Revolution Best XI Ever New England Soccer Today By Sean Donahue To celebrate the end of the New England Revolution’s 15th season, New England Soccer Today took a look back at the players that have made the biggest impact on the team since their first match back in 1996. We asked those in know to vote on a best XI and bench for the Revolution, and tallied them to find out who would make the cut on our Revs all-time Best XI. The voting panel consisted of Frank Dell’Apa (Boston Globe), Kyle McCarthy (Boston Herald, MLSSoccer.com, Goal.com), Walter Silva (Portuguese Times), Monty Rodrigues (President, Midnight Riders), Tony Biscaia (Revsnet.com), Jim Dow (Revsnet.com), and Mike Marshall (Revsnet.com), as well as New England Soccer Today’s Brian O’Connell and Sean Donahue. Not surprisingly, Taylor Twellman, Joe-Max Moore, Steve Ralston, Shalrie Joseph, and Clint Dempsey were unanimous selections to our Best XI GK: Matt Reis DEF: Michael Parkhurst Jay Heaps Francis Okaroh Ted Chronopoulos MIDS: Shalrie Joseph Steve Ralston Clint Dempsey Jose Cancela FWD: Taylor Twellman Joe-Max Moore HEAD COACH: Steve Nicol BENCH: Walter Zenga Joe Franchino Alexi Lalas Leonel Alvarez Andy Dorman Pat Noonan Wolde Harris Agree? Disagree? Discuss!
No disagreement from me. Pretty good team, I wonder how it would stack up against some of the other teams. I'm pretty sure DC's XI would be better...
Agree, that's a good team but I would have started Dorman over Cancela. You'd need a ball winner in the middle partnering Shalrie. Put either Dorman, Alvarez or a write in, Larentowicz in that spot and then we've got a formidable team.
My best 11: GK: #1 Matt Reis Defense: #2 Matt Reis #3 Matt Reis #4 Matt Reis #5 Matt Reis Midfield: #6 Matt Reis #7 Matt Reis #8 Matt Reis #9 Matt Reis Forwards: #10 Matt Reis #11 Matt Reis Coach: Matt Reis
Take off Wolde Harris and put on Jamar Beasley, a player I thought was better than his brother and should have been a star with his speed. Too bad he could not adapt. Scored a great goal for us with a neat behind self-pass.
These are just the only players I can think of outside of the group that should be remembered. Honorable Mention Really I think there's only 2 players that could be considered as Honorable Mentions: Brian Kamler and Jeff Larentowicz. I don't think Kamler or Larentowicz could replace any of the XI or bench. Possibly Under Consideration GK: Maybe Adin Brown but he has absolutely no chance of displacing either Reis or Zenga. DEF: Avery John had ups and downs but was solid when he wasn't overly physical. Spectacular goal in the playoffs (year?) towards the Fort when he caught a ball so sweetly. Mauricio Wright was brilliant... at times but will always be known more for his inconsistency. Confident on the ball, but often was too confident as he gave it away far too much. Carlos Llamosa was fantastic in the run to the cup final in 02 but then never really looked up to speed for the rest of his tenure. Rusty Pierce and Mike Burns both made plenty of appearances but neither distinguished themselves as top players. MID: Ivan McKinley battled and fought for every inch while still showing flashes of skill. Players above him deserve to be above him so that makes him like the 10th best midfielder? I never really took to Edwin Gorter but I know his time is remembered fondly by others. He did have a touch of class that almost all other members of the late 90s Revolution teams lacked. My opinion is that Beto Naveda and Imad Baba's level really was those first couple of seasons, neither were players that could have plugged into any other era but both had a level of skill that was above average for that time. ST: Any player that could have been considered only lasted a season. Paul Keegan is not really up for it. Single Seasons Of Note (May have gone on to play briefly after good year) D: Dan Calichmann (99) M: Alejandro Farias (97), Andy Williams (01), Daniel Hernandez (02) F: Chiquinho Conde? - I remember him more fondly than his record shows (97), Raul Diaz Arce (98), Cate (01)
Chrono gives me pause. He was good, don't get me wrong, but if he's one of our "best ever" defenders, that's indicative of a pretty systemic long-term problem. I think I might have picked Llamosa for that position, but I understand the argument against him. And I always loved Avery John, I thought he got the short shrift in his tenure here.
Agree. CL was past his prime as a Rev, but was still a solid player, and more dominant than Chrono. In his prime, CL was one of the most dominating defenders the league has ever seen. AJ and Chrono ran hot and cold. On their day, they were excellent.
I think if the ballot had been set up differently, separating players into right mids, center mids, and left mids, Kamler would've been the starter at left mid. There was also just a one ballot difference between Larentowicz and Dorman. Both those players were certainly recognized by several voters.
No way: Francis Okaroh Ted Chronopoulos Wolde Harris they might have been fine in 96', but i doubt any of those three would make even the pathetic 2010 squad.
ok, then i stand corrected. Makes sense to me. Are we really going to leave out "the Sheik"???? he had a cultured left foot.
I thought it was Ivan McKinley's left foot that was frequently spotted at "La Boheme" wearing a tuxedo, sipping a flute stem of a dry white.
I would vote for Zenga over Reis. Even though he was at the tail end of his career he was still a world class keeper.
Picking players like Heaps and Franchino over Pierce as defenders is crazy. Lalas wasn't much better.
Two quibbles. First, I agree with The Perfesser that Wright should have been ahead of Franchino. The only knock against him on this kind of list is his short tenure with the team. Second, Naveda>Dorman>Cancela (again this could have been due to Cancela's longer stretch with the team, but much of that was pulling splinters out of his ***) .
Leading the team's tinkle squad along with the aptly-named Gary Flood is about as intangible as you can get.
I still think Cancela was only pulling splinters out of his ass because of that 2 PK game where he tried the same stupid trick twice and got burned for it. Nicol was livid. I don't think Cancela was ever a regular starter after that game.