While this page was on haitus the Revolution acquired a dubious accolade. Vancouver stole points from DCUnited while New England continued to hemorrhage goals. With those precious points Vancouver climbed past us while we dropped into last place in the league. The wooden spoon is ours during a season when two expansion teams joined the league, Kansas City floundered seemingly helpless until their home stadium opened, and Toronto and Chicago waited until too late to make a run into the playoffs. I have attempted to document the positive developments throughout this season. The task of optimism and reasons to hope are undermined given the bad results and crummier uncertainties that describe the 2011 New England Revolution.
Frustration and a generally dark force moves through the #Revs twitterverse. This is the season that the club made several moves that suggest credibility. The Revs signed a jersey sponsor in UnitedHealthcare, a home grown player in Uruguyan Diego Fagundez, and a designated player in Argentine Milton Caraglio. The club opened up seats on both sides of the pitch no matter how many tickets were sold for the first time, allowing fans to surround the field. All of these milestones in addition to the unexpected arrival of Benny Feilhaber, and the consistent contributions of AJ Soares might have suggested to me back in March that we had bounced back from our bad season last year. The arc of descent only began last year as even these notable events have been eclipsed by a slow slide that inspires nothing but gloom.
Lately, the veritable galaxy of Revs blogs has written almost exclusively on either the topic of Revolution failures/deficits or the topic of who could be brought in to change this clubs trajectory. There are two major questions as the offseason hurtles towards our club as if we were falling down an elevator shaft. Shalrie Joseph has come out and then retreated from outright saying this is his last year in New England. His contract is up and there is also an Expansion Draft for the Montreal Impact and the Re-Entry Draft, so there are several opportunities for our Captain to depart unless he signs a new contract. Also at the end of his contract is Coach Steve Nicol. If you would like to do some emotional stretching please consider skipping between discussions like this about a team imploding and the recent news that Caleb Porter will continue to coach U Akron and now also coach the US Mens Olympic team (http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/10/21/us-u-23-coach-porter-its-my-job-qualify-us-olympics). It is difficult not to think about how changes in leadership might sweep away the uncertainty and miasma of failure that is clinging to the Revs right now.
So, New England travels up to Toronto for the final game of the season. AJ Soares and Diego, youthful reasons to hope for the future, are on the injured list along with McCarthy, Nyassi, and Reis. This will not be a lineup we’ve seen before from the Revs, nor will it be a possible lineup for next season. I hope the locker room camaraderie is strong and that the guys can bow out on this season with pride. I fear that this is just another opportunity to demonstrate how futile this season has felt. The end is near! That will be a relief.
While this page was on haitus, the Revolution acquired a dubious accolade. Vancouver stole points from DCUnited while New England continued to hemorrhage goals. With those precious points Vancouver climbed past us, while we dropped into last place in the league. The wooden spoon is ours during a season when two expansion teams joined the league: Kansas City floundered seemingly helpless until their home stadium opened, and Toronto and Chicago waited until too late to make a run into the playoffs. I have attempted to document the positive developments throughout this season. The task of optimism and reasons to hope are undermined given the bad results and crummier uncertainties that describe the 2011 New England Revolution.
Frustration and a generally dark force moves through the #Revs twitterverse. This is the season that the club made several moves that suggested credibility. The Revs signed a jersey sponsor in UnitedHealthcare, a home grown player in Uruguyan Diego Fagundez, and a designated player in Argentine Milton Caraglio. The club opened up seats on both sides of the pitch- no matter how many tickets were sold- for the first time, allowing fans to surround the field. All of these milestones, in addition to the unexpected arrival of Benny Feilhaber, and the consistent contributions of AJ Soares might have suggested to me back in March that we had bounced back from our bad season last year. The arc of descent only began last year as even these notable events have been eclipsed by a slow slide that inspires nothing but gloom.
Lately, the veritable galaxy of Revs blogs has written almost exclusively on either the topic of Revolution failures/deficits or the topic of who could be brought in to change this clubs trajectory. There are two major questions as the offseason hurtles towards our club as if we were falling down an elevator shaft. Shalrie Joseph has come out and then retreated from outright saying this is his last year in New England. His contract is up and there is also an Expansion Draft for the Montreal Impact and the Re-Entry Draft, so there are several opportunities for our Captain to depart unless he signs a new contract. Also at the end of his contract is Coach Steve Nicol. If you would like to do some emotional stretching, please consider skipping between discussions like this about a team imploding and the recent news that Caleb Porter will continue to coach U Akron and now also coach the US Mens Olympic team (http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/10/21/us-u-23-coach-porter-its-my-job-qualify-us-olympics). It is difficult not to think about how changes in leadership might sweep away the uncertainty and miasma of failure that is clinging to the Revs right now.
So, New England 
;travels up to Toronto for the final game of the season. AJ Soares and Diego, youthful reasons to hope for the future, are on the injured list along with McCarthy, Nyassi, and Reis. This will not be a lineup we’ve seen before from the Revs, nor will it be a possible lineup for next season. I hope the lockerroom camaraderie is strong and that the guys can bow out on this season with pride. I fear that this is just another opportunity to demonstrate how futile this season has felt. The end is near! That will be a relief.
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