There are few moments that compare to lifting a trophy. The joy individually, the celebrations collectively, the satisfaction in knowing that all of the hard work paid off – ask someone who’s been there, and they’ll tell you there just aren’t many things that come close.
Ten years ago today, the New England Revolution lifted the Eastern Conference trophy for the fifth time in the club’s history – tied with D.C. United for the most conference championships in the East, and behind only the Los Angeles Galaxy’s league-leading nine (potentially soon to be 10) – but even a decade later, it is not a moment New England will forget anytime soon.
Of course, Revs fans will also remember that the Galaxy were the very ones that denied New England at the crucial last step in 2014. But for the people involved in that cup run, a number of whom called New England home and loved the Revolution all the way from day one, that Eastern Conference win over the New York Red Bulls was a career-wide highlight, from the way the team performed on the field to the bond they all had away from it.
In honor of the 10th anniversary of that Eastern Conference title, revolutionsoccer.net spoke with many of the members of the 2014 Revolution to get the story of that season and cup run, as they remember it in their own words …
Behind any great team is a great coach, and the 2014 Revs were no exception. Jay Heaps was entering the third year of his tenure as New England head coach that year, coming off a fairly successful 2013 campaign that saw the Revolution return to the MLS Cup playoffs for the first time since 2009. As he recalls it, he had a good feeling about the group’s chances coming into the new year.
Jay Heaps: “Big picture, I think about the team and the season we had. I looked at it, we came off of a 2013 year where we advanced to the playoffs, it was like three years running we hadn’t made the playoffs, and I took over ’11 or ’12, so we had to rebuild the team in ’12, and ’13 was when we felt like we had the right pieces. So we had a great season in ’13, playoffs, won our first game in the playoffs – it was a two-game series back then – ended up losing to Kansas City, and they won the championship. But going into ’14 we felt like, ‘Hey, we’re not far away from where Kansas City is,’ [and] some of these teams that were in the Eastern Conference that we measured ourselves against. So, going into ’14, really confident in the group. It was something that we were priding ourselves on coming off of that season. I thought preseason was a really good preseason, and I just loved the way they were coming together, they were confident, guys like Lee Nguyen, Andrew Farrell, Jose Goncalves, AJ Soares – they were just locked and loaded in preseason. So we really felt like we were there to make a run.”
The campaign would prove to be up-and-down, with a brutal run of one win in 10 through the summer leaving things looking grim before a late-season surge carried the Revs to a second-place finish in the East.
But over and above the details of the team’s performance across the regular season, what consistently stood out most to members of that 2014 squad was just how close-knit everyone in the locker room was, both on the field and away from it. And as more and more players shared their memories from that season, an interesting trend emerged in their recollections of just how many of their teammates would get together on a regular basis.
Bobby Shuttleworth, Revolution goalkeeper 2009-2016: “That was probably the best year of my career, in terms of most enjoyable year of my career, for sure, just because of the staff, the group of guys … It was amazing. And we would, at times, if we would hang out off the field, it would be sometimes 12, 13, 14, 15 guys all together, and that just doesn’t really happen in, I would guess professional sports, but in professional football it really doesn’t happen all that much. So as a whole, the whole year, start to finish, just so, so enjoyable.”
Kelyn Rowe, Revolution midfielder who was entering the third year of his MLS career in 2014: “The group of guys – it’s funny, because I always talk about it as well, with guys that I played with later on, as I retired, it was like, ‘Who was the best team you played for?’ I always go back to that 2013, ’14, ’15 seasons of guys. On the field, obviously, we did pretty well – except for that, like, 10-game losing streak towards the middle of the season. But after each game, especially after each win, you’d have a Sunday off, maybe a Monday, and on Sunday you’d have, you know, you’d start with, like, a brunch, and then you’d have 15 guys at a bar having a beer together. (“That’s literally what Bobby said!”) It’s true, though. That’s what brought guys together. You trusted a little more, the little fights you had in the locker room, those things kind of got pushed away because you were having a beer with a guy, now you’re back to being human beings – that part was what brought us so far. Because if you lose 10 games in a season, in a row, or no wins I think it was [through] 10 games, that’s hard to come back from. And then to go to the Final after that? That’s just character of guys and character of the group.”
Lee Nguyen, whose 2014 season is fondly remembered as “The M-V-Lee Year”: “It was a very special locker room, I would have to say. Looking back on all my times playing, I don’t think I ever experienced a locker room that tight. You know, you play on all these teams, you always find your niche or, I guess, your people, and there’s groups, and whoever you fit in with – older, younger group, foreigners, whatever – but this team, for whatever reason, it just felt like everyone was just so cool with one another. We would go – it wouldn’t even be something we organize, it would just be more off the cuff, team gatherings, postgame, we’d all go out, or if there was an off weekend, off day, you would see, like, 15 of us, 12 of us, all go downtown and just have a hang. I think that played a lot, just the camaraderie we had off the field, it trickled on the field.”
And the bond within the squad was certainly not lost on the coach who worked to bring and keep them all together.
