The New England Revolution is an American professional
soccer club based in the
Greater Boston area that competes in
Major League Soccer (MLS), in the
Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league since its
inaugural season.
The club is owned by
Robert Kraft, who also owns the
New England Patriots along with his son,
Jonathan Kraft. The name "Revolution" refers to the
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
region's significant involvement in the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
that took place from 1775 to 1783.
New England plays their home matches at
Gillette Stadium
Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is southwest of downtown Boston. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Foo ...
in
Foxborough, Massachusetts, located 21 miles (34 km) southwest of downtown
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. The club played their home games at the adjacent and now-demolished
Foxboro Stadium
Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England ...
, from 1996 until 2001. The Revs are the only original MLS team to have every league game in their history televised.
The Revolution won their first major trophy in the
2007 U.S. Open Cup. The following year, they won the
2008 North American SuperLiga. They won their first
Supporters' Shield
The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since ...
in 2021. The Revolution have participated in five
MLS Cup
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...
finals in
2002,
2005,
2006,
2007, and
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...
, which are the most of clubs who have not won the MLS Cup.
History
The early years (1996–2001)
Soccer has a long history in the New England region. In 1862, the
Oneida Football Club
The Oneida Football Club, founded and captained by Gerrit Smith Miller in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1862, was the first organized team to play any kind of football in the United States.[Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...]
was the first organized team to play any kind of "football/soccer" in the United States. In the 1920s, the
Boston Soccer Club
The Boston Soccer Club was a member of the American Soccer League. They were renamed the Boston Bears for the Fall 1929 ASL season.
In 1925, the ASL and the St. Louis Soccer League (SLSL) boycotted the National Challenge Cup, now known as the ...
(later renamed the
Bears
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the No ...
) and
Fall River Marksmen were formed and played in the professional
American Soccer League, which comprised teams based in the northeastern U.S. region. The Marksmen were one of the most successful soccer clubs in the United States, winning the
National Challenge Cup four times. At the inaugural
FIFA World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay,
Bert Patenaude (from
Fall River, Massachusetts) scored the first
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...
in World Cup play.
The
USMNT finished in third place. The Boston area was next represented by the
New England Tea Men
The New England Tea Men were an American professional soccer team based in Greater Boston. They played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 to 1980. Their home venues for outdoor play were Schaefer Stadium (shared with the NFL's ...
(1978–80) and
Boston Minutemen (1974–76), who played in the
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
-backed, major professional
North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to:
*North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league
*North American Soccer League (2011–2017)
The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league ba ...
(NASL). However, each club struggled for financial solvency and folded. The NASL folded in 1984, leaving the United States without a top-level soccer league until Major League Soccer (MLS) began play in 1996.
The success of the
1994 FIFA World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...
(with
Foxboro Stadium
Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England ...
as one of nine venues) paved the way for a new era of sports in the
Boston area and to bring professional soccer back to the region. On June 6, 1995,
Robert Kraft became the founding investor/operator of the Revolution, joining
Major League Soccer (MLS) as one of its 10 charter clubs for its inaugural season in 1996. Kraft is also the owner of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
's (NFL)
New England Patriots and CEO of the
Kraft Group.
The inaugural Revolution team featured several
U.S. Men's national team regulars returning from abroad to be part of the new league. Despite the presence of
Alexi Lalas,
Mike Burns, and
Joe-Max Moore
Joe-Max Moore (born February 23, 1971) is an American former soccer player. He played professionally for clubs in Germany, England and the United States. He finished his career with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer. In additio ...
, however, the team was one of only two that failed to make the playoffs of the then 10 team league. The following season, the squad made the playoffs, but failed to advance past the first round. For the next five years, this playoff result would be the Revs' best (which they matched in the
2000 season), as a revolving door of players and head coaches failed to make much of an impact on the fledgling league.
Attendance in these early years was high despite the team's poor on-field performances. More than 15,000 people per match regularly came to watch the Revolution play in the old
Foxboro Stadium
Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England ...
in
Foxborough, Massachusetts. The Revs did manage to make the final of the
2001 U.S. Open Cup, but they lost to the
Los Angeles Galaxy on a
golden goal by
Danny Califf. It was a harbinger of finals to come for the Revolution.
