Revs Gonna Revs: Instead Of Choking In An MLS Cup Final, This Time They Bow Out In The ECF

 

    For the first time in years, there genuinely was (a little) buzz about the Revolution, both around New England and even nationally when it came to hardcore MLS fans. What interests me is the fact that people who normally don't pay any attention to the team or league were starting to take notice so of course, the Revs did what they always do in big games, they lost 1-0 this afternoon in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Columbus at MAPFRE Stadium. Just like that, their great postseason run is over as the Crew advance to host the MLS Cup Final on Saturday night (8, ESPN) against the winner of tomorrow night's (9:30, FS1) Western Conference Finals matchup between Seattle and Minnesota.

    I would love to say that I'm surprised by this depressing result but the truth is that I'm not at all. As a longtime Revs supporter (granted many of those years I hate-watch them), I knew that no matter how much success they were having and how everything seemed to be going their way lately, impending doom is always right around the corner for a club that is 0-5 all-time in MLS Cup Finals. I guess we'll never know what kind of bump they would have received in terms of creating new fans since many of them end up going away once you lose. That's the harsh reality, everyone loves a winner and if you cannot do that on a consistent basis, what's the point in watching an inferior product when all the top European soccer leagues are easily viewed with a basic cable package.

    Revolution head coach Bruce Arena is the best at his job in league history so if anyone can end this dare I say curse, it should be him. Furthermore, despite my initial tone here, it shouldn't be all doom and gloom since they have a ton of talent returning next season and many young players that hopefully will be here for years to come. Still, the path to their first MLS title was right there for the taking. Columbus is a solid team but they are not better than Philadelphia (who New England beat two rounds ago) and probably about on the same level as Orlando (who they dispatched in the previous playoff game). Ugh. 

You got a bad feeling that it wasn't the Revs' day when striker Adam Buksa hit the post with a shot in the 28th minute. He had teammate Gustavo Bou going to the net (mostly covered) but instead of playing it into traffic-where many things could have happened-he chose to take a low-percentage shot that went off the outside of the the post. New England had scored first in all three of its playoff games during this postseason but finding themselves scoreless at halftime was not the worst fate in the world. The home team broke the deadlock in the 59th minute as they scored following a corner kick and some pretty passing: midfielder Artur hit a low one-time shot past Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner (MLS postseason-high 6 saves) with an assist from defender Jonathan Mensah.

    Trailing for the first time all postseason, the Revs never put enough pressure on Columbus' goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell (4 saves). There two best chances in the second half both happened very late as Bou's shot was saved in the 92nd minute and then on essentially the final play of the game, a corner kick bounced to New England midfielder Matt Polster but he lamely kicked it right into Tarbell's chest. The Crew did a nice job bottling up Revs midfielder Carles Gil who is by far their top playmaker that makes most good things happen offensively. With him contained, New England could only manage to earn four corner kicks and take 10 total shots. When they struggled for long stretches in the regular season, goal-scoring was usually the main issue so it's fitting that came up one last fatal time. 

    Probably the toughest part out of all this was the fact that the Revolution were probably the closest of the five main Boston pro sports teams (Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Patriots) to winning a championship. That's not to say that they are the best of that bunch, only that MLS' new one-game format for each playoff round makes it easier to navigate in addition to soccer's utter randomness in big games not to mention few fans at the stadiums due to the pandemic. I know plenty of die-hard Revs fans (haha seriously, they do exist) that will watch them forever no questions asked but I wonder how many more casual fans were ready to jump on the bandwagon with their recent success but now they are already gone. Ultimately, this team didn't reach the MLS Cup Final in 2020 but they still found a way to bum us all out, just what we don't need in this nightmare year on Earth.

The Revs Are Just The Team That We Desperately Need In This Nightmare Of A Year, Seriously

 

    Reaching the Eastern Conference Final has become old hat for the Revolution considering that they have now reached that game eight times in the franchise's long history (they are an MLS original club that started in 1996). However, I doubt that there was ever a more improbable run in team annals to reach that stage than this season's wacky edition. New England led from start to finish this afternoon at Exploria Stadium as they put together their second straight huge upset, 3-1 vs. Orlando City SC in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. With their latest fantastic result, they will next get to play at Columbus on Sunday afternoon (3, ABC) in the Eastern Conference Final for a spot in the 2020 MLS Cup. Did I mention that the Revolution have never won an MLS Cup (0-5) and this is the furthest they've gone in the playoffs since their last ill-fated journey to the Final in 2014?  

