The sting of defeat may be fresh, but the New England Revolution must begin to pick up the pieces by looking at their triumphant run which left them just one goal shy of bringing the organization their first MLS Cup championship.
This is a team that just two years ago missed the postseason for the third straight season and a team that suffered through an eight-game losing streak before rallying strong to close out the campaign.
But it shouldn’t come as a major surprise that they were capable of making it as far as they had this year, as the foundation was in place from the front office to the coaching staff to the young core of talent, and after licking their chops in the postseason last year, they were ready for a deep run that could become a fixture for years to come if they can maintain the course.
“There are a lot of positives to take from it,” said 18-goal man Lee Nguyen following the 2-1 loss in extratime to the LA Galaxy in the MLS Cup final on Sunday. “[We have a] young team and I think we have a nice core here if we can keep it together.
“I think we’re going to learn from this, and it’s going to make us even hungrier next year. We’ll soak it in, take a nice little vacation and back to work.”
Keeping part of that core may be tricky with the upcoming Expansion Draft and the transfer window opening on the international market in January.
But one major piece of the puzzle who won’t be going anywhere is Jermaine Jones, who the Revs signed through the 2015 season.
Landing the USMNT standout to a Designated Player contract back in August allowed everything else to fall in place for New England, who lost only twice in the 15 games after he arrived.
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“I go now on holiday,” Jones said following Sunday’s loss. “I hope everybody can…come back good and be concentrated for next season. I think the big point is that everyone can see that if you stay concentrated, we can battle with everyone in this league.”
The other key component in place is head coach Jay Heaps, who has increased the team’s win totals in each of his three seasons at the helm and who has had his players buy into his philosophies and game planning.
“I think there’s a real competitiveness in there and a real willingness to lay it all on the line and be aggressive,” Heaps said of his club after the game. “No one gave us a chance and I thought our guys rallied around that and we were pretty good on the day and on the year we were excellent the last half of the year.”
