CHAPTER 1 A NE NEW ENGLAND As the New England Revolution walked out of the home locker room and onto the Gillette Stadium turf on October 12 2002 the task was clear In the third meeting of their Major League Soccer MLS playoff series with the Columbus Crew all the Revs needed was a point In the first two matches New England had a draw and a victory Columbus had to win Game 3 to even the series and force a tiebreaker The winner would advance to the MLS Cup New England had played in MLS since the league’s first season in 1996 But the team had little to show for it The Revs had made the playoffs twice in the first six years but failed to advance Things had changed by 2002 however Revolution defender Carlos Llamosa 18 battles with Columbus’s Dante Washington in their 2002 playoff game 4
Taylor Twellman celebrates his second goal against the Chicago Fire in the 2002 playoffs 6
The team had a new coach in former English Premier League star Steve Nicol It had exciting new players including striker Taylor Twellman and midfielder Steve Ralston And Gillette Stadium was brand new Twellman led the league in combined goals and assists that season The new-and-improved Revs made the playoffs though just barely They closed the season on a 5 0 1 run to sneak into first place in the Eastern Conference But they had a losing record overall for the year and a deep playoff run seemed unlikely STAYING HOT Instead the team’s run of late-season success continued into the playoffs Twellman scored a game-winning goal and added another tally as the Revs beat the Chicago Fire in the conference semifinals That sent New England to the conference finals against Columbus The Crew was an original MLS team like New England But Columbus had been much more successful thus far The series opened with a scoreless tie on October 6 at Gillette Stadium The series then shifted to Columbus Almost immediately New England grabbed the lead Defender Jay Heaps rarely a goal scorer found the net off a corner kick in 7