    Once again, the Revs were ably led by their three best players: midfielder Gustavo Bou scored a brace (two goals) while fellow midfielder Carles Gil bagged a penalty kick and added an assist then finally, goalkeeper Matt Turner (2 saves) stepped up and made perhaps the biggest play of the game as he stopped Orlando's superstar midfielder Nani on a penalty kick that would have tied it at 2-2 in the 74th minute. Soccer is all about dictating the game which usually means scoring the first goal. Just like their 2-0 shutout of top-seeded Philadelphia in the first round last week, New England jumped at the opportunity to take an early lead and then they doubled it before Orlando knew what had hit them.

    Keep in mind, this was the first time in its six seasons in MLS that Orlando City had even reached the playoffs and they needed an absolutely bonkers penalty kick shootout to survive against NYCFC in the previous round just to get here in the first place. What I'm trying to say is that they were understandably a bit nervous from the beginning and you could tell that pretty early on as midfielder Oriol Rosell took down New England defender Tajon Buchanan in the 15th minute for a penalty kick. Gil gave Orlando City goalkeeper Brian Rowe (3 saves) no chance to stop his shot as he blasted it straight down the middle and into the net two minutes later. 

    Before the home team had any time to recover, they were down 2-0 as Revs striker Adam Buksa's initial shot (from a perfect low cross by Buchanan) hit the post but Bou was alertly there to smash the ball in for a 2-0 lead in the 25th minute. New England only really made two mistakes (of course they were big ones) on the day and the first came in the 33rd minute as their defense couldn't clear the ball out of a dangerous area in the box and Turner was uncharacteristically out of position after making a save. This allowed Orlando midfielder Junior Urso to swoop in and crank the rebound past a bunch of bodies between him and the net. As ugly as that moment was for the Revolution, full marks to them for not letting it affect them too much as Buksa forced a spectacular diving save from Rowe only five minutes later. 

    Nursing a 2-1 lead at halftime, New England was in good position to see out the game and that only increased when Orlando midfielder Mauricio Pereyra made a wild sliding challenge on Revs midfielder Matt Polster. With his studs up, Pereyra's reckless decision cost him and his team dearly because he was shown a red card so Orlando City was forced to play a man down for the final 30+ minutes as they tried to rally from down 2-1. Few in MLS possess a more lethal shot than Bou and he will let it fly from just about anywhere including well outside the box. Rowe made a pair of good stops on Bou and New England couldn't connect on either corner kick that came from those chances. Polster was on the other end of a penalty kick call as his foul of striker Daryl Dike in the 73rd minute led to the best play of Turner's blooming professional career. The Portuguese international and former Manchester United star tried to hit a low shot into the left corner but Turner guessed correctly and got over in time to deflect it out of bounds with his Inspector Gadget arm. 

    That took the wind out of Orlando's sails for the most part since they probably knew in their heart of hearts that was their golden opportunity to tie it up. New England did its best to smartly waste time and then pounce when the time was right for that killer insurance tally. That curtain came in the 86th minute fittingly with Gil putting a through ball to the top of the box that Bou got to before Rowe and his toe poke went in for what had to be one of the best and most meaningful goals of his life. PS check out his celebration in honor of recently deceased soccer icon Diego Maradona after his first goal of this win: it was incredibly moving as Bou found an Argentinian flag and pointed to the sky. When the final whistle blew, the Revs collectively went crazy with delight on the field as they had knocked off another darling of the league. 

    At this point, you'd be pretty idiotic to write off the Revolution as a fluke. Yes, they were the No. 8 seed in the East (out of 9 playoff clubs) but let's not forget that Gil missed much of the disjointed regular season and Bou was not healthy at times either. Obviously, every team deals with injuries and bad performances but you can see over these three playoff matches how much of a difference a healthy Gil and Bou can make. All I know is that New England is only one win away from another MLS Cup appearance and two from finally putting to bed the ugliest Albatross in Major League Soccer. With USMNT players such as striker Gyasi Zardes (who scored a goal in tonight's 2-0 win vs. Nashville) and midfielder/possession machine Darlington Nagbe, the Crew are more than formidable opposition. Still, bet against New England at your own peril or how about you check in with Philly or Orlando to see what they are up to at the moment.