Heaps: “It was the locker room. When you walked in the locker room – we always say this as coaches and GMs, ‘You can feel a locker room,’ if they’ve got a shot. And that was us. When I was in preseason, just the way – they respected each other, but there was an intensity around each training session; there was banter, but there was also push for each other. I think about it all the time, when we get into that, mentioning Charlie Davies. So, Charlie wasn’t the day-one starter; we brought Teal [Bunbury] in to be the center forward … And the team, I’m not kidding you, you could feel the team rally around Charlie as the center forward. And to be honest with you, you’re looking at it through a lens of, ‘Okay, how do you win these games?’ And we really, credit to Charlie because, he was coming off the bench, which isn’t really probably what he wanted, but he’d buy into it. And then we finally gave him a start. And we had a really good run at the beginning of the year, we were close to first place, beating teams, I think we beat two teams back-to-back, I don’t know the exact game, we won two games and scored five goals. And so we’re starting to play pretty high. And then we hit a little wall where we, I think we lost six in a row, seven in a row. It felt like we just couldn’t get out of our way. It was guys like Charlie in the group that never really got down. We respond, and it was really – I think Charlie was the first piece to get everyone rallied to get back on track. I mean, look, Lee was having an amazing year, we add Jermaine Jones. Everyone thinks that Jermaine Jones came and changed the whole thing. He came at a time when we had just won our first game back before he joined us. And so it felt like we were on the uphill, and he added jet fuel to it.”
Davies, for his own part, recounted the ups and downs of the 2014 regular season as well as just about anyone could have, including the story around that crucial mid-season addition of Jones that took the team to the next level.
Charlie Davies: “Oh my god, talk about a season! To start from the very beginning, we go to Houston, we lose 4-0. I remember I was injured in preseason, I pulled my calf – and Patrick Mullins was a rookie, he was starting, and Jerry Bengtson’s still in the team, Saer Sene – that’s not a good way to start the season, right? We go three games without a win, and then finally we get a win in San Jose, and I remember I assisted on this 90-plus-minute goal to lead, just on this quick set piece – just being intuitive and seeing the situation, I’m thinking, ‘Quick restart,’ and we score to get the game winner. And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s going to get me going.’ But I still felt like I wasn’t – well, I definitely wasn’t match-fit or sharp quite yet. And I think our team was still trying to figure out, ‘Okay, what are our strengths? How are we going to defend as a group well, together? How are we going to attack? Who’s our guy?’ I think that was still in question. And then I finally think, we go through this crazy slump, from the end of May to the middle of July, where we just kept losing. And I’ll never forget that Galaxy game, which I think was really the turning point. Because that was rock bottom. We lose 5-1 at LA Galaxy, and I remember, I didn’t even get put in the matchday squad. I travel, and I’m not even on the bench, we’re losing 5-1, we’re not scoring goals, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘How the hell am I not getting playing time?! We haven’t scored goals as a team!’ It’s not that I’m the player that I used to be prior to the accident, but I’m thinking, ‘I know I can contribute. I know I can help this team win.’
“So I go out to dinner, I remember, the night before the game, and I’m with a lot of the U.S. guys that had played in that World Cup. I was with Jermaine and Jozy [Altidore], and we’re all talking, and Jermaine is saying, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to come to MLS for the first time.’ I said, ‘Oh! Okay! Where are you thinking?’ He said, ‘I have no idea. The league is going to make these decisions, I have no idea.’ I said, ‘Hey, the Revs! Boston!’ And everyone goes, ‘Alright, perfect, New England? Jermaine? No, I don’t think so. And I don’t think they’re going to pay whatever it’s going to take to get him there.’ So we laugh it off.
“Obviously we lose 5-1. We fly to Dallas. And Jay goes, ‘You’re starting.’ And I go, ‘What?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, you’re starting.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Oh! Alright, cool!’ And so, I think it was 0-0 in the first half, I want to say, but we ended up losing, but it was one of those losses that, it felt positive. It was definitely a much different feeling than that Galaxy game. And then I didn’t play in the next game against the Crew, and then I start against the Colorado Rapids at home. And then, I’d say, that was the turning point for us – we win 3-0.
“And then it started picking up steam that maybe Jermaine could be coming to the team. I’m not sure when that report leaked, but I know it was early August. I was actually at a golf course, golfing in the Cohasset Golf Club, and I get a call from, I think it was Mike Kammarman, the [U.S. Men’s National Team] press officer, and he’s asking me questions about New England, and the team, and if Jermaine came – and I’m thinking, ‘What do you mean, if Jermaine came?’ He said, ‘Yeah, Jermaine might be coming to New England. Do you think you could help him settle in?’ And I said, ‘Yeah! He can have my number!’