Steve Nicol era (2002–2011)
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
great
Steve Nicol was appointed as head coach on a full-time basis during the
2002 season. He had previously held the position of interim head coach during the
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
and 2002 seasons. After taking over, Nicol guided the Revolution to a playoff berth for a league-record eight straight seasons, failing for the first time in 2010. The first six of those berths (from 2002 to 2007) resulted in an appearance in the conference final or better, including three consecutive
MLS Cup
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...
finals from 2005 to 2007. From the
2008 season until 2013, the Revs failed to go further than the first round of the playoffs. Still, Nicol was respected as one of the best coaches in the league.
Playoff success (2002–2007)
In his first season in charge, Nicol guided the Revs to a first-place finish in the
Eastern Conference. The team advanced through the playoffs to the MLS Cup final, where they lost to the Galaxy again, this time 1–0 on a golden goal by
Carlos Ruiz. Held at
Gillette Stadium
Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is southwest of downtown Boston. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Foo ...
, the Cup final was attended by 61,316 spectators, the largest figure for any MLS Cup until 2018.
Consecutive MLS Cup finals
After losing in the conference finals in
2003 and
2004, the Revs repeated their 2002 feat finishing tops in the east and losing the cup final to Los Angeles 1–0 in extra time again in
2005. New England had a real chance to win their first MLS championship, in
MLS Cup 2006
MLS Cup 2006 was the 11th edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS), and took place on November 12, 2006. It was contested between the New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo to decide the champion of ...
, against the
Houston Dynamo. After
Taylor Twellman scored in the 113th minute, the Revs allowed an equalizing header from the Dynamo's
Brian Ching
Brian Ching (born May 24, 1978) is an American former professional soccer player who played for twelve years in Major League Soccer and represented the U.S. national team for eight years.
Ching's professional career began when he was the 16th ...
less than a minute later that sent the game to penalty kicks, where the Revs lost 4–3.
In the
2007 season, the Revs made it to two cup finals. The
2007 MLS Cup was a rematch from the previous year, though the result was the same as Houston defeated New England 2–1. The Revolution hold the record for most losses in
MLS Cup games. Though they lost the
2007 MLS Cup, they defeated
FC Dallas 3–2 to win their first-ever trophy: the
2007 U.S. Open Cup.
Their 2002 MLS Cup appearance granted them a spot in the 2003
CONCACAF Champions Cup, but they lost their first match-up 5:3 on aggregate after playing two games on the road to
LD Alajuelense. The Revolution again faced LD Alajuelense of
Costa Rica in the home and away
2006 CONCACAF Champions' Cup. The "home" game was played February 22, 2006, in
Bermuda despite some fans feeling that playing at Gillette Stadium in the adverse conditions of winter in New England could have been advantageous. The Revs failed to advance, as they drew 0–0 in Bermuda and lost 0–1 in Costa Rica.
Rebuilding (2008–2011)
The 2007 U.S. Open Cup victory qualified the club for the preliminary round of the newly expanded
CONCACAF Champions League. Additionally, their top-four finish qualified them for
SuperLiga 2008. Therefore, the Revolution competed in four different competitions (MLS, Open Cup, Champions League, and SuperLiga) during the
2008 season. The Revolution had an excellent run at the beginning of the 2008 season. By mid-July, they were leading the overall MLS table and had finished as the number one overall seed in SuperLiga. The team won the tournament, defeating the
Houston Dynamo on penalties to earn a small amount of revenge on for their successive MLS Cup defeats. That trophy, however, was the high point for the 2008 Revs. Fixture congestion led to a rash of injuries and general fatigue, and the team crashed out the
Champions League with an embarrassing 4–0 home defeat to regional minnows
Joe Public FC of
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
(the tie ended 6–1 Joe Public on aggregate). The team also struggled in domestic play, limping to a third-place finish in the East and losing to the
Chicago Fire in the first round of the playoffs. The Revs managed a semifinal appearance in the
2008 U.S. Open Cup
The 2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was the 95th edition of the USSF's annual national soccer championship, running from June through early September.
D.C. United won the final 2–1 over the Charleston Battery on September 3 at RFK Stadium in Washi ...
, but lost to
D.C. United.
In 2009, the Revs continued the mediocrity that had plagued the second half of their 2008 season, losing to Chicago again in the first round of the playoffs. The team also lost to Chicago in the semifinals of the
2009 SuperLiga.
2010 started even more dismally than 2009, with the team failing to put together an unbeaten streak longer than three games until July. Despite the abysmal progress, this unbeaten streak coincided with the Revs' third consecutive SuperLiga appearance, and for the second time in three years, the team made the competition's final, but lost 2–1 to
Monarcas Morelia of
Liga MX.