Who Had The New England Revolution Being The Feel-Good Story Of The Year In Boston Sports?

 

    2020 has been a nightmare for everybody and just the latest example of the sports world being turned upside down as well is the fact that the Patriots (4-6) are slogging through their first rebuilding campaign in 20 years while the other (and for good reason often forgotten) club that also calls Gillette Stadium home-the Revolution-are giving us all something to be happy about when we needed it the most. With less than zero expectations coming into this postseason, the No. 8 seed New England followed up Friday's thrilling 2-1 victory over the No. 9 seed Montreal in the play-in game at Gillette with a much more unexpected and therefore mighty impressive result tonight: they went to Subaru Park in Chester, PA and knocked off MLS' top team-the Philadelphia Union-by a score of 2-0. With the win, the Revs advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday afternoon (3, ABC) at No. 4 seed Orlando City SC. 

    Above all, there are two primary reasons that make this latest triumph so impressive for New England: 1) The Union won the Supporters' Shield-given to the team with the best record in the league-so needless to say, nobody and I mean nobody was expecting Philly to lose their first playoff game after such a dominant regular season; 2) The Revs were 0-4-1 against Philadelphia in 2020 including three straight losses coming into this matchup. Furthermore, dating back to the last few seasons, they hadn't actually beaten the Union in their last nine meetings. So yeah, to say this was an upset is a bit of an understatement.

    The best part for the Revs is that this was far from a fluke result. They scored twice in the a four-minute span in the first half then smothered any hopes of a Union comeback in the second half with an air-tight defensive effort. Philadelphia's excellent Jamaican goalkeeper Andre Blake (2 saves) earned the Goalkeeper of the Year award in MLS this season but this evening, he was simply outplayed by New England's Matt Turner who made four saves to notch the clean sheet. Granted Turner didn't have to deal with hardly any real dangerous chances but that's besides the point. The Fairfield University alum and New Jersey native should soon find himself in the mix with the U.S. men's national team, he's become that good over the last few years of his rapid development with the Revs. 

    I think we can conclude that New England's midfield maestro Carles Gil is back to full health as he completely controlled this entire match. He not only set up both goals but he nearly added a strike of his own with a beautiful chip early in the second half that ricocheted off the crossbar. Another sign that this isn't your typical middling Revs team is that both of their tallies were beautiful in their own right: Polish striker Adam Buksa headed in the perfect free kick from Gil in the 26th minute for a 1-0 Revs lead. Before the Union had a chance to catch their breath, it was 2-0 and basically game over as fullback Tajon Buchanan (who is normally a forward) took a pass from Gil, beat his defender then blasted a low shot into the far side past a helpless Blake.

    Looking around MLS and particularly in the East, it's predictably clear that home field and seeding has meant little in this bizarre postseason. Most stadiums are devoid of fans because of the local Covid-19 protocols or they choose to let very few in-like the poor souls who watched the Union get beat tonight-so any previous home field advantage is thankfully for the Revs' sake nullified. Playing in their first season in the league, the No. 7 seed Nashville shocked heavyweight and No. 2 seed Toronto (MLS Cup winner in 2017 and runner-up in 2019) 1-0 in extra time earlier tonight in Hartford (Toronto can't play in Canada during the pandemic) so they are also in the Eastern Conference semifinals and they'll meet the No. 3 seed Columbus on Sunday night (8, ESPN). In the Western Conference the semifinals are the defending champions and No. 2 seed Seattle vs. the No. 6 seed Dallas next Tuesday (9:30, FS1) followed by top-seeded Sporting KC taking on the No. 4 seed Minnesota on Wednesday (9, FS1). 

    It's hard not to look ahead with the Revolution and dream about two more wins bringing them back to that elusive MLS Cup where they are a mind-numbing 0-5 all-time. Still, let's sit back and relax a bit over the Thanksgiving break and enjoy these first two tastes of playoff wins by the Revs for the first time in six long years. Who could forget that their 2014 playoff run of course ended in the MLS Cup with a crushing 2-1 loss in extra time to the Galaxy. Haha I'm not still bitter about it though! After being a laughingstock for years, Bruce Arena-who is unquestionably the best head coach in league history-has quickly brought them back to relevance and soon perhaps the ultimate glory after all these years of misery and irrelevance. I make fun of the Revs and MLS all the time but this is genuinely a fantastic story that could not come at a better time with the Pats floundering, the Celtics and Bruins at least a month away from returning to action and the Red Sox fading from everyone's radar more every year. 