“We played the Red Bulls at New York; I scored, I remember, in the first half – it was my first goal for the club, I was pumped as hell, and Teal assisted it. You know, me, Teal, and Lee, we were super close, us three, we were really, really tight. They get a red card, so I’m thinking, ‘I’m scoring a lot this game!’ Next thing I know, Dax [McCarty] hits an incredible chip, and [Bradley] Wright-Phillips scores, and then we lose! But I was kind of still happy, I got my first goal for the club. Then I remember we played Portland, and then the talk about Jermaine coming really picked up, and we – did we win or tie, I can’t remember, it was either 1-0 or 1-1 – but I remember, I scored again, and I remember that being the roll; we were just going to keep going. I think Jay finally, in his mind, had the team set up, before Jermaine came, in terms of the right structure, the right group of guys. He knew that I played really well with Lee and Teal, because we were super tight, and Kelyn. So this attacking foursome really worked well, and whoever was sitting in behind, which ended up being Scottie Caldwell and Jermaine, but I think that nucleus really helped, because we were so tight off the field that that literally carried onto the pitch. You could see all of us wanted to work for each other. I couldn’t be happier if Teal or Kelyn or Lee scored, and they couldn’t be happier if I scored. There was that type of dynamic; there was no selfishness – although maybe you could argue Lee was a little bit selfish, rightfully so. But we pushed each other. There was also, if someone made a mistake that you felt they shouldn’t have made, or maybe they were being a little selfish or too confident or whatever, we were on each other. It was, ‘We’re trying to win, that’s it. So don’t take it personally.’ And no one did. And you felt that in the game, everyone was in it, supporting each other, but also at the same time there was that give-and-take element to it.
“I remember Jermaine finally came, and we just saw his quality. We knew it from watching, but playing with him and seeing how he’s just a complete player – right foot, left foot, size, stamina, technique, attitude, right? That’s somebody you want to go to war with. And he took us over the top – the inspiration, but also the quality that, you could say he was the best midfielder who had the most influence throughout the whole league. And it showed, because when he came to the team, we were already pretty good, finally. Jay got a good lineup and a good setup and the right tactics. But then you added Jermaine and it was an explosion. We felt that no one could touch us. That’s how we felt. We felt untouchable. As long as we came out ready to go, which, everyone was always motivated to try and do something, and as we started winning all these games, it was, ‘Oh, we can win MLS Cup. We got this.’ So that’s what stands out to me. When I made that start, I want to say against Colorado, which would have been my second club start I want to say, I felt that was when we finally locked in.”
As Davies mentioned, the Revolution lost their regular season trip to Red Bull Arena, and also fell in their other faceoff with RBNY at Gillette Stadium earlier in the summer. But after a late-season surge and a steamrolling of the Columbus Crew in the first round of the playoffs (although Nguyen was quick to clarify that “It definitely wasn’t no-hassle!”), the team’s regular-season struggles with New York were the last thing on the players’ minds heading into the Eastern Conference Championship.
Shuttleworth: “To be honest with you, you just said that [regular season record vs. New York] to me, I didn’t even know that was true. You know? It’s a long season, we play 34 games, plus Open Cup, plus preseason, I don’t know – throughout my years in New England we played Red Bull in preseason a bunch of times, as well, I don’t know if we did specifically that year. But at that moment, you don’t really – we had it rolling, you know? We felt good about our chances, we liked our team, we were playing good soccer at the right time. So I think it could have been anybody that we were playing and we would have felt like we were in a good place to continue to move on.”
Teal Bunbury: “I don’t recall if guys, if José [Gonçalves] or CT [Chris Tierney] or Charlie, if any of these guys were like, ‘Hey, remember when the Red Bulls beat us?’ I don’t think it was like that. I just think, the last burst of games we were just playing so well, and then we were even getting results when maybe we shouldn’t have. Things were kind of just going our way. So going into Red Bull, the Eastern Conference Final series, we weren’t even thinking of the games previous. We were just like, ‘Let’s just keep this going.’ I think that was our motivating factor. ‘We know we’re hitting our stride and we’re in form right now, so let’s just make sure we’re still having fun.’”
Andrew Farrell, New England’s record holder for all-time appearances: “New York was obviously, they had some big star power. I think we just knew, if we could get in, we were just like, not playing with house money, but we were excited. Because we were on a run also, we were probably one of the hotter teams, [we had] momentum. So that was cool. And then playing in that arena against that team, it felt like, the atmosphere, the weather, you had that playoff vibe. Home and away, going away trying to get a result … I feel like, with home and away, especially then, we had that rivalry with Red Bulls, and so to even have this rivalry in the playoffs was a cool experience.”
Heaps: “What we did to Columbus was, you know, we dismantled them. We came out and everyone was firing on all cylinders. It was one of my proudest moments, when we went into Columbus. That was the first year they did goal difference, as well, or away goals, so a lot of teams were playing conservatively. And we made the decision as a staff to go full-out, because it was worth – and at the time we had Tim Crawford as an analyst saying, ‘Look, if we come out of here 2-2 …’ or whatever it may be, getting goals is important. So we went out there, I mean, we did not sit back. You look back, we pressed high, we were out, exposed, because we felt like we could get a couple goals. And sure enough, it goes for four, which is just amazing on the road. So we had confidence. And we came back home, we beat them, it was one of the great performances in MLS Playoffs at the time. So coming back into New York we were pretty confident, but at the same time – we were confident in ourselves – but going into New York is always a challenge. Playing at Red Bull Arena never was an easy place to go. But similar mentality: we went for it.”
And if there were any doubts coming into the series about how the Revolution would perform in the crucible of Red Bull Arena, Bunbury quickly put them to bed with a 17th-minute banger goal not too dissimilar to Carles Gil’s 2024 Goal of the Season nominee, on the way to a 2-1 win on the road.