The team failed to make the playoffs in either 2010 or 2011, and at the end of the 2011 season, announced they had parted ways with manager
Steve Nicol, who had managed the team for 10 years.
2010s
The team hired former player
Jay Heaps as head coach. The 2012 season was another disappointment.
In 2013, the team finished 3rd place in the Eastern Conference, making the playoffs for the first time since 2009 with the help of a budding Homegrown Player,
Diego Fagundez
Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''.
Et ...
.
In the April 2014 issue of ''
Boston Magazine'', journalist Kevin Alexander named the Kraft family as "the Worst Owners in the League" in an article that contrasted the family's sparkling reputation as NFL owners with their alleged lack of interest in MLS and the Revolution.
The 2014 season brought success. The Revolution signed U.S. national team member
Jermaine Jones
Jermaine Junior Jones (born November 3, 1981) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a defensive midfielder.
Born in Germany to an American father and German mother, he came up through the German club system and represe ...
in late August on a designated player contract. They then went on a 10–1–1 streak led by Jones and MVP candidate
Lee Nguyen
Lee may refer to:
Name
Given name
* Lee (given name), a given name in English
Surname
* Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee:
** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname
** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...
to finish in 2nd place in the regular season in the Eastern Conference. The Revolution breezed through the playoffs without losing a game, making it to their first MLS Cup Final since 2007. New England lost 2–1 to the LA Galaxy, marking their fifth MLS Cup loss in five MLS Cup appearances.
Bruce Arena era (2019–present)
On May 9, 2019, coach
Brad Friedel
Bradley Howard Friedel (born May 18, 1971) is an American professional soccer coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper.
Friedel played 84 games for the United States national team between 1992 and 2005, and represented his country ...
was fired by the Revolution after a 12–21–13 career record and a 2–8–2 record to open the 2019 season. He was replaced by former
D.C. United,
LA Galaxy and
USMNT coach
Bruce Arena. Under Arena, the Revolution went eleven games undefeated until losing 2–0 to the
Los Angeles FC on August 3, 2019. They were eliminated in the 1st Round of the 2019 Playoffs by Atlanta United FC, getting shut out 1–0. The Revolution lost to the
Columbus Crew 1–0 in the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2020 Playoffs.
2021: Supporters' Shield winners
The
2021 season saw the Revolution win their first
Supporters' Shield
The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since ...
in club history by having the best record in the regular season. New England set a new MLS record for points in a season (73), surpassing the previous mark of 72 set by Los Angeles FC in 2019. Goalkeeper
Matt Turner won the
MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Award, and
Carles Gil won the
MLS Most Valuable Player Award. In the MLS Quarterfinals, the Revolution lost to eventual MLS Cup finalist,
New York City FC on penalties, ending their hopes to be the first MLS team to complete the league double (winning both the Supporters' Shield and
MLS Cup
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...
) since 2017.
The franchise's turnaround since May 2019 has been credited to head coach and sporting director Bruce Arena.
Team colors and crest
The original club badge was stylized and based on the
flag of the United States with some of the stars made into a soccer ball (similar to
Adidas' ball for the
UEFA Champions League), composed of six stars, representing the six New England states. The overall design mirrored the
1994 FIFA World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...
logo. The Revolution was the last founding team of the MLS to keep its original crest. In 2014, the flag and ball were retained while the name was dropped.
In 2021, the club launched its new logo. They enlisted an independent third-party to conduct focus groups consisting of Boston sports fans to elicit feedback about what the re-branded badge should represent. It features an "R" sitting above a red strikethrough. The inner shape references traditional flag
drapery which plays homage to the original Revolution logo. The "R"'s font references the
Boston Tea Party mark and
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
ary era lettering. Red details around the logo itself are reminiscent of
patriotic bunting and the strikethrough behind the logo is meant to symbolize defiance.
Uniforms
Traditionally, the Revolution have worn all-navy at home, with the exception of red shorts during the club's first year in 1996. Since 2014, the club has worn white shorts at home. To mark the club and the league's 25th anniversary, the red shorts returned for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The Revolution wore white secondary uniforms for their entire existence until 2015; that year club introduced a red away jersey with white and green accents in tribute to the
flag of New England, and away uniforms demonstrated more design variation from there. The following is a partial list of the last nine kits worn by the Revolution.
