I remember my very first Revolution game perfectly.<\/p>\n
My dad parked at Honey Dew Donuts- a mile away from the stadium- just for the coffee.\u00a0 I was seven years old and in complete awe when we had walked far enough to see Gillette Stadium\u2019s lights shine brightly in the dusk sky.\u00a0 After Dad bought our tickets, we made our way up the ramp into the stadium and found our seats in The Fort.\u00a0 Everyone was dressed in blue.<\/p>\n
I watched the players taking pregame practice drills.\u00a0 I knew some of them thanks to FIFA 2002, a game which I always picked – you guessed it – the Revolution as my team.<\/p>\n
But there was one player who wasn\u2019t <\/em>in FIFA 2002.\u00a0 A blonde striker wearing that happened to be wearing number 20.<\/p>\n Two hours later, that very player – Taylor Twellman – would pick up a pair of goals and forever leave me with an indellible memory.<\/p>\n I look back at that day now and I realize that I picked up on soccer at just the right time.\u00a0 Prior to the 2002 season, the Revolution hadn’t yet become the the most formidable American side east of the Mississippi.\u00a0 The team had no trophies nor the on-field cohesion that would eventually carry them to four title matches in six years.\u00a0 But when Taylor Twellman arrived on the scene, it was obvious that everything was about to change dramatically<\/em>.<\/p>\n You might say it was sheer luck that brought Taylor Twellman to Major League Soccer.\u00a0 After all, the St. Louis native graduated high school with extensive ability in both baseball and soccer.\u00a0 In fact, Twellman turned down a contract from his home-state Kansas City Royals before finally deciding to make soccer his career.<\/p>\n Twellman found his way to Germany with 1860 Munich long before the Dempseys, Altidores, and McBrides made their way overseas.\u00a0 In fact, the only other promising young American overseas was none other than a teenaged-Landon Donovan, who would eventually make it back Stateside as well.<\/p>\n But fate had not rewarded Twellman with the kind of future in Europe he had envisioned\u00a0 Despite performing well in the reserves at 1860 Munich, Twellman was frustrated that he had not been given a chance with the first team.\u00a0 As a result, Twellman decided to return to the United States and try his luck in Major League Soccer.<\/p>\n He entered the draft as a forward and was promptly picked second overall in the MLS SuperDraft nd<\/sup> by the Revolution.<\/p>\n Two different sports had their paws on Twellman.\u00a0 And 10 different teams could have captured him in the draft.\u00a0 And yet somehow, someway, he had arrived in New England to score goals.<\/p>\n Twellman did not disappoint in his rookie campaign.\u00a0 He scored a career-high 23 goals and led New England to its first MLS Cup where they eventually fell to the Los Angeles Galaxy.\u00a0 The following season, Twellman tied Carlos Ruiz in league scoring with 15 goals- except Twellman did it in despite being injured for half the season.<\/p>\n Dark days followed the Revolution in 2004.\u00a0 The team, despite the advent of young promising players like Clint Dempsey and Andy Dorman and the consistent performances of Pat Noonan and Shalrie Joseph, were struggling mightily.<\/p>\n All the while, Twellman, the proven goalscorer, had only scored three goals through the middle of July.\u00a0 A hamstring injury also battered Twellman, forcing him to sit out for a few weeks.<\/p>\n But by the end of the season, Twellman rejoined the Revs and scored nine goals, helping the team slide into the final playoff spot.\u00a0 The Revolution eventually lost to DC United in the 2004 Eastern Conference Final, but it was clear that Twellman\u2019s scoring foot had returned as he put away two postseason goals.<\/p>\n Twellman\u2019s Midas touch continued into the 2005 season, when he would become the league and All-Star MVP and score 17 goals to win the Golden Boot.\u00a0 He also scored his first International goal in the final World Cup Qualifying match against Panama at Gillette Stadium.\u00a0 The 2005 season was the best ever for New England, who opened the season with an 11 game unbeaten streak and saw Twellman score two hat tricks.<\/p>\n The 2006 and 2007 seasons were certifiable successes for the Revolution.