Bunbury: “Yeah, that was a really fun moment. I don’t usually like to talk about myself or anything like that. I just know, obviously, that was probably one of my best goals of my career – just the magnitude of it, it felt good, you beat a defender, it’s on my weaker foot, you put it up in that corner against a really, really good goalkeeper in Luis Robles. So with all that included, and then being on the road, and then being able to do a little Harlem Shake with the guys, Charlie and Farrell. That was such a fun moment where you can sit there looking back and go, ‘That was a pretty cool moment.’”
But what stood out the most about that first leg was the level of Revolution fan support. With the club chartering almost two dozen buses to get supporters down to Harrison, N.J. for the game, a group of about 1,200 New England fans made one corner of Red Bull Arena theirs – and, in so doing, brought the comforts of home down to a notoriously difficult away venue for the Revs.
Heaps: “It was amazing. It really was. Because you could feel their energy. Even with them – the stadium sold out, but that section was so big where our fans were. And it was near our bench, it was across so you could see it from where our bench was … first half it was behind us, second half we were attacking toward them. So you just, you could feel the energy and you could just, it was such a big group that the energy was almost drowning out the Red Bull crowd. We could feel [it], we were focused on it. But when we scored that second goal, when Jermaine put that goal in for us to take the 2-1 lead – which was, again, I credit the players buying into that mindset, that was late in the game when we were going for it. You look, he’s our defensive midfielder, and he’s sliding a ball in on the front line, because we wanted to release our players; if there was an opportunity to go, we wanted to go. You look at that, and look at where we were, we were going for the win, and I think that resonated. Even after the first 20, 30 minutes of the game, we were going for that. And so I was pumped, I was excited to see our players do that. But it was right in front of our fans, which was an even more thrilling kind of moment.”
AJ Soares, New England’s 2014 Players’ Player & Defender of the Year: “It was great. I mean, it really – I think the fans maybe don’t even realize how much it does to you as a player on the field. I hope they do. But yeah, it really gives you comfort. You kind of go, ‘Oh, it’s us, and it’s that whole group up there.’ And the group was massive. I mean, I don’t know if anyone remembers, but we had a pretty big section of the upper deck of the, I don’t know if that was the north side or whatever of the stadium, behind the goal – huge thing. I have a video of me after the game just looking up, the stadium’s empty, and that whole section was still up there cheering. That was a real highlight, in my whole career. But yeah, the support from the fans does a ton; it actually affects the game. We scored down on that side, and I remember just sprinting up and looking up at them, and seeing the team, and you kind of just knew we were going to win. It felt like they were a big part of that game specifically.”
Bunbury: “What the Revs organization did there with bussing down all those fans, I think that was incredible. I think that was so important to us as players, having a fanbase there. You know, it’s not a far bus ride, but still, it’s people taking time out of their busy schedules and whatever they have going on to support us – I mean, that was really special. And that was one of the few times I’ve seen that stadium that packed, and then having away supporters like that – you even felt it, the Red Bull fans were going crazy, but you could feel and hear our fans at that time were just going nuts. When Jermaine Jones gets that second goal and they just erupt – it was really a special game for sure.”
Shuttleworth: “Yeah, I’m going to be honest, that was probably one of the best moments of my career. I just have very vivid memories of that game, and I get a little bit of goosebumps just thinking about it. It was so loud, you know? And really filled with, it felt like, only Revolution fans chanting. I had, my mom was from New Jersey so I had a lot of family and friends there as well. And I just have a lot of memories of just hearing, basically, only Revolution fans, and the amount in that one area. And I just remember the game ending and us just going over and clapping them, and just being in awe of what I was seeing. It was kind of amazing.”
Rowe: “You know, even Jermaine had talked about it, he was surprised that we had such a big section down there. But it was the fact that they were so loud. I think it was over 1,000 people that we had. Which was incredible! We don’t know what the league and the team did to create that and make that happen; we just saw the result of it. The result of it was, the second that things – because that’s a hard place to play, New York, especially with the team they had, the run they were on, the stars they had. It’s a hard place to play. The fact that we had the support, felt almost like a home game, or at least we had the support at an away field, it just brought us into point where we needed it, in the last five, 10 minutes of a half, when we did score it was like we did it for them, there was a little bit extra motivation in the tough moments because you had them there.”
Coming back to Foxborough for the second leg, New England enjoyed a one-goal aggregate lead with two away goals in the bag – a solid position to be in under that playoff format, but not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination, especially when going up against a New York Red Bulls side that featured footballing legends like Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill. A draw would be enough to see the Revs advance, but allowing RBNY to get more than two away goals of their own would open up scenarios that were much more tense. Going behind to New York twice in the game, Davies was the man of the moment, scoring both of the Revolution’s crucial goals to seal the 2-2 draw and advance to the MLS Cup Final.
