From the category archives:

Revolution

The New England Revolution, or the Revs as they are called, are one of the best teams in the history of MLS, but they have very few trophies to show for it. In fact, other than their SuperLiga title (2008) and one US Open Cup win (2007), their mantle is bare. They are definitely the Buffalo Bills of MLS, having lost the MLS Cup Final four times.

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Recap: After a hot start, NER faded from their position of prominence to finish third in the East and tied for fourth overall. Their playoff appearance added insult to injury (literally). Hey, at least they didn’t lose in the Cup to match the Buffalo Bills for most inept franchise in consecutive championship finals. Overall, they get a C+ for ’08.

 

Offense: The Revs normally strong attack fell impotent this year. They scored a meager 40 goals all season and finished tenth in the league when it came to finding the net. Sure, it hurt that Twellman missed a lot of the season, but NER still couldn’t score even after he returned, so they get a C+ for the attack.

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It took four years but the Chicago Fire finally knocked the New England Revolution out of the MLS playoffs.

The Fire comfortable defeated a weakened Revolution 3-0 on Thursday to advance to the conference finals against either the Columbus Crew or the Kansas City Wizards, who will play the second leg of their conference semifinal series on Saturday. The first leg finished in a 1-1 draw.

The Fire scored two goals on either side of half-time to put this game out of reach of New England.

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The New England Revolution and Chicago Fire drew 0-0 in the first leg of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Thursday night at Foxboro Stadium. Chicago now are firm favorites to advance to the Eastern Conference finals with the return leg taking place November 6th in Chicago.

The Revolution have knocked Chicago out of postseason each of the last three years, including twice in the conference championship, but this is Revolution team that is decimated by injury and suspension. Last night the Revolution were playing without injured captain Steve Ralston (broken leg) and forward Taylor Twellman (concussion-like symptoms), while midfielder Khano Smith was suspended two matches by the league for what it called “an egregious challenge” on Kansas City Wizards forward Herculez Gomez last weekend.

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MLS Team Valuations

by David Wilson

Forbes.com recently released a report that looked at the economic side of MLS and also put a value on each of the Major League Soccer franchises.

At a macro level, things are looking up for MLS. Seven of the league’s 14 teams play in soccer-specific stadiums, five of which have been built since 2002. Expansion franchises in Seattle and Philadelphia recently agreed to pay $30 million each to join the league, three times what Toronto FC paid to join MLS three years ago. Commissioner Don Garber says the next two expansion teams, to be announced in 2009, will cost $40 million. Some team owners are even floating a $50 million price tag.

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The Columbus Crew were the only Eastern Conference team to win and by doing so moved to the top of the division and the MLS overall table to round out Week 23 of the Major League season.

LA Galaxy 2 New England Revolution 2
Landon Donovan scored a pair of goals for the Los Angeles Galaxy, but Shalrie Joseph’s first goal of the season helped the New England Revolution grab a 2-2 tie.

Joseph’s goal in the 71st minute helped New England (11-6-5) extend the Galaxy’s (6-9-7) winless streak to 10.

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A look at the scores and match reports from this weekend’s games in Major League Soccer.

Columbus 2 FC Dallas 1
Jeff Cunningham became the fourth player in MLS history to reach 100 goals when he scored in his first game for FC Dallas, but midfielders Brian Carroll and Brad Evans netted second-half goals to give the Crew a 2-1 win Saturday night.

Cunningham’s 35th-minute tally was his first for Dallas since being acquired from Toronto FC Aug. 8. It also was his first goal against the team for which he played eight seasons.

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MLS Weekend Recap

by David Wilson

A look at the week 19 in Major League soccer where NY Red Bulls upset DC United.

New York 4, DC United 1

Juan Pablo Angel scored two goals to lead the New York Red Bulls to a surprising 4-1 win over D.C. United on Sunday.

Sinisa Ubiparipovic added his first career MLS goal and Mike Magee also scored for the Red Bulls (6-6-7), who snapped a five-game winless streak.

“It was a must-win game because of the circumstances,” Angel said. “I think it was extremely important for us to get a positive result.”

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Sir Alex can talk about winning the double this year but New England Revolution coach Steve Nichol is trying to do him one better by winning the triple. The first leg in the triple was the SuperLiga championship which New England won 3-2 last night in a penalty shoot-out with  the Houston Dynamo.

Houston had beaten the New England Revolution in past two MLS Championship matches so it was not a surprise when Nate Jacqua opened the scoring for the Dynamo in the 18th minute. NE tied the game up might before half-time when Steve Ralston scored.

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The Houston Dynamo cruised to a 3-1 victory over the DC United aided by former United star Bobby Boswell who scored one of the team’s three goals.  Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden also scored for the two-time MLS champions.  Houston now advances to play the second-place finisher from Group B in the semi-finals.  Out of the four MLS representatives, the Dynamo look like the superior team. 

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