*Home
*Away
Sponsorship
Stadium
The Revolution play home matches at Gillette Stadium in
Foxborough, Massachusetts. At its inception, the Revolution played their games at
Foxboro Stadium
Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England ...
, alongside the
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
team
New England Patriots of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL). In 2002,
Robert Kraft financed a $350-million project as a replacement for Foxboro Stadium which would come to be known as Gillette Stadium. In 2007, Kraft began to develop the land around
Gillette Stadium
Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is southwest of downtown Boston. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Foo ...
, creating a $375-million open-air shopping and entertainment center called
Patriot Place
Patriot Place is an open-air shopping center owned by The Kraft Group built around Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots and New England Revolution. It is located in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The first phase opened in fall ...
.
Gillette Stadium is a 66,000-seat stadium including luxury and box seating. The Revolution artificially limit the stadium's capacity for MLS matches, with certain seating sections covered with tarpaulins, or made inaccessible. However, the club does open the entire stadium for international matches and MLS Playoffs. On October 20, 2002, during the
2002 MLS Cup final a record was established when a crowd of 61,316 attended a Revolution 1–0 loss against the
Los Angeles Galaxy. This was the largest stand-alone
MLS post-season crowd on record until the
2018 MLS Cup in Atlanta at
Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Although the Revolution have played on natural grass from 2002 to 2006, they currently play on
FieldTurf which was upgraded in April 2014 to FieldTurf "Revolution" with "VersaTile" drainage system. Gillete Stadium's FieldTurf surface was certified by FIFA with a two-star quality rating, the highest possible rating. Kraft, however, announced that he would be willing to switch the stadium to a natural grass playing field as part of his stadium bid for
2026 FIFA World Cup
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three ...
.
Kraft opened a new $35 million training center in 2019. The team's training facilities and offices are located in the wetlands behind Gillette Stadium. Despite these new facilities, Kraft claimed that he was still committed to building a new soccer-specific stadium closer to the city limits of Boston.
Plans for a soccer–specific stadium
On August 2, 2007, ''
The Boston Herald
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pu ...
'' reported that the city of
Somerville and Revolution officials had held preliminary discussions about building a 50,000 to 55,000-seat stadium on a site off of Innerbelt Road near Interstate 93. The stadium could cost anywhere between $50 and $200 million based on other similar MLS soccer-specific stadiums. After a two-year hiatus, the Revolution renewed their plans to build a stadium in Somerville since the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network ...
finalized its Green Line maintenance facility plans. In a July 2010 interview, Kraft said that over $1 million had been invested in finding a suitable site, preferably in the urban core.
On November 18, 2014, ''
The Boston Globe'' reported that the Kraft family had met with city and state officials over a stadium in
South Boston on a public lot off
Interstate 93. The proposed site is adjacent to an industrial site that has been identified for the main Olympic stadium by the organizing group for
Boston's now-failed bid to host the
2024 Summer Olympics, of which Robert Kraft was a member.
Player development
Reserves
On October 9, 2019, the club announced the formation of a reserve team,
New England Revolution II
New England Revolution II is a professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in the MLS Next Pro, the third division of American soccer. The team is owned by, and operates as the reserve team of the Major League Socce ...
, in
USL League One that would begin play in the 2020 season and that they would play at
Gillette Stadium
Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is southwest of downtown Boston. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Foo ...
in Foxborough. On November 25, 2019, the club announced its first manager,
Clint Peay
Clint Peay (born September 16, 1973 in Columbia, Maryland) is an American soccer coach and former player. He was a regular on the U.S. junior national teams and U.S. Olympic team in the mid-1990s. He also spent several years with D.C. United in M ...
.
Academy system
The New England Revolution Academy is an elite youth development program fully-funded by the senior club and recognized by U.S. Soccer as one of the top 10 youth development programs in the country. Competing in
MLS Next
MLS Next (stylized as MLS NEXT) is a youth soccer league in the United States and Canada, that is managed, organized and controlled by Major League Soccer. It was introduced by the league in 2020.
It is a successor to the U.S. Soccer Developme ...
, a successor to the
U.S. Soccer Development Academy
The U.S. Soccer Development Academy (DA) was an American soccer league. Formed in 2007, the league features youth academies and youth clubs from various organizations, including Major League Soccer and the United Soccer League. The DA's mission ...
, the Revolution Academy provides local players throughout
Greater Boston and beyond (regardless of their financial situation) a pathway to a professional career.