Davies: “[The first goal] definitely went off my shoulder … I was a little upset with how I played in the first leg. I had maybe a half-chance in the first leg in New York, but ultimately I was disappointed with how I played. So it felt for me, it was, ‘Okay, this is the second leg, on home soil – I have to deliver. This is my moment.’ In that first half I was active, I felt good. You know when you get a couple touches early on in the game, you have a good sense of how the game’s going to be, at least the first half. My movement felt good, I wasn’t sore – there were typically times when I was achy or sore, and that’s from either the week leading up to it, or maybe I had done too much extra training, because that was a problem, I was trying to catch up to my old self prior to the accident. So it’s working on your match fitness and sharpness, but at the same time I was always trying to improve and catch my old self. In this game, I just felt good, I felt fresh. And here comes this set piece, and I got a good angle on it. I see the ball coming, and I didn’t make the proper contact on it, but it got to go in the direction that I wanted. I kind of was too excited as I see it coming – I was thinking, ‘This is it! This is it!’ – and I snapped my head a little bit too quick, and I took my eyes off the ball. But because I was in a good spot, it careened off my forehead and then off my shoulder and into the far post, I think the side netting. I remember Jermaine going, ‘That was me!’ You’re going, ‘Get the hell out of here! You didn’t touch that!’ So that was good to celebrate. And then once you get that first one as a striker, you're going, ‘Okay,’ the rest are ready to fall for you, you’ve just got to put yourself in the right spot.
“You know, there are a lot of times when you score a goal and it’s just euphoric. It’s one of those moments where everything leaves your body, you just fill with joy. It’s an electric feeling, something you just can’t replicate in any other way. And as my career was progressing in this new body of mine that I was trying to get used to and also trying to maximize, I would often score a goal in those big moments and think, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing it.’ To get back to this type of feeling at this point, where you’re scoring in big games, in meaningful games, it also allowed me to think of where I came from, being from New England and also being one of those kids in the stands in the early years of the Revolution, in 1996 and ’97 – just having that come full circle. So there are a lot of emotions in that one goal, which is, okay, yes, it’s a playoff game, it’s the Eastern Conference Final to get to an MLS Cup, which I remember watching as a kid, the Revs in every MLS Cup, losing. So you have that in your mind, ‘Can we be that first time – can I be a part of that first team – to bring an MLS Cup to New England?’ It’s the redemption part of being at rock bottom and not knowing if you were ever going to get to play again, let alone have success, and here I am scoring for a team that’s potentially going to be in MLS Cup, and a team I grew up supporting. There were so many emotions in that one goal, but also whenever I got to compete against my idol in Thierry Henry, that’s another layer! Another component into how complex that emotion is. It’s a little bit of relief, because you’re thinking, ‘Damn, okay, I got that goal!’ The first leg, it’s out of my mind, and then it’s, ‘Okay, we can do this, and I can continue to keep helping this team win.’
“I think what was cool about that [second goal], that moment in the game, was they were on their heels, they were trying to absorb the pressure but not break, bend not break. I remember, the first cross I made a hard near-post run, and I pulled a defender with me – I think it gets blocked, or it might not even have made it past the first defender. But we still keep possession, and we were so good that year at pinning teams back in their own defensive third. We were very good at being patient but going from right to left and then waiting for that moment, whether it was Teal cutting in from the right, whether it was Chris Tierney overlapping and whipping the ball in and just making sure that he’s there for near posts, whether it was Lee breaking down one-two combining with somebody in the midfield, whether it was me or Kelyn or Teal – or, it was just one of those plays where we get them on the counter. It was one of those kinds of seasons where we could hurt teams in so many different ways.
“I remember us moving the ball around quickly – the tempo was high, and it was, ‘Okay, where’s that opening? Where’s New York going to finally give us something?’ Once the ball [in the] last part goes out to Chris Tierney, I was thinking, ‘Okay, let me find myself in good spot.’ And I found a little cushion – because I had run near post, I had run near post, I felt that they were going to think I was going to go near post. So then I could pull off their shoulder and wait in that little soft spot, top of the six. And Chris Tierney’s probably one of the best servers of the ball that, literally, I have ever played with. And as a lefty! Ever since I was 13 years old, he was doing that. One, it was playing against Chris Tierney in club, and playing against him in high school, and then we ended up playing together for three seasons or so, two or three seasons at the club level. So I was well aware of just how gifted he was with his left foot. Very accurate. What he lacked in pace, in quickness, he made up tenfold with his ability with his left foot and his delivery and his timing. And so I knew, if I just find the right spot, he’ll find me. And it was an incredible ball, and all I had to do was guide it – I knew I didn’t have to crush it, hit it with enough pace, all I had to do was put it in the right spot. So if I just didn’t focus on the power of the header, but more the accuracy of the header, that it would catch Luis Robles from that distance. And that’s exactly what happened.”
And while Davies was at the center of the scoring action for the Revs, his teammates recall an emotional rollercoaster of a game, particularly as the defense fought to hold on to their ever-so-slim aggregate lead for the final 20 minutes of the match.
