{"id":1500,"date":"2010-11-05T01:40:25","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T05:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2010-11-05T10:58:53","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T14:58:53","slug":"twellman%e2%80%99s-goal-scoring-star-power-tough-to-replace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=1500","title":{"rendered":"Twellman\u2019s Goal Scoring, Star Power Tough to Replace"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Taylor Twellman announced his retirement Wednesday, the New England Revolution lost not only the best goal scorer in team, and perhaps league history, but also its most recognizable face over the past decade.<\/p>\n

Twellman quickly became the face of the franchise after arriving in 2002, filling a void the team had since the end of the \u201890s. In their early years, the Revs had players who were marketable both on and off the field in U.S. National Team defenders Alexi Lalas and Mike Burns, as well as striker Joe-Max Moore. But by the end of the 2000 season, Lalas and Burns had been traded away while Moore headed overseas to play for Everton. Suddenly, the Revs lacked a true star.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Taylor Twellman announced his retirement Wednesday. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEarly on we had Alexi and Mike,\u201d said Craig Tornberg, who has worked for the Revs since 1995 and is currently the team\u2019s Vice President of Business Development. \u201cAfter Alexi and Mike it was almost like [goalkeeper and eventual coach Walter] Zenga became such a major figure for us. I think right after that and because the team wasn\u2019t performing so well we were really desperate to have someone who could kind of put us on not only the sports pages, but somebody who could translate well into just society\u2019s pages and find their way into the lifestyle pages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twellman proved to be the perfect person for the job. Not only did he grab the headlines by scoring goals, but he also became a well known figure in the community, making appearances in the gossip pages, earning in spot as \u201cMassachusetts\u2019s Cosmo Bachelor\u201d, being a guest judge in local talent competitions, and even turning down a spot in ABC\u2019s \u201cThe Bachelor\u201d.<\/p>\n

Twellman took to the role as a figurehead and tried to make the team an even bigger part of the Boston sports landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about when I came here in \u201902 \u2026 since that time, I\u2019ve [seen] two World Series, I\u2019ve seen an NBA Championship and three Super Bowls,\u201d said Twellman. \u201cAnd it was after my \u201903 year. My season ended, I broke my foot, and that year I kind of made a conscious effort. I wanted to get the Revs in the top four in this town\u2026 If we would\u2019ve won one \u2013 maybe in \u201905, \u201906 \u2013 I think we [would\u2019ve gotten] there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut under no circumstances am I the face of the franchise if we\u2019re not winning and my team\u2019s not playing well,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo I was just really doing my job and thanks to my mom\u2019s blonde hair, ending up in New England, they don\u2019t have a lot of blonde-haired people, so they\u2019re like, \u2018We\u2019ll make him the face.\u2019 It was an honor to do it, but it was really just me representing the 24 guys in that locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Twellman did his best on the field to help the team to unprecedented success and recognition in the local media, his efforts off the field extended beyond just turning into an identifiable figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s given back to the community in spades,\u201d said Revolution Investor\/Operator Jonathan Kraft. \u201cHe was always talking to the people in our front office about what he could be doing to go out work with kids, go to hospitals, develop a presence for the Revolution and give those kids the dream that you could stick with soccer if you loved it and play professional sports in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The front office of the Revolution quickly recognized the potential Twellman had as the face of the team and put him at the center of their marketing efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaylor had that little swagger,\u201d said Tornberg. \u201cAs far as a person to be able to represent the organization: he\u2019s a goal scorer, he\u2019s a good-looking guy, and he\u2019s got that swagger that goes along with that confidence level. As a result of that I think it was just a package that\u2019s \u2026 really a marketer\u2019s dream when you get right down to it. He\u2019s done so well not only on the field, but also off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course Twellman would never have become so well known off the field if he didn\u2019t have the success he did on it: the only player in MLS history to record 100 goals before his 30th birthday, fifth in total career goals scored in MLS, five-time MLS All-Star (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 & 2007), two-time MLS Best XI (2002 & 2005), and MLS MVP and Golden Boot winner in 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just been a great blessing for the entire organization to be able to have somebody like him and deliver the goods,\u201d said Tornberg. \u201c[He\u2019s] not just a marketable figure, but somebody you could also hold with anybody as far as his ability to play soccer\u2026 That kind of package is always difficult to replace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taylor Twellman was more than just a great soccer player. He was the embodiment of a modern superstar athlete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1501,"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":[24,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/twellmanconferencefeature2.jpg?fit=490%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1500"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions\/1518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}