\u00a0 Twellman scored 27 goals between both years and led the team to back-to-back MLS Cups.\u00a0 But since the Cup loss in 2007, Twellman lost his form.\u00a0 Though he was slated to start the season opener in 2008, he missed the first six weeks of the season due to a leg injury.\u00a0 When he rejoined the Revolution, he scored in a 2-1 victory over Chivas USA in May, but re-injured himself in the process.\u00a0 Twellman wouldn\u2019t return to the field until the 2008 Superliga, where he scored a penalty kick to help the team win its first International trophy.<\/p>\n But in August 2008, things took a turn for the worst for Twellman.\u00a0 Twellman connected with the fist of Los Angeles\u2019 Steve Cronin while heading a ball and was left with an injury that would eventually end his career.\u00a0 Though Twellman scored the goal, he was left in severe pain that kept him off the field during the post-season and most of 2009.<\/p>\n Twellman managed to make two appearances in 2009 before returning to the injury list again.\u00a0 On June 9, Twellman became the youngest player to score 100 goals, as he scored twice against the New York Red Bulls.<\/p>\n I certainly didn\u2019t think that was the end of Taylor Twellman.\u00a0 At the time, he had yet to turn 30 and had just scored his 100th<\/sup> and 101st<\/sup> career goals.\u00a0 But unfortunately, Twellman would never play in a league game ever again despite valiant efforts to come back.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a word that describes Twellman’s career, it has to be “rollercoaster.” \u00a0Taylor Twellman\u2019s career had it all: stratospheric highs and ocean valley lows..\u00a0 Everyone will remember his bicycle kick against the Chicago Fire in the 2007 Eastern Conference final.\u00a0 The way he flew through the air when he attempted a diving header or the way he jumped a pumped his fist to the air after he scored another goal.<\/p>\n And then there were the injuries- hamstrings, broken feet, broken cheeks, not to mention a series of concussions\u00a0 It wasn’t a surprise really, given the level of tenacity and reckless abandon the blonde bomber played with. And everyone will remember how this striker from St. Louis, despite his obvious talent and knack for scoring, was kept off the national team for the 2006 World Cup.\u00a0 There aren\u2019t many people who think Twellman should have stayed home in 2006, and to their credit, Twellman continued to prove his supporters right.<\/p>\n Although Jaime Moreno leads the league in all-time scoring, it’s no secret that his numerous penalty kick conversions inflated his total.\u00a0 Twellman scored 100+ times in so many ways.\u00a0 With his head, with his foot, and with hischest.\u00a0 From in close, from long range.\u00a0 From freekicks, corner kicks, and breakaways.\u00a0 And, from the penalty spot- but only thrice.<\/p>\n The two years the Revolution were without Twellman were agony, because it was painfully obvious that the team lacked a goal scorer.\u00a0 Without Twellman, this group of Revolution players was an entirely different team.<\/p>\n As a little kid, I remember his autograph was the toughest to attain. It frustrated me. \u00a0 But when I think about each of the 101 goals I saw as I watched Twellman, I realize that they were better than autographs.\u00a0 They gave me and the Revolution faithful a reason to believe.<\/p>\n A part of that belief died when Taylor stepped up to the podium yesterday and announced that his bruised body could no longer endure the abuse of top flight soccer.<\/p>\n There never will be another Taylor Twellman.\u00a0 But he proved to many that the United States is quite capable of producing goalscorers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I remember my very first Revolution game perfectly. My dad parked at Honey Dew Donuts- a mile away from the stadium- just for the coffee.\u00a0 I was seven years old and in complete awe when we had walked far enough to see Gillette Stadium\u2019s lights shine brightly in the dusk sky.\u00a0 After Dad bought our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[30],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/twellmankraft.jpg?fit=500%2C413&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1483"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions\/1499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}