Nguyen: “It’s funny you say that because it really was, it was a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the game. You know, it’s funny because it wasn’t one game where you knew it was a must-win, it was a game where we knew we just couldn’t lose. And sometimes those are the more dangerous games, where you’re playing not to lose. It’s tough to put that in the back of your mind, knowing, ‘Yeah, we’ve got a one-goal lead, but we’ve still got to close out this game.’ Being at home, that did help, getting off to an early start helped, but again, this was a Red Bulls team with Henry, Cahill, like, they were a very good, experienced team. They made it very tough. There were moments in the game where I’m like, ‘Damn, we might let this slip away.’ Then we came back, and I was like, ‘Hell, we’ve got to close this out.’ Yeah, it was really just, you were playing but in your head it was up and down, up and down, the entire time. When we got that tying goal and a couple minutes left trying to close it out, I knew then, we got this in the bag if we can just see out the last five minutes, because they were starting to tire, as well. It was one of the most emotional games I ever played, for sure.”
Bunbury: “The emotions, I think, during the game were, we didn’t back down, we didn’t have this fearful emotion. Once again, I think what really helped was going through the ups and downs of the season, where, ‘Okay, now this is the big time here, when it matters the most can we rely on one another?’ And I think that’s what we really had. We were a really close-knit group off the field, so there wasn’t any egos or anything like that. It was just, ‘You know what, we’ve got to do this as a group, we don’t have time to sit here and complain or feel bad; we’ve got to get a goal.’ And Charlie came through in the clutch. Yeah, it was fun.”
Heaps: “Well, you know, you’re doing the calculations in your head and you’re like, ‘Wait, it’s 2-2 right now, which means there’s no way it can tie after that.’ A goal changes the whole thing. So if they score, we lose! It was very different than the playoffs are now, where goal difference doesn’t matter … You feel like you’re winning, but there’s no tie, so you’re like, ‘It’s all or nothing!’ It’s such a precipice of a ride. Look, at that point, it became the Andrew Farrells and the AJs and our backline, and Chris Tierney, and we had Kevin Alston, I think we were going to sub Kevin in at that point. After Charlie scored that goal to make it 2-2, our backline really knew – and midfield too, Scottie and Jermaine, everyone dropped in to make sure. At that point we weren’t really going for another goal, because the precipice was such on the edge. But man, I’ll tell you, those guys bought in. So many plays – Bobby Shuttleworth in goal – so many great plays to make sure we, like you said, trying to stop Cahill and Henry at that time was not easy.”
Soares: “In the moment you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, if we give up a goal, this is going to be …’ – I don’t even think at the time I remembered what the score, like, even was. But I do remember they turned it up a level. Thierry Henry specifically turned it up a level. But I don’t think we were ever under tremendous pressure. Just kind of normal pressure. But I don’t think it was ever like, ‘Wow, we’re getting so lucky here.’ The game ended 2-2, and that was probably the right score. So you have some pressure. But this was a huge part of the second half of the season, and this helps so much as a defender, is: when your offensive players – when you have Lee Nguyen, who can take the ball and hold it for five seconds, and then play a ball to Charlie, it’s like you’re at this high-intensity defensive moment and then the ball goes forward, and when you don’t lost it immediately, you get your breath back and you can do it again. So having those guys up the field just gives you so much confidence, because I know if it goes forward I’m going to get at least 20 seconds here to breathe. So no, it didn’t feel like tons of pressure.”
But once that full-time whistle blew, it was party time at Gillette Stadium.
Soares: “So, at that time I already knew I wasn’t coming back to New England, so I immediately shook Thierry Henry’s hand and said, ‘Hey, it was a huge pleasure playing against you.’ He probably thought I was referring to him retiring, but I just knew I wasn’t ever going to play against him again, because I was leaving the club. So I said, ‘Huge pleasure,’ and he said some nice stuff back to me, and that was cool. And then [I] turn around and see everyone going absolutely psycho. Like Lee Nguyen and his whole energy. Yeah, I just think it was all surreal; I had been at the club long enough to almost believe, ‘This club’s never going to win anything.’ You know? Like, we’ve been bad for a couple years. So to actually be really good and win a trophy, in a sense – I mean, it is a trophy – yeah, it felt amazing. It was the pinnacle of (my time) being in New England. It was amazing, fans were incredible, parents came down on the field – it was very special. And just celebrating with everyone, just having a great vibe. Again, back to Jay, I think he let us kind of just go crazy celebrating and just really enjoy that time. Some coaches might be a little hardcore and say, ‘Hey, it’s not over yet,’ whatever. But we just enjoyed it and celebrated, and that’s what our team needed. So, it was a really good time.”
Rowe: “It was a bit of a blur! I remember we were running around after the game, everyone was kind of standing around, running around, I was like, ‘Dude, I played 10 minutes, I’m going to run as fast as I can!’ To multiple people, and celebrate. That was the first moment of winning something that I had. Actually was one of the only trophies I won until 2022 with Seattle. So, it was an incredible moment because we, like I said, we felt untouchable. We did, we felt untouchable. Especially on the East Coast. For me at least, I remember going through the hard times of that 10-game streak, of not playing well, I hurt my hamstring in the beginning of the year, so for me it was a bit of euphoria and just a sense of relief, I guess, that in the bad times things can still go well. And they certainly did.”