Revs Win Their First Playoff Game In Six Years (!) Thanks To A Clutch Wonderstrike By Gustavo Bou

 

    If you're wondering why I never write about the New England Revolution, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that: for years the team has been a pathetic mess since their loss in yet another MLS Cup way back in 2014 (they are 0-5 all-time in those which seems almost impossible). The club finally started to turn things around in 2019 as they hired Bruce Arena to be their head coach midway through the season after Brad Friedel was a complete disaster. Perhaps most importantly, they signed some big-time designated players (midfielders Gustavo Bou and Carles Gil) who have been great from Day 1 with the Revs. After six long seasons, the team finally won their first playoff match since 2014 with a thrilling 2-1 victory over the Montreal Impact tonight at an empty Gillette Stadium. With that result, they advance to the first round of the playoffs and they'll go to Philadelphia (the top team in MLS this season) next Tuesday night (8, ESPN).

    Wouldn't you know that Gil (finally healthy after missing much of this season with a foot injury) and Bou (who has also battled injuries in 2020 as well) were the two main heroes for New England? 10 of the 14 teams in the Eastern Conference qualified for the postseason in this Covid-19 campaign and Montreal finished ninth so that should tell you most of what you need to know about a team with no players that anyone has ever heard of. However, they are coached by one of the best players of his generation-French striker Thierry Henry-so that's really the only reason to watch them. Talk about a coaching mismatch too since that was Arena's MLS record (by a wide margin) 33rd career playoff victory. 

    You don't need a full tedious recap from an MLS play-in playoff game but the Revs took a 1-0 lead late in the first half (38th minute) as Gil volleyed a perfectly weighted chipped pass from Bou. It was a beautiful play and goal, the likes of which we rarely see in MLS. The Impact had a -10 goal differential in the regular season (that's awful for a playoff team) so they had their work cut out for them trailing 1-0 at halftime. After controlling play for much of the first 45 minutes, the Revolution started to ease up which allowed Montreal to tie it at one in the 61st minute. The Impact had a free kick outside the box and something called Rudy Camacho headed it to Romell Quioto (surely your favorite soccer player in the world) who deposited it into the far corner of New England's net past goalkeeper Matt Turner with a header of his own. Ugh. 

    I was convinced at that point it would go to overtime then penalty kicks where the Revs would no doubt lose in their typical epic fashion. New England striker Adam Buksa hit the crossbar in the first half with a header and similarly in stoppage time of the second half, he saw another one of his headers glance off Montreal goalkeeper Clement Diop's outstretched hand and then off the post. That felt like the Revolution's chance to win it in regulation. Not so fast my friends, thanks to a more than generous amount of stoppage time (over 5 minutes), the Revs were able to get it done as fullback DeJuan Jones was able to get the ball to Bou at the top of the box and he unleashed a rocket into the bottom left corner for an incredible goal that was No. 2 on SportsCenter's Top-10 plays this evening. 

    Would you believe that this will be the sixth meeting of the season between the Revs and the Union? Even more shocking than that is the fact that New England is still looking for their first win against Philly who went 14-4-5 in the regular season including 4-0-1 against the Revolution. The Revs have lost their last three matches with Philadelphia including a 2-0 loss at Subaru Park on Decision Day (the last day of MLS regular season). Obviously, you'd be stupid to bet against the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and Supporters' Shield winner for the best record in the entire league but I will say that I like two simple factors in the road team's favor: 1) while it is a short break between playoff games for New England, Philly figures to be rusty in their first live action in over two weeks plus all the pressure and expectations are on them and 2) aren't the Revs long overdue to beat the Union at some point in 2020? I realize this probably isn't enough to convince you to watch this matchup on Tuesday but then again, we are still in a serious pandemic and winter is just about to begin, so what else could you possibly be doing?

If You Haven't Already, It Is Officially Time To Jump On the Revolution Bandwagon

In case you haven't been paying attention (and you are excused if you haven't), it turns out that the Patriots aren't the only championship contender residing in Gillette Stadium this season. Haha no I'm not talking about UMass football, the Revolution picked up a huge road win today 2-1 at Red Bull Arena in the first leg of the Eastern Conference Final vs. Red Bulls. They will meet again at Gillette on Saturday (3, NBCSN) where New England will try to get back to the MLS Cup (which they have never won in club history).

