New England Revolution

Team information

Inaugural season: 1996

Home field: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts

Owner: Robert Kraft

Team colors: Navy blue, red, white

Overview

The New England Revolution is one of ten original Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs that competed in the league’s inaugural season in 1996. The Revs, as the team is known, has won the Eastern Conference Championship five times as of 2021, but it has yet to win an MLS title. The Foxborough, Massachusetts-based team has had one owner since its inception, Robert Kraft, who also owns the NFL’s New England Patriots.

History

Americans have played soccer since at least the early nineteenth century, although the first professional US league was not formed until the 1890s. The most successful pro league prior to the 1990s was the North American Soccer League, which existed from 1968 to 1984. However, men’s professional soccer was not popular with Americans until the United States won the right to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. This prestigious event raised the profile of soccer in the United States, prompting organizers to form a new national league, Major League Soccer.

Robert Kraft and other members of the Kraft family were instrumental in developing MLS. Kraft led the effort to include Foxboro Stadium as one of the 1994 FIFA World Cup venues. The stadium was also the home of the New England Patriots.

In 1995, Kraft and his family became the founding investor of the New England franchise. Kraft privately financed construction of $325 million Gillette Stadium, which opened in 2002 and has since served as home of the Revolution and Patriots. The Revolution moved into a newly built training center behind Gillette Stadium in late 2019.

New England’s inaugural 1996 season seemed promising. Three members of the US Men’s National Team, Mike Burns, Alexi Lalas, and Joe-Max Moore, signed on with the club. However, it finished 15–17 and did not make the playoffs. The club did make the playoffs in its second season, but lost in the first round. New England missed out on the postseason for the next five seasons, but fans showed up, with the team averaging more than 15,000 fans per game.

Between 2002 and 2007, the Revs finished as runners-up to the MLS Cup four times, including three straight appearances in the championship game from 2005 to 2007. However, as the 2010s began, the club went through dry stretches where it fell short of playoff contention. Attendance also began to wan as the club hovered near the MLS basement. In 2017, New England replaced head coach Jay Heaps with Brad Friedel, whose stats over the next two years were abysmal. The club brought in US coaching legend Bruce Arena in 2019 and added some significant players. The move helped the Revolution squeak into the playoffs in 2019, and by 2021, the club had shot up to the penthouse. New England led the league in points with a single-season MLS record of 73. In October Arena tied for the most regular-season coaching wins in league history with 240. The club qualified for the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Many diehard fans are members of the Midnight Riders, an Independent Supporters Association. The Riders were founded before the club’s first season by fifteen fans. The group is known for home-game tailgating and organizing bus trips to away games. Members also volunteer in the community and organize social events. Another active fan group, The Rebellion, was founded in 2009. The Midnight Riders and other fan groups join voices in sections 141–143 of Gillette Stadium. Fans refer to this seating section as The Fort.

Another fan group comprises American Revolutionary War reenactors. The End Zone Militia fires muskets when the home team scores a goal. Although the Militia was founded in 1996 to support the Revolution, it also cheers on the New England Patriots football team.

In November 2021 the club unveiled new branding for the 2022 season. The redesigned club crest is a capital R in a font resembling typefaces of the late eighteenth century laced through with a red strikethrough ribbon. The outer borders are meant to resemble patriotic bunting.

The New England club counts New York teams such as the New York Red Bulls and New York City FC as rivals largely because other professional sports teams maintain a Boston-New York rivalry. New England has faced some other teams in non-MLS tournaments multiple times, for example, competing against the Los Angeles Galaxy in the 2001, 2005, and 2014 US Open Cup finals. Each time, the California team prevailed. Further, Arena coached the Galaxy in 2014 and joined the Revolution in 2019.

Notable players

MLS celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2020. As part of the observance, the league named twenty-five players as the best in history. Clint Dempsey, who played for New England from 2004 to 2006, was recognized. He was named Rookie of the Year in 2004. Another of the league’s greatest, Steve Ralston, was with the Revolution from 2002 to 2010.

In conjunction with the team’s silver anniversary, the Revolution also compiled its own best-of list in 2020. The club’s all-time team comprises former head coach Steve Nicol and eleven players: goalkeeper Matt Reis; defenders Andrew Farrell, Michael Parkhurst, and Chris Tierney; midfielders Dempsey, Diego Fagundez, Shalrie Joseph, Lee Nguyen, and Ralston; and forwards Joe-Max Moore and Taylor Twellman.

