{"id":1913,"date":"2010-12-30T00:18:13","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T05:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=1913"},"modified":"2010-12-30T13:11:56","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T18:11:56","slug":"the-year-that-was-new-england-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=1913","title":{"rendered":"The Year That Was: New England Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the New England Revolution, 2010 is a year the club will be glad to finally see in the rearview mirror. In their worst season under head coach Steve Nicol and arguably their worst\u00a0of the 21st<\/sup> century, there was little to be excited about.<\/p>\n

The Revs struggled to replace outgoing veterans and rarely looked a threat to top teams until it was too late in the season to make a difference. A midseason trip to the SuperLiga Final\u00a0failed to quell the frustration of Revolution fans, as the club missed the postseason for the first time since 2001 with a record of 9-16-5 (32 points).<\/p>\n

With the status of several players still in limbo, the forecast was already cloudy in January. The SuperDraft proved to be a moderate success as the Revs would get production out of draft picks Zack Schilawski, Seth Sinovic, Zak Boggs and Jason Griffiths.\u00a0Despite their best efforts, it was impossible,within\u00a0a 30-game schedule,\u00a0to\u00a0replace the veterans who had helped build the Revolution dynasty.<\/p>\n

With Jay Heaps’ retirement, as well as\u00a0the\u00a0trade of Chris Albright for a second and third round draft pick to New York, the backline lost years of valuable experience.<\/p>\n

Compounding the problem was All-Star goalkeeper Matt Reis\u2019 offseason surgery that would keep him out for a good portion of the season. The loss of talent and experience continued when the team somehow failed to re-sign midfield stalwarts Steve Ralston\u00a0and Jeff Laretonwicz.<\/p>\n

Suffering from a serious lack of leadership, experience and depth, the Revs\u00a0hoped to\u00a0address these issues \u00a0by acquiring former U.S. National Team defender Cory Gibbs and veteran \u2018keeper Preston Burpo in a package deal\u00a0for Larentowicz and Wells Thompson. Needing to address the\u00a0canyon left by Larentowicz’s departure, the team signed Senegalese midfielder Joseph Niouky.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Revolution, those additions did not come\u00a0even close to filling the gaping holes across the field. While Burpo proved to be a solid fill-in for Reis, Gibbs struggled with injuries and rarely looked in top form. Niouky never seemed to get up to speed with MLS and was mercifully released in August.<\/p>\n

While the team\u00a0was optimistic that\u00a0all-time leading scorer Taylor Twellman would come back from his concussion-related injuries, he was eventually added to the season-ending injury list in June after suffering a setback in his recovery.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Schilawski looked like a solid replacement early in the season, as the former Demon Deacon\u00a0registered a hat trick in the third game of the season, a 4-1 thrashing over Toronto. But after his fast start, one in which\u00a0he scored goals against the Red Bulls and Dallas, the rookie striker faded in the summmer months, and would not score another league goal for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

The loss of Twellman\u00a0continued to haunt the\u00a0club as\u00a0Kheli Dube struggled find his form after battling midseason injuries. Edgaras Jankauskas, who was re-signed for a reported $240,000 prior to the season, did little to prove his worth and was subsequently\u00a0waived before the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Despite the litany of shortcomings and pitfalls, the late-March signing of 26-year-old Serbian attacking midfielder Marko Perovic provided a glimmering hope during the season. The Serbian international provided a constant, if not lone,\u00a0threat\u00a0 in the attacking third, and\u00a0went on to lead the team with six goals and earned Revolution MVP honors.<\/p>\n

Another positive development was the midseason addition of\u00a0Ilija Stolica, who\u00a0gave Perovic a capable partner up top.\u00a0Although the 31-year-old Serbian striker would only score three times in 14 games with the club, his class and ability was evident and added\u00a0the leadership that the young, unpolished squad desperately needed.<\/p>\n

The struggles at forward were just part of the problem. When no one in midfield proved capable of providing the dependability that Ralston brought, the team naturally beckoned the 35-year-old back.\u00a0Luckily, Ralston returned, but not before he\u00a0sustained\u00a0an elbow\u00a0injury\u00a0only minutes into his\u00a0second act.\u00a0His\u00a0retirement would come before the end of the summer.<\/p>\n