It is all about away goals so a 1-1 tie which is how it looked to finish would have been perfectly acceptable for the Revs. They have been the best team in MLS since they acquired Jermaine Jones (11-1-1) this summer so it was fitting that their prized pickup came through with a clutch game-winning goal in the 85th minute. Lee Nguyen, who should be the MLS MVP this season, drew Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles, before sliding it over to his fellow USMNT midfielder to tap in.

New York definitely threw everything it had into this match, owning possession (60-40%) and taking way more shots (18-8) although only three more (7-4) landed on goal. The problem was that the Red Bulls hyped themselves up too much, as proven by their six yellow cards which is a total I've never heard of for one team in a close game. Star striker Bradley Wright-Phillips picked up one of the aforementioned yellow cards on a lazy challenge in the second half and it was particularly costly since he came in carrying one from the previous match. This means that he is out on Saturday, oops!

New England forward Teal Bunbury opened the scoring in the 17th minute with a curling laser worthy of inclusion on Sportscenter's Top 10 plays. It was from outside the box but Robles still had no chance to stop it. Jones had the assist on it. New York responded 10 minutes later as a scramble in New England's box left Bobby Shuttlesworth (6 saves) and his weird haircut with nothing left to do but retrieve the ball out of the net. The Red Bulls hit the ball off the crossbar before Wright-Phillips followed that with a header which went in.

The long layoff didn't seem to be much of an issue for either side so I doubt that the most important match of their season will suffer from being less than a week away. Expect New York to come out strong since they need at least one goal. By being calm and playing their game, New England should have a great chance to get through the second leg and advance to the MLS Cup the following Sunday. Later this afternoon, LA opened the Western Conference Final with a 1-0 win on their home turf over Seattle.

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Revolution Beat Crew 7-3 on Aggregate to Advance to ECF vs. Red Bulls

For the first time in years, I started paying attention to the Revolution again this past summer for two reasons: 1) the Red Sox were so horrible that I couldn't watch their games anymore and 2) they signed USMNT World Cup hero Jermaine Jones. It has been a fun ride and one that will last at least for a few more weeks after New England beat Columbus 3-1 tonight at Gillette Stadium (7-3 on aggregate) to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals vs. New York Red Bulls. That begins on November 23 at Red Bull Arena (time TBA) followed by a game the following Saturday at Gillette (3, NBCSN).

Sunday was an example of how the Revs aren't just a team revolving around one (Nguyen) or two (Jones) players. Yes, Nguyen opened the scoring with a sweet one-timer in the 43rd minute from Teal Bunbury but it was defender Jose Goncalves who made it 2-0 in the 55th minute on a clumsy one-timer from Charlie Davies. Columbus got a red card in the 61st minute after Ethan Finlay ran into New England goalkeeper Bobby Shuttlesworth. The Crew cut it to 2-1 on Tony Tchani headed in a cross by Justin Meram in the 67th minute.

No worries as Bunbury officially clinched it in the 77th minute by roofing a pretty through ball from Daigo Kobayashi. Meram picked up his second yellow card of the game in the 85th minute so Columbus shamefully finished their postseason with just nine players left on the field. Shuttlesworth made some big saves when it was still (somewhat competitive) and the one-sided scoreline allowed head coach Jay Heaps to take out Nguyen and Jones late in the second half.

MLS will never be the English Premier League or any of the top European leagues but the product is getting better, thanks to many washed up stars from Europe coming to the States for a lucrative pay day at the twilight of their career. There is also a decent mix of homegrown players-midfielders Scott Caldwell (Braintree, MA), Chris Tierney (Wellesley, MA) and Diego Fagundez (Leominster, MA) not to mention Davies (Manchester, NH) are all originally from New England.

I can't stand people that try to force soccer on others or even worse, look down on those who don't enjoy it as much or understand certain aspects. I completely understand why people make fun of it, there are plenty of things that bug me about it to no end but I am as into it now as I have ever been since I was a child. This is a long-winded way of saying that if you like soccer and especially if you're from New England, give the Revolution a try. I can promise you that you will enjoy it this season and who knows, maybe we'll finally see some history.

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