All Revolution youth team home matches are played at Gillette Stadium. However, due to scheduling conflicts, some home matches in the past have been hosted at the
B.M.C. Durfee High School
B.M.C. Durfee High School is a public high school located in the city of Fall River, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of Fall River Public Schools and is the city's main public high school, the other being Diman Regional Vocational Tec ...
in
Fall River, Massachusetts, and the Fruit Street Fields (located in
Hopkinton, Massachusetts).
Since 2010 when
Diego Fagúndez became the Revolution's first ever MLS
Homegrown Player Rule signing, the Revolution have promoted several other youth prospects from their academy team, including
Scott Caldwell,
Zachary Herivaux,
Justin Rennicks
Justin Gerard Rennicks (born March 20, 1999) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Major League Soccer club New England Revolution.
Career College and amateur
Rennicks was born in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, ...
,
Noel Buck, and
Damian Rivera
Damian "Tico" Rivera (born 8 December 2002) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for New England Revolution. Born in the United States, he represents Costa Rica at youth level.
Career New England Revolution
In November 2019, R ...
.
Club culture
Supporters
The team's supporter's clubs are called the "
Midnight Riders" and "The Rebellion". The name 'Midnight Riders' is in honor of the famous rides of
Paul Revere and
William Dawes, who announced the departure of British troops from Boston to
Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
at the beginning of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. The two groups together occupy the north stand of the stadium, which they have nicknamed "The Fort". The Fort is a general admission section and draws its name from the revolutionary theme which runs through the team supporters. In the same theme, the Revolution also employ a corps known as the End Zone Militia, a group of
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
reenactors founded in 1996 by Geoff Campbell. The reenactors wear authentic
18th century clothing including the iconic
colonial tricorn hat, and carry
flintlock black gunpowder muskets which are ceremoniously fired when the Revolution score a goal.
Rivalries
The club's main rival is widely considered to be
New York Red Bulls
The New York Red Bulls are an American professional soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The club was established in October 1994 and be ...
, due to the rivalry stemming from other Boston–New York rivalries in other professional sports such as the
Knicks–Celtics rivalry in the
NBA, the
Jets–Patriots rivalry in the
NFL and the
Yankees-Red Sox rivalry in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
. Beginning in 2002, the Revs had a 20 match undefeated streak against the Red Bulls for games at
Gillette Stadium
Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is southwest of downtown Boston. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Foo ...
. This streak helped to intensify the rivalry between the teams. The streak came to an end on June 8, 2014, as the Red Bulls won 2–0 at Gillette Stadium.
The Revolution have also built rivalries with fellow Eastern Conference teams
D.C. United and
Chicago Fire. These teams have faced each other on numerous occasions in the playoffs. In a 2009 poll on the club's official site, New England fans considered the Chicago Fire the Revs' most bitter rival as the clubs have clashed many times in the MLS playoffs and regular season.
Since 2015 a rivalry has also developed with newcomer club
New York City FC, due to the latter club's association with the
Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...
and with
Yankee Stadium being the club's incumbent home ground. To further fuel this rivalry, New York City FC knocked out the Revolution in the eastern conference semifinals of the
2021 MLS Cup Playoffs in a 2–2 tie that eventually went to penalties, despite the Revolution having the superior regular season record that year.
Broadcasting
From 2021 to 2022, all Revolution matches were televised locally in high definition on either
WBZ-TV or
WSBK-TV; nationally televised matches aired on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
,
Fox Sports, and
Univision. All matches are broadcast on radio by
98.5 The Sports Hub
WBZ-FM (98.5 FM) is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, WBZ-FM is the Boston affiliate for Fox Sports Rad ...
, but this is a simulcast of the TV feed.
Brad Feldman served as the team's longtime
play-by-play
In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
on both TV and radio, with former Revolution and USMNT player
Charlie Davies doing
color commentary. Prior to 2021, matches were aired locally on
NBC Sports Boston.
With every MLS game available on
Apple TV via their rights deal in 2023, Revolution games will be broadcast almost exclusively on this service, with exceptions for certain national linear television broadcast partners.
Players
Roster
Out on loan
Team management
Head coaches
The club's current head coach and sporting director is Bruce Arena. The club's previous head coach was
Mike Lapper, the interim replacement for
Brad Friedel
Bradley Howard Friedel (born May 18, 1971) is an American professional soccer coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper.
