Tierney: Cup Berth ‘So Rewarding’

Photo credit: Chris Aduama/aduamaphotography.com

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For the longest continuously tenured player on the Revolution roster, Saturday’s Conference-clinching draw was nothing short of a long-awaited triumph.

Left back/left midfielder Chris Tierney, a 2008 supplemental draft pick, joined the club only months after it reached its third straight MLS Cup final. But during the course of his seven seasons in New England, the Revolution’s conference dominance took a precipitous dip, with the team hitting rock bottom in 2011.

Now, with the Revolution ticketed for the their first Cup final since 2007, Tierney reflected on what the club’s success meant to him after enduring the lean years.

“It’s so rewarding for me,” Tierney said following Saturday’s 2-2 draw to New York. “Obviously, we had a few years in the middle of my tenure that weren’t the best, rebuilding years, I think you could call it.”

“Rebuilding” is putting it diplomatically, of course. After prompt postseason exits in 2008 and 2009, the Revolution missed out on the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade in 2010. Matters only worsened in 2011, a season in which the club collected a franchise-worst five wins.

Following 2011, Jay Heaps replaced longtime manager Steve Nicol, but the former fullback’s first season wasn’t quite a rousing success. The team suffered through a 10-game winless streak, and finished ninth in the east.

But the blueprints for success finally took shape in 2013. A year after the Revolution suffered through a 17-loss season, the team reached the postseason, and came less than 15 minutes from taking eventual MLS Cup champion Sporting Kansas City to penalties. Though the locals succumbed in extra time, it was clear that the Revolution were no longer stuck in the doldrums.

“Credit to Jay,” said Tierney, who played alongside Heaps in 2008 and 2009. “He’s really put together a squad that – we have a lot of confidence and a lot of fun together, and a lot of chemistry. We just hope we can make good in the final here and take it all the way.”

Sunday’s Cup final will be the first for Tierney, a mainstay on the backline for the past five years. The Wellesley, Mass. native watched his hometown club reach the championship tilt four times in six years, making the chance to finally lift the MLS Cup trophy all that more rewarding.

“It’s great for the club, it really is,” Tierney said. “I think we’ve doing all the right things the last few years, and we deserve this berth. We’re proud of the brand of football that we play, and we’re going to try and continue to do that in the final and give it our best shot.”

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