The Best Player On The Revs-Carles Gil-& One Of MLS' Top Stars Is Staying Here Until At Least 2024

 

    You probably did not even realize it but today was a great day for the New England Revolution and they have actually had a bunch of those lately. This morning, it was announced that they signed their captain and midfielder maestro Carles Gil to a contract extension that goes through the 2024 MLS season. Since he joined the Revs in January 2019, Gil has quickly developed into one of the league's top playmakers and this move for the designated player is awesome to see from a club that historically has not had many stars like him before. In fact, he is the rare talent that makes you want to tune into all the Revolution games and there are only a few guys in club history (Clint Dempsey, Charlie Davies, Lee Nguyen and Taylor Twellman all come to mind) that I feel like you can honestly say that about and I love soccer more than most Americans.

    A native of Valenica, Spain, the 28-year-old Gil has the pedigree of someone that you do not expect to find in Major League Soccer healthy and in the prime of his career: Valenica (La Liga) and Aston Villa (Premier League) are his most notable stops before he ended up calling Gillette Stadium home. Usually, it's the other way around as many top players use MLS as a stepping stone to bigger and better things (like Dempsey) or a last stop on a decorated career (think David Beckham). For those reasons alone, it makes you wonder what Gil likes so much about his situation with New England that he wants to see where it goes for the next three seasons (not including this campaign). 

    After missing the playoffs for three straight years, it is no coincidence that things turned around for the Revs as soon as Gil joined the team. Last season, they reached the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2014 and this season, they are off to a wonderful start as they own the best record (4-1-2) in the Eastern Conference. In his first season with New England, Gil started in all 34 games and had a team-leading 10 goals and 14 assists which earned him the team's Golden Boot honors, the 2019 MLS Newcomer of the Year award, an MLS best XI spot and the title of Revolution MVP. Injuries limited him to only six regular season matches last season but he came alive in the postseason with two goals and three assists in four games as New England made an unexpected deep run. So far in 2021, he has started every game and played in every minute with four assists (tied for the most in MLS) and a goal (on a clinical penalty kick) to his credit. 

    One of the main reasons that New England has never brought home the MLS Cup is that they are not a sexy destination for free agents like a New York or Los Angeles. That is why it's so refreshing to see a guy like Gil choose to remain here for a long time as the club tries to bring home its first title in franchise history. With him in the fold along with other very good players like forward Gustavo Bou, defender Andrew Farrell and goalkeeper Matt Turner to name a few along with sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena (arguably the best to ever do it in MLS), you have to like New England's chances to finally get it done at some point in the next few years. One of the league's original clubs was a disaster for awhile but they have clearly gotten their mojo back in the last few seasons and when it's all said and done, I'm confident that we will look back at signing Gil-already one of the greatest players ever on the Revs-as a major turning point along with the hiring of Arena.

Go on you Blues!

It will go mostly unnoticed Stateside but Saturday is the beginning of the season for the most popular league worldwide. What am I talking about? The WNBA? The Arena Football League? No dice, I'm talking about the English Premier League.
Now I know that I posted about Beckham a few weeks back but even with him, MLS is pretty much irrelevent globally. Growing up a soccer player in Massachusetts and having the opportunity to "study" in London for a semester (my junior year), I was introduced to football in the UK. I even attended games at Fulham and West Ham (two of the lesser teams in the EPL). You can never make a full assessment of soccer without having lived abroad somewhere else. Soccer is the most popular sport in a majority of the world, just not the U.S.
The team I started to follow in London was Chelsea-pretty much the equivalent of the Yankees. They have a Russian oil billionaire as an owner and a Portuguese coach, who is easily the most fascinating coach in professional sports. Oh and they've brought in plenty of top notch talent. Chelsea won two premiership titles in a row before bowing to Man. U last year.
Getting Fox Soccer Channel last fall was one of the highlights of my post-college existence. Now, instead of following the games online, I can watch them live as they happen (with cockney British announcers to boot). The big four of the EPL in recent years has been Manchester United (also similar to the Yankees), Liverpool and Arsenal (the inspiration for Fever Pitch, which was an awesome book but terrible movie adapted to be about the Red Sox).
There are two things about the EPL that are unparalleled: the importance of every game and the sheer length of the daunting season. The bottom three teams are relegated which makes almost every game thrilling since they're fighting for their premiership lives. If they're relegated, they go to league one (the equivalent of Triple A baseball) where they have a chance to move back up. The other crazy thing is that the season starts on Saturday and won't wind down until late May. There's small breaks built in but think about that, the season is over 10 months long. England doesn't get the brutal winters of the Northeast but it gets the occassional snowfall and chilly weather. Soccer in snow while not fun to play is pretty cool to watch.
So in summation, I'm not trying to convert you to soccer but I'm saying that once you get a taste, the EPL is the sleek drug of choice for a soccer fan. Nothing beats an English soccer crowd and the memories of watching big games in UK pubs.