashion, tallying both Revolution goals
in a 2-0 victory. But the Revolution failed
to garner any momentum from that stellar performance,
and on May 23rd, one day after a 5-2 loss to
the Colorado Rapids, Clavijo was relieved of
his duties, replaced on an interim basis by
assistant coach Steve Nicol. That was not the
only major transaction made by the team that
week. The next day, the Revs and MetroStars
completed a six-player trade, with Diego Serna,
Daniel Hernandez and Brian Kamler coming to
Foxboro and Diallo, Ted Chronopoulos and Andy
Williams going to the MetroStars. Serna scored
the game-winning goal in a 3-2 win over the
Galaxy on May 25th. Soon after, Twellman was
named MLS Player of the Month, but the Revs
proceeded to go on a 1-5 slide over the month
of June that saw them hit the cellar in the
Eastern Conference. A two-wins-in-three-days
Independence Day weekend gave the team a boost
and the home crowd some holiday excitement.
The losing trend continued, however, as the
team won only once in its next six games, stretching
to mid-August. Although they were in last place
in a 10-team league, the Revs maintained a high
level of optimism that they could be one of
the eight teams to advance to the postseason.
The Revolution had made some key acquisitions
in late summer, obtaining midfielder Winston
Griffiths and defender Daouda Kante, to bolster
the team's depth. On Aug. 24th, Kante scored
the game-winning goal in the 89th minute against
the Chicago Fire, becoming the unlikely offensive
catalyst that kick-started a dramatic run to
the conclusion of the regular season. With Adin
Brown, a goalkeeper who was left unwanted by
most teams during January's dispersal draft,
patrolling the net behind a revitalized backline,
the team allowed just two goals over the final
five games of the season. In the finale at Gillette
Stadium (renamed from CMGI Field in August)
on Sept. 21st, against the same MetroStars team
that had flourished immediately following the
blockbuster May trade, the Revs rattled off
three first-half goals - two by Wolde Harris
and one by Twellman - to clinch a playoff berth
and, in the process, eliminate their rivals.
The news only got better the next day. The Chicago
Fire defeated the Columbus Crew, meaning the
Revs had captured the Eastern Conference championship
and would be seeded second overall in the MLS
playoffs. Postseason 2002 Riding the momentum
they established in the final quarter of the
season, the Revs captured a 2-0 victory over
the Fire in the first game of their quarterfinal
round playoff series with goals by Twellman
and Hernandez. Undaunted by a 2-1 loss in game
two in Naperville, Ill., the Revs made franchise
history on October 2, winning a playoff series
for the first time. Kamler notched a goal in
the first half, Twellman struck in the second
half, Brown made seven saves, and the Revs moved
on to the semifinals. The Crew was the team
that stood between the Revolution and a spot
in MLS Cup 2002. Having secured home field advantage
in the season's last weekend, the Revolution
hosted Columbus in the first game. Brown and
Columbus' Jon Busch prevented any shots from
finding the back of either net, and the teams
departed for Columbus with a 0-0 tie. One task
the Revs had never completed in their seven-year
history was a road triumph in the playoffs.
Could there have been a more crucial time to
check that task off the franchise's to-do list
than Wednesday, October 9th, at Crew Stadium?
Recognizing that the answer to that question
likely was "no," the Revs rode a third-minute
Jay Heaps goal all the way to the finish line,
taking the series lead with a 1-0 win. The Revs
knew that a win or tie at home on October 12th
would put them into MLS Cup the next weekend,
and they responded by taking a 2-0 lead at halftime.
But with its back against the wall, the Crew
was not ready to end its season so quickly.
Columbus tied the match with goals in the 80th
and 85th minute, meaning the drama would continue
into overtime. Once the final whistle blew at
2-2, there was jubilation on the field and in
the stands, as everyone involved with the Revolution
took pride in the fact that the next game would
be the prestigious MLS Cup - at Gillette Stadium.
The opponent, the Los Angeles Galaxy, was familiar
with the league's championship game. Having
already advanced to MLS Cup three times, the
Galaxy, especially head coach Sigi Schmid and
longtime U.S. National Team star Cobi Jones,
had experienced the rigors and pressure associated
with such success. But the Galaxy had never
won the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy, so it had
also experienced the disappointment and heart-break
associated with losing the championship match.
Needless to say, the Revs were running into
a team with a singular interest on its mind.
The closest the Revs had come to tasting a championship
was in the U.S. Open Cup finale a year before
- ironically against the Galaxy. Left for dead
during much of 2002, the Revs were hungry to
finish their breathtaking and improbable run
by winning the league's top prize in their home
venue. The MLS Cup hype during the week leading
up to Sunday, October 20th, translated into
a record-shattering soccer crowd of 61,316.
Never before had that many people seen MLS Cup
or any soccer game in Foxboro live. Before the
ball was in play, the soccer fan base alone
made sure that this would be one of the most
memorable soccer events in U.S. history. Although
the league's two leading scorers - Twellman,
who won the Budweiser Scoring Championship,
and Carlos Ruiz, the MLS Most Valuable Player
- were on the field, neither team was able to
post a score in regulation. For the second consecutive
year, MLS Cup went into "Golden Goal" overtime,
and for the first time ever, the championship
game reached double OT. Ruiz made sure to prevent
penalty kicks, however, by tallying the championship-winning
goal in the 113th minute. He took a pass from
Tyrone Marshall and delivered a left-footed
shot that beat Adin Brown into the right side
of the net. Just one minute before Ruiz's heroics
vaulted the Galaxy onto the championship podium,
Winston Griffiths of the Revolution nearly gave
the partisan crowd a victory. His shot from
outside the penalty box hit the right corner
of the goal and was cleared. Thus ended the
Revs' stunning two-month odyssey. The players
and the team as a whole made great strides both
on and off the field in 2002 and are poised
to take the next step in 2003. Additionally,
Nicol was rewarded for his interim coaching
job by being re-signed as head coach on Nov.
6th. Nicol and the entire coaching staff will
spend the off-season working toward capturing
the MLS Cup that eluded them by such a small
margin in 2002.
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New
England Revolution Info
Stadium:
Gillette Stadium
QUICK FACT
The
Cotton Bowl is also a venue for American
Football.
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