Farrell: “To be honest, sometimes you remember moments of the game but not the full game. But I remember the final whistle – I remember that [Cahill] chance, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ That was the fine margins, you know? But like, ‘Okay, we did it!’ And then the stage, the confetti, having our friends and family there on the field, and being at home for that, that was cool to be able to win it at our own place. But yeah, that comeback, all the emotions you experience through that game, being down, the comeback, then being down, the comeback, holding on, and then celebrating. And then, ‘Okay, we’re going to the Final!’ And especially for me, I’m on my second year, but then that was so many … with Jay, a coach that believes in you, and then Kelyn Rowe, CT, Scottie, Teal, I mean, just all your best friends and your buddies. It was a cool experience because of what we accomplished and what we did, but also because of the people that were a part of it.”
And for a special few members of that Revolution team, to win that trophy for New England, on home soil, as a New Englander, meant that much more.
Heaps: “You could feel [it], and I think that was part of our mentality; I think that was what we brought to the table, is that it was a little bit harder New England resolve. So there was pride in that, and all the players could feel that, that this was a big moment. You didn’t see that many fans – it was probably the biggest crowd outside of the MLS Cup in 2002, which didn’t feel – that was a different feel, us against LA, but the reality was that was a lot more neutral fans because that was a neutral site, basically. This was, you could feel the crowd were much more invested in the team. You could feel it. You really could feel it. Yeah, when we won, seeing Mr. Kraft and Jonathan on the field, that was really special.”
Davies: “It was amazing. It’s a dream come true, literally. I had grown up seeing professional soccer for the first time in that stadium – obviously the old [Foxboro] Stadium, but same place. I grew up coming to that stadium; the first time was the World Cup in ’94, and then subsequently for Revs games in 1996, and so on. So that’s home! That’s where my dream began, literally, to become a professional soccer player, that dream began right on that ground, in that stadium. I felt like it was the perfect ending, if you will, in a movie where you come full circle – as a kid you’re dreaming, then you’re playing, but then you ultimately end up in the Eastern Conference Final. But the caveat is, [doing it all] against my hero, against my favorite player of all time in Thierry Henry. I’m an Arsenal fan because of Thierry Henry. We had switched jerseys earlier in my career. So to do that in front of my family, my friends, people I grew up with, in front of all the people that I grew up with in this community, there was nothing sweeter. And to score a brace, to go to an MLS Cup – honestly it felt like we had won the championship then. That could have been MLS Cup, that’s how it felt with all the streamers and the trophy. It was a little bit premature. But I think we soaked it all in; we enjoyed every moment of that season and especially that day. We felt like we accomplished something, which we did. And I think we all wish we could go back in time, because I don’t think we probably would have celebrated as hard. I didn’t have anything left in the tank, unfortunately, in that Galaxy game, and I think that’s because I just over-exerted myself, I was so enthusiastic and I felt like I’d crossed the finish line.”
That second leg was also special in that it turned out to be the last match of Thierry Henry’s extraordinary playing career. And as a few players already mentioned, having the opportunity to go up against such a legend of the game, on such a large stage, was meaningful to many members of the team.
Farrell, also an Arsenal supporter thanks to Henry: “It was cool. Obviously I didn’t know at the moment, but you could maybe, looking at his career, maybe like, ‘Okay, he’s going to end and switch into the next role.’ But yeah, it was special. Every time we played against them, I mean for me it was two years, but it was really cool. I’d never really dreamed of being able to play against the player that I looked up to the most.”
Soares: “One memory I have just looking back on my career is how good Thierry Henry was. He was easily the best player I ever played against. He had made a move [in the second leg] and put a cross into Tim Cahill, I think – wasn’t he on the team? And Henry was so disappointed in Cahill for not having read what the cross was going to be and finishing it; I think he hit it over the bar. And I realized in that moment how elite of a player he was. He was crossing it to this guy who was also a very good player, better than the majority of us, but Henry looked at him like, ‘Yeah, this guy’s not even close to my level.’ And I kind of knew in that moment, ‘Oh, we’re doing it. We’re definitely winning this game. They’re not putting it together.’
“And it’s hard to see. You go like, ‘Oh, they both played in the Premier League!’ So you think they’re in the same category, but it’s not even close. Like, Cahill is closer as a player to me than he is to Henry, you know what I mean? It’s that elite of a difference; Henry was that much better. He was the one player in my career I played against that I just was like, ‘He’s so much better than me, I can’t handle this. I’m going to do my best,’ and probably do pretty well most of the time, but he’s elite. He can do whatever he wants.”
In the end, a team is only as good as its coach enables it to be, and while they may have been the ones kicking the ball on the field, the 2014 squad expressed their gratitude to and respect for the man who led them to such great heights in that historic season, highlighting his abilities as both a tactician and a man-manager in a way that reminded this writer of the tales of perhaps the greatest coach that the Boston area has ever seen, Celtics legend Red Auerbach.
