{"id":36382,"date":"2015-06-29T01:13:06","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T05:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=36382"},"modified":"2015-06-29T01:13:06","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T05:13:06","slug":"fan-favorite-returns-to-foxboro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=36382","title":{"rendered":"Fan Favorite Returns to Foxboro"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Adam Sell<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 Joe-Max Moore wasn\u2019t on the Revolution\u2019s First Kick roster back in 1996, but that didn\u2019t deter him from becoming one of the original fan favorites.<\/p>\n

Prior to Saturday\u2019s Revolution-Whitecaps match, the former Revolution striker \u2013 who retired in 2004 with a then-club record 41 career goals \u2013 returned to Foxborough to see many of the same faces that cheered him from the stands of Foxboro Stadium during those halcyon days. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love it here, it\u2019s my second home,\u201d Moore said during a halftime meeting with the media. \u201cI was here for six years in total, and I love it. I love everything about the city, the Revolution as an organization, and the ownership. It\u2019s just a great place to be. Best sports town I know, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore originally joined the Revolution midway through the 1996 season, and eventually went on to score a team-high 11 goals in only 14 games during a largely disappointing inaugural campaign. Scoring, of course, was only part of the reason why the fans adored the Tulsa, Oklahoma native.<\/p>\n

Though he was never the biggest player on the pitch, the 5-9, 150lbs. forward played with an engine that never quit, which only endeared himself even more to the Revolution\u2019s supporters during those halcyon days. <\/p>\n

While Moore, who was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2013, made plenty of memories at the now-demolished Foxboro Stadium during his Revolution and U.S. career, he believes that the club would stand to benefit from moving out of Gillette Stadium and into a soccer specific stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the atmosphere for the supporters and the players is really important,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI think it gets a whole lot better when it\u2019s a smaller stadium, and I think it\u2019ll be a huge difference for everybody once they get that built here in the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent months, a couple of different sites in Greater Boston have been discussed for a potential stadium, and Moore said that it\u2019s important for the team to get it right. And if they do, he believes that the Revolution could enjoy the same kind of fervent home support seen in Seattle, Portland and Kansas City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if it\u2019s put in the right location, and you have a good product that the people of the city can be proud of,\u201d Moore said, \u201cthen I think it\u2019ll definitely create that type of atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since calling it a career 11 years ago, Moore has gone the entrepreneurial route by investing in a variety of business endeavors. But he admits that he\u2019s kept a pulse on how MLS has grown since the early days \u2013 growth that he could easily gauge while making rounds among fans in the Gillette Stadium parking lot ahead of Saturday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great time with the supporters\u2019 clubs out there before the game, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s totally changing and different,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThe support now, I think, as far as the fans coming out before the games \u2013 it\u2019s really neat to see. This sport\u2019s growing in a big way, and I\u2019m looking forward to the day that we get our own soccer specific stadium in Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe-Max Moore – one of the first fan favorites in club history – was back in Foxborough on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36393,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[891,614,1274,1202,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Joe-Max-12.png?fit=603%2C415&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36382"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36382"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36394,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36382\/revisions\/36394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}