Friedel played 84 games for the United States national team between 1992 and 2005, and represented his country ...
who was appointed the position on November 9, 2017, and subsequently fired on May 9, 2019. There have been eight permanent managers and four interim managers of the Revolution since the appointment of the club's first professional manager,
Frank Stapleton
Francis Anthony Stapleton (born 10 July 1956) is an Irish former professional football player and manager. He is best remembered for his time at Arsenal, Manchester United and as a pivotal player for the Republic of Ireland national team. H ...
in 1996. The club's longest-serving head coach, in terms of both length of tenure and number of games overseen, is
Steve Nicol, who managed the club between 2002 and 2011.
Staff
{, class="wikitable sortable"
, -
! style="background:#0A2240; color:#fff; border:2px solid #CE0E2D;" scope="col" colspan="2", Ownership and senior management
, -
, -
! style="background:#0A2240; color:#fff; border:2px solid #CE0E2D;" scope="col" colspan="2", Coaching staff
Honors
Continental trophies
*
North American SuperLiga
** Champions:
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
Domestic trophies
*
Supporters' Shield
The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since ...
** Champions:
2021
*
MLS Eastern Conference Championship
** Champions:
2002,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...
*
U.S. Open Cup
** Champions:
2007
Individual club awards
*
MLS Team Fair Play Award
** Winners:
2003,
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
,
2012
Team records
Year-by-year
{, class="wikitable" width=100% border="2" cellpadding="4" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"
, - style="background:#f0f6ff;"
!rowspan=2, Season
!colspan=11,
League
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
!colspan=2, Position
!rowspan=2,
Playoffs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eit ...
!rowspan=2,
USOC
!rowspan=2 colspan=2,
Continental / Other
!rowspan=2,
Average
attendance
!colspan=2, Top goalscorer(s)
, -
!Div
!League
!Pld
!W
!L
!D
!GF
!GA
!GD
!Pts
!PPG
!Conf.
!Overall
!Name(s)
!Goals
, -
,
2017
,
MLS
, rowspan=5 , 1
, 34
, 13
, 15
, 6
, 53
, 61
, −8
, 45
, 1.32
, 7th
, 15th
, rowspan=2 , DNQ
,
QF
, colspan=2 rowspan=3 , DNQ
, 19,367
, align="left" ,
Kei Kamara
Kei Ansu Kamara (; born 1 September 1984) is a Sierra Leonean professional footballer who plays as a striker for CF Montréal of Major League Soccer. He is one of only eleven players to have scored 100 goals in MLS history, achieving the land ...
, 12
, -
,
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
,
MLS
, 34
, 10
, 13
, 11
, 49
, 55
, −6
, 41
, 1.21
, 8th
, 16th
,
R4
, 18,347
, align="left" ,
Teal Bunbury
Cristian Penilla
, 11
, -
,
2019
,
MLS
, 34
, 11
, 11
, 12
, 50
, 57
, −7
, 45
, 1.32
, 7th
, 14th
,
R1
,
Ro16
, 16,737
, align="left" ,
Carles Gil
, 10
, -
,
2020
,
MLS
, 23
, 8
, 7
, 8
, 26
, 25
, +1
, 32
, 1.39
, 8th
, 15th
,
SF
,
NH
,
MLS is Back Tournament
,
Ro16
, 15,289
, align="left" ,
Gustavo Bou
Teal Bunbury
, 8
, -
,
2021
,
MLS
, 34
, 22
, 5
, 7
, 65
, 41
, +24
, 73
, 2.15
, bgcolor=gold , 1st
, bgcolor=gold , 1st
,
QF
,
NH
, colspan=2 , DNQ
, 21,947
, align="left" ,
Adam Buksa
, 17
1. Avg. Attendance include statistics from league matches only.
2. Top Goalscorer(s) includes all goals scored in League, MLS Cup Playoffs
The MLS Cup Playoffs is the annual postseason elimination tournament of Major League Soccer. The final match of the tournament is the MLS Cup, the league's championship game. Under the current format adopted for the 2019 season, 14 teams qual ...
, U.S. Open Cup, MLS is Back Tournament, CONCACAF Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, and other competitive continental matches.
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Association football, United States
Association football clubs established in 1996
Soccer clubs in Massachusetts
1996 establishments in Massachusetts
20th century in Foxborough, Massachusetts
Sports in Foxborough, Massachusetts
Major League Soccer teams
U.S. Open Cup winners