Davies: “We knew we were all fighting for something special. I think when you look at the squad as a whole, there was so much individual talent. I think that was also something that stood out to me, was, for an MLS team that is not known to have the biggest budget and not known to really spend to get these big names, I thought Mike Burns and Jay Heaps did an incredible job of finding talent with the budget that they had, and not just any talent, [but] really, really top talent. The margins are so thin because, had we won the MLS Cup that season, that’s the difference between Jay Heaps being where he is now in the USL – and I’m happy for him that he’s found happiness and he’s got a great job being a team president and general manager – but he could have easily been one of the best American coaches. That’s how small the margins were. I think even throughout that season, he had made a lot of tactical adjustments that were pretty significant, and also his gameplanning was really strong. You know, he took some of what he had learned from Coach Krzyzewski at Duke in terms of basketball, but doing those type of plays on set pieces that were, in some cases, eventual game-winning decisions or game-winning set pieces. I look back at that season as us being a really dialed-in group to try and do something special; we knew we had a lot of talent, and it was just putting it together …
“The man-management part – he knew which guys he could go at, and that their mentality was strong enough to take it. So, for instance, Teal and myself, he kind of took liberty of making us the scapegoats at times, or being the first to show film of, ‘[You] don’t do this well,’ or ‘Should have done this better,’ and yelling at you in training to get going or something – because he knew, ultimately, that wouldn’t break us, that there are some players who, if the coach yells at you in a negative way or makes an example out of you in a public space in front of your teammates, that they can’t get out of that hole. They’re sunk and they’re gone, forget about it. But he knew just who he could push. But in the end, I think, when results don’t go your way, and you fail to realize that you’ve got to treat people a different way or handle situations a little bit differently, I think that ultimately catches up. Again, the fine lines of player management, right? It’s constantly changing with people who are going through different stages of their life, whether it’s girlfriends, marriage, single life, kids, you know, adversity with cancer – I mean, Kevin Alston, and myself, both had cancer while we were playing for Jay. I always think back, too, of the coaches that I’ve had, he stood out as – when I’m talking about Jim Curtin and all the success that he’s had as of late, and Ben Olsen – Jay was a step above them when it came to actual tactics and match-planning.”
Rowe: “He was smart, and he managed players. He was really good, especially when we had – you know, we had big names at that time. And the turning point, I think everyone’s going to say it, the turning point was when Jermaine Jones, obviously, joined the team, and the losing streak became no more. But to be able to manage that – an MVP guy in Lee Nguyen, the older guys in the Chris Tierneys, Darrius Barnes, José Gonçalves, AJ Soares – to manage those guys continuously both on the field and off the field in the sense of, like, egos, in the sense of playing time and injuries and whatnot, and also giving freedom to guys like Farrell and myself. That was the biggest thing for me: when things were bad, and I had three, four, five games in a row where I wasn’t playing well, Jay always brought us in and said, ‘Hey, look, I trust you, but it’s got to get better, but I’m going to play you again. I trust you; I’m going to play you again.’ That part for me was huge, especially going into my next eight years of my career; I needed that trust, I needed that confidence. And when I had that, next game I always played better. He was really good about managing players like that.
“He wanted guys to work hard. He had his guys that he knew he could trust at any moment. I remember – he was also very good tactically … and he also had that basketball brain. In the home game to win the Eastern Conference, Lloyd Sam was a big problem for us. He had a really good season. And so instead of myself playing, he put Kevin Alston to basically help shut down Lloyd Sam on that side, with Chris Tierney I believe. It was a tactical decision that he made, obviously he gave me the trust to go play in the final after that. But he was like, ‘Look, we need to win this game, you’ve already done your part, we’re going to put Kevin out there.’ And it did, he shut down Lloyd Sam.”
Shuttleworth: “Obviously I think we had a good mix of players, so credit to him and Burns. They brought Jermaine in, which obviously was massive in terms of a very, very good player, but then his experience. I thought just the group in general was a good mix of characters, and also younger players and older players and all that. So credit to them, for sure, for that. I think Jay did a good job of just managing throughout the season of, like – it wasn’t like we won, we played 34 games and we won 28 of those games, you know? It’s MLS, it’s like anybody can beat anyone on any day. We struggled in the beginning of the year, and then especially in the last third of the season, half of the year, really started to take off. Throughout any season there’s going to be ups and downs, and credit to him for managing the group and keeping us on task, and keeping us together and the belief together, getting guys in the right places and allowing us to come together as a group and try to go out and win it.”
Bunbury: “I think he did an incredible job. He was able to keep us steady. He’s from the area, and he had been on the team obviously – he was someone who was a part of those teams that were suffering and made it far and didn’t seal the deal or win a cup or anything. So he kind of knew the struggles and the grind it was going to take to get through a tougher season. Himself and the rest – Tommy Soehn was the assistant coach, and our performance coach was Nick [Downing] – a lot of these guys were putting in great work. But yeah, Jay was able to realize, ‘Okay, we have a good group of guys here, they know how to stick together, but now how can I get, like, five or 10 percent more out of them?’ He really grew into that, and it helped. I know getting Jermaine Jones, obviously, we started getting on this streak and then adding Jermaine Jones was just a no-brainer. (“Jay called it jet fuel.”) I think that’s a great way of putting it, because we were getting there and then he was just like, okay, this is someone else that you know has played at a very high level. And he’s someone who, you know, he says it how it is. He came in there and he had some ideas about food that we were getting or little things here and there that I think really helped improve the club as a whole.”