Nicol held the coaching job for the longest, leading the club in 1999 and again from 2002 to 2011. He led the Revolution to a US Open Cup title and four Eastern Conference Championships. He is the only club coach to be named MLS Coach of the Year.

Reis was with the club for eleven years, joining in 2003. He was a finalist for Goalkeeper of the Year four consecutive seasons and holds multiple club records. Farrell arrived in New England in 2013 having been the first-overall pick in the SuperDraft. He held league records in games played and started and minutes played. He was twice named club Defender of the Year and was MLS All-Star in 2016. In 2018 Farrell, who supported Special Olympics Massachusetts, was named club Humanitarian of the Year.

Parkhurst, a member from 2005 to 2008, helped the club achieve three consecutive MLS Cup final appearances. In his four years he was named MLS Rookie of the Year and Defender of the Year and accrued three MLS All-Star selections. Tierney began playing for the Revs in 2008 and remained for eleven years, the whole of his professional career. He ranked third in MLS history for career assists with 40. After his retirement in 2018 he remained with the club as player recruitment manager.

Dempsey was the eighth-overall SuperDraft pick in 2004 and remained with the club until 2006. He helped the Revolution reach one Eastern Conference Final and two MLS Cup Finals. He was the 2004 Rookie of the Year.

Fagundez was fifteen when he joined the Revolution in 2011. He was the first Revolution Academy athlete signed to the team. Beyond his many firsts as a young athlete, such as the youngest player to score 50 goals, he was among the club’s top five in games played, goals, assists, and shots, among other records.

Joseph played in Gillette Stadium from 2003 to 2012 and again in 2014. He held club records for most minutes played and most games played and started. A seven-time MLS All-Star selection, he was a finalist for league MVP in 2009. Nguyen was with the club from 2012 to 2018. In 2014 he had 18 goals and 5 assists, which earned him a league MVP nomination. Ralston joined New England in 2002 and played through 2010. He has the second-most assists in team history with 73 and his career mark of 135 is just one short of the MLS all-time assist record. Ralston is one of three players who appeared in each of the club’s first four MLS Cup finals. His 42 goals were fourth in club history. Moore had two stints with the Revs, from 1996 to 1999, and again in 2003 and 2004. He is the only member of the inaugural team chosen for the MLS All-Time Team.

Twellman joined the club in 2002 and remained until 2010. In his eight seasons as a pro, he set a club record of 101 goals, making him one of only eleven players in league history to top 100 goals. Twellman helped the club reach four MLS Cup finals and win a US Open Cup trophy. He was the 2005 league MVP.

Club owner Robert Kraft was inducted into the New England Soccer Hall of Fame (NESHOF) in 2004. Jay Heaps, a former Revolution defender, is a member of the NESHOF class of 2011. During his nine seasons with the Revolution, he played on four Eastern Conference championship clubs. He played in a club record 314 games. After his 2009 retirement, he remained with the Revolution as color analyst for the club’s radio and television broadcasts. He also served as head coach of the club.

Bibliography

Butler, Dylan. “New England Revolution Ownership Committed to Boston-Area Home: ‘We Want to Build the Stadium.’” Major League Soccer, 6 Dec. 2020, www.mlssoccer.com/news/new-england-revolution-ownership-committed-boston-area-home-we-want-build-stadiu. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

MLS Soccer Staff. “Taylor Twellman Gets Emotional About New England Revolution Unofficially Retiring His No. 20 Jersey.” Major League Soccer, 16 Feb. 2021, www.mlssoccer.com/news/taylor-twellman-gets-emotional-about-new-england-revolution-unofficially-retirin. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

“New England Revolution.” Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, Nov. 2021, www.bostonusa.com/things-to-do/boston-sports-teams/new-england-revolution/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

“New England Revolution.” Sports Ecyclopedia, 2019, sportsecyclopedia.com/mls/newengland/revolution.html. Accessed

“New England Revolution Announce All-Time Team.” Our Sports Central, 7 Mar. 2020, www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/new-england-revolution-announce-all-time-team/n-5608043. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

Ryan, Conor. “For New England Revolution Supporters, It’s More than Just a Game.” MassLive, 24 Mar. 2019, www.masslive.com/sports/2016/05/for‗new‗england‗revolution‗sup.html. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.