The midfield woes were further exacerbated when skipper Shalrie Joseph missed the start of the season, reportedly due to a substance abuse violation, and missed eight games overall. \u00a0The emergence of Kenny Mansally on the left to compliment Sainey Nyassi on the right gave the midfield some much needed bite, but the service\u00a0lacked all season as the Revs eeked out a meager 32 goals, their lowest offensive output in team history.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t just the lack of suitable replacements\u00a0that\u00a0sunk the ship. Injuries ravaged the defense all season with Gibbs, Darrius Barnes, Emmanuel Osei, and Kevin Alston all missing significant time. Those injuries, along with Nicol constantly rotating rookie Seth Sinovic in and out of the line-up,\u00a0kept the revolving door turning all season.<\/p>\n

The situation\u00a0in goal\u00a0also found itself\u00a0in flux after Burpo went down with a season-ending injury in May and was replaced in net by second year \u2018keeper Bobby Shuttleworth until Reis was ready in June. Shuttleworth was called upon again when Reis underwent season-ending surgery with three games remaining. The lack of chemistry in the defending third was apparent as the team\u00a0coughed up\u00a0a league-worst 50 goals, highlighted by a humiliating\u00a05-0 thrashing at the hands of Salt Lake in early July.<\/p>\n

SuperLiga provided a scarce occasion when the backline found some consistency. Amazingly,\u00a0the patchwork Revs recorded a 389 minute shutout streak through all competitions\u00a0en route\u00a0to a eight-match unbeaten streak from July 14th through August 14th as well as a SuperLiga Final in September.<\/p>\n

Since the Revs failed to qualify for the U.S. Open Cup and would end up missing the MLS playoffs, the SuperLiga proved the team\u2019s one chance to win some silverware. The Revs would fail in their bid to become the first team to claim two SuperLiga titles, however, as they fell in the final 2-1 to Mexico\u2019s Monarca Morelia.<\/p>\n

With their postseason hopes shot, the only thing left to play for in the waning weeks was pride. Incredibly, the Revs rose to occasion, as their level of play seemed to rise and the team went toe-to-toe with\u00a0Dallas, Columbus, and Salt Lake down the stretch.\u00a0While the improvement was promising, the need for serious offseason change remained.<\/p>\n

Indeed, if 2008 and 2009 weren\u2019t clear enough signs about how far the Revs have fallen since their last MLS Cup appearance in 2007, then the 2010\u00a0season certainly was. Failing to adequately replace Clint Dempsey, Pat Noonan, Andy Dorman, Michael Parkhurst,\u00a0 Larentowicz, and Ralston unsurprisingly caught up to the Revs this year. Twellman\u2019s retirement after the season further solidified the need for major reinforcements.<\/p>\n

After the team\u00a0declined the options\u00a0on several players\u2019 contracts (including Gibbs and Burpo)\u00a0 this offseason,\u00a0combined with the departures of the high-salaried\u00a0Twellman and Jankauskas, the\u00a0team\u00a0suddenly finds itself with\u00a0considerable salary cap room to work with this offseason. The team already signed re-entry draft selection Ryan Cochrane to add defensive depth, but will need to\u00a0sign more than a single player\u00a0to plug all of the holes.<\/p>\n

Late in the season, Revs chief operating officer Brian Bilello made clear the Revs recognize their need to improve and will pursue signing one or more designated players, a distinction given to players making over a $335,000+ salary\u00a0that only counts partially against the cap. Such an investment could show the Revs commitment to getting the team back on track. Now it\u2019s up to the Revs to find \u2013 and sign \u2013 the necessary players across the field to get the team back into contention.<\/p>\n

Twenty ten, if anything, served as a tough lesson\u00a0for the Revolution, from\u00a0start to finish.\u00a0Next year\u00a0will prove whether that lesson was learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bright spots were far and few in between for the Revolution in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1038,"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":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/josephreffeature.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\/1913"}],"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=1913"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1925,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913\/revisions\/1925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}