The New England Revolution were rested, relaxed and raring to go as they arrived in the nation's capital on Thursday evening in advance of Sunday's MLS Cup Final at RFK Stadium.
"We're excited to be here. We're pumped. We're ready to get the game on -- we wish the game was tomorrow night," said a grinning Taylor Twellman. "We're pretty loose. It's a good group of guys here."
Thanks to their well-established rivalry with D.C. United, the short hop south from Boston to Washington has become a familiar routine for the Revs -- and so has taking part in the cup final, with this year marking their third consecutive appearance in the big game.
"It does make things easier that we played D.C. twice this year and have a familiarity with the stadium, the RFK venue and all the hoopla that goes around," said midfield standout Shalrie Joseph. "We know about it, it feels good. But we definitely can't take it for granted, getting back to the finals. We're here, we've got a job to do and we're just all looking forward to the game on Sunday."
The New England camp was full of quick smiles and wise cracks on Thursday, but an unmistakable sense of urgency as well. Despite several years of sustained success under head coach Steve Nicol, the Revolution have yet to claim the league's top prize and this season's veteran squad is eager to break the club's 0-for-3 record in the cup final.
"We've still got that hunger inside of us that's just burning right now," said Joseph. "Because to get there is all good and well -- it shows the work you've done in preseason and regular season. But at the end of the day you want to win the trophy and we being here the last three or four years, we haven't come up with a trophy or a championship and this year we feel great about our chances."
To do so, they'll have to get past defending champions Houston Dynamo, who can boast a similar track record of stability and success under boss Dominic Kinnear. These two clubs waged an epic battle in MLS Cup 2006 and New England's players and coaches were quick to pay tribute to their counterparts from Texas.
"We've been the two most steady teams, we've had the most success and I think it's only good for the league that we're playing each other again," said Twellman.
Last year's championship featured a clutch Twellman tally in overtime, only for Houston's Brian Ching to equalize barely a minute later to allow the Orange to break New England hearts in a 4-3 penalty kick shootout. But the Revolution reject any suggestion that theirs is a revenge mission.
"We've been here before, but we don't look back, whether it's a good thing we've done or a bad thing we've done," said Nicol. "We look to the next game or the next play or whatever. During the season we talk about if you make a bad pass, then make sure your next one is a good pass. We're going back to the final and the last one wasn't so great, so we want to make this one a good one."
The Revs finally broke a long trophy-less streak with their capture of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup last month, and that confidence booster might prove invaluable as they look to conquer the last obstacle in their path on Sunday.
"We're thrilled to be back," said MLS original Steve Ralston. "We kind of feel like we got the monkey off our back a little bit this year when we won the Open Cup. I feel like we know what it takes to win and we're trying to use that going into this final. We know what it takes, we've won a cup now and now let's get the MLS Cup."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
