If the best way to conquer bad memories is to face them square on, then consider the New England Revolution ready for therapy. Just not yet.
Forty-eight hours after his side had seen another MLS Cup dream die, a still-despondent Steve Nicol spoke for an entire organization when he was asked about moving on from another end-of-season disappointment.
"We are obviously gutted still," said the Revolution boss. "I would like to think that tomorrow morning it'll be fine and back to normal but I don't know. It will take a few days to be well and truly fed up but you get over it and start again."
Across the league, preparation for the 2008 season began almost as soon as Alex Prus' whistle blew for the final time at RFK Stadium on Sunday. With an expansion draft set to be held three days after MLS Cup was raised, there was little time for Nicol to dwell on what happened in the nation's capital. When he did, however, his assessment was much the same as it was in the raw aftermath of the match.
"We played some great stuff at times and created some great chances but we didn't take them. When you are playing against a team that just keeps going the way (Houston) does, if you leave them hanging around long enough then they'll get you and that, for me, is pretty much exactly what happened," he said.
Nicol admitted that, by coming back in the way they did, Houston had displayed qualities he believes his own side has in abundance, not that that is any consolation to him. For the Revs boss, the shame was in the fact that Dynamo should never have had the chance to overturn their deficit.
"We just never killed the game with that second goal, they end up getting a scrappy goal and, all of a sudden, the whole thing swings," Nicol said. "In every game you play there is going to be a period where the other team is on top. That happened and they scored when they were on top and we did not."
As the game drew to a close, New England were forced into a change, as Andy Dorman replaced the cramping Steve Ralston. No further alterations were made by Nicol, who believed the men he had on the field gave his side the best chance to get back into the game.
"We were pretty happy with what we had to be honest. It didn't make a lot of sense, other than to just fling somebody on for the sake of it. We knew we would end up going at them and we were happy with what we had to do that," he said. "We made another chance and their goalie made an incredible save. We certainly talked about it a lot but decided against doing anything."
Pat Onstad's miraculous stop from Jeff Larentowicz's 87th-minute header was the most glaring example of the Revolution's ill luck in front of goal, which also featured near misses for Pat Noonan in each half and for Taylor Twellman. Despite those and other misfortunes, however, Nicol refuses to say his side got bad breaks.
"You can say we were unlucky on their first goal when Ngwenya mishits it and then gets another bite at it but, at the end of the day, that's not why we lost. We lost because we did not execute having put ourselves in the spots to do so," Nicol said.
And so the Revolution look ahead to the winter months with an all-too familiar bitter taste in their mouths. Meanwhile, the side's fans have already started to speculate as to what the 2008 version of the nearly men of MLS will look like.
Having rejected a new contract, Dorman will not be back but Nicol is hopeful that a 'good percentage' of his starting lineup will be in uniform when preseason kicks off in February. Those players include the out-of-contract Avery John and Michael Parkhurst, who has been linked with a move overseas.
In addition to his core, Nicol is keen to 'cast his net' to find new squad members. That process begins later this week when he travels to Argentina on a scouting trip. As the first steps are taken towards 2008, so the Revs are moving on as best they can. For everyone associated with the team, however, the final memory of 2007, however, will linger a little longer.
"The players will be the same as the coaching staff," said Nicol. "We'll think about it for a while but we'll get rid of it and move on."
Andrew Hush is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
