FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – With the New England Revolution in the midst of their 20th season, there’s been plenty of recent discussion in the Foxborough offices about the club’s brief history. One of the topics most often discussed centers around which players can legitimately be considered Revolution legends.
Michael Burns and Alexi Lalas – the first two players assigned to the club back in 1995 – are essentially mandatory choices and always will be. Taylor Twellman, whose 101 goals are far and away the most in Revolution history, is another no-brainer. Jay Heaps, Shalrie Joseph, Steve Ralston and Matt Reis typically find their way into the conversation for their longevity and remarkable contributions.
In truth, there’s really only one other player who’s always near the top of the list, who has unquestionably earned “legendary” status through the club’s first 20 seasons.
A plucky forward with a nose for goal named Joe-Max Moore.
Moore, by his own admission, hasn’t stayed too involved with the game of soccer since his retirement just prior to the 2005 MLS season. He dabbled in a bit of broadcast work for Fox Soccer during last year’s FIFA World Cup, but his most extensive soccer involvement at the moment is serving as an assistant coach for his 14-year-old son Tommy’s club team in southern California.
Coaching soccer seems like a natural progression for a player of Moore’s stature; he scored 41 goals in just 96 appearances for the Revolution and ranks sixth all-time with 24 goals for the U.S. National Team. But while many of his former teammates – including the aforementioned Heaps, Ralston and Reis – went down that road post-playing career, Moore always knew it wasn’t the path for him.
“I’d basically been moving my family around for 18 years straight from country to country, team to team, and I kind of knew what [coaching] was going to require,” said Moore, who played in Germany, Ecuador and England in addition to his time in MLS. “It was going to require me being the assistant coach of an MLS team, and then three years later, most likely, going to another city and starting all over.
“So for whatever reason, I just decided to focus on business and something different. That’s the path I’ve chosen.”
For the past 10 years, Moore has been somewhat of an entrepreneur. Working on his own terms – primarily out of his home in Orange County, California – he spent some time flipping houses and promoting energy drinks. As he said, “a combination of things.”
But recently he’s embarked upon a new endeavor.
“I’ve actually, over the past six months, decided to learn something a little bit new,” Moore said. “I’ve decided to go out and become a mortgage guy. So I’m now helping people through the loan process. The mortgage business is one of my new excitements.”
Naturally, though, Moore is still drawn back to soccer. In fact, a recent partnership with Liberty Mutual Insurance – the newest sponsor of U.S. Soccer – brought him back to Boston early this week. Moore spent time in the area helping promote the partnership ahead of Wednesday night’s meeting between the United States (featuring Juan Agudelo and Lee Nguyen) and archrival Mexico.
“To be honest, I’ve just never seen the passion for the game so high in this country,” Moore said. “It’s nice to see companies like Liberty Mutual recognize the impact sports have in the youth communities.”
Moore’s strike rate of 0.43 goals per game during his time with the Revolution is remarkable. He burst onto the scene midway through the 1996 season and immediately became a fan favorite with 11 goals in his first 13 appearances, but Moore truly reached his peak in 1998 and 1999 when he racked up 22 goals and 23 assists in 50 starts.
It’s enough to cement Moore’s status as one of the club’s first-ever legends, but like a true competitor, he wishes he’d been able to accomplish even more while wearing a Revolution jersey.
“I had some decent success in the early days of my career in New England,” said Moore. “I scored quite a few goals coming back from Germany initially. But I was just beaten up by injuries and different things over the years and wasn’t able to get as many games for the Revolution as I wanted to.”
Injuries did indeed plague Moore during his second stint with the Revolution – he managed just 19 appearances in his final two seasons in 2003 and 2004 after returning from England – but his entire body of work was more than enough to earn him a spot on the wall of the Revolution’s offices.
At the moment, seven players have massive, five-foot tall pictures hanging above the windows in the club’s office space, a representation of the Revolution’s storied, albeit brief, history.
Burns, Lalas, Ralston, Heaps, Twellman, Reis … and Joe-Max Moore.
“It does mean a ton to me,” Moore said. “To be honest, looking at the quality players and teams they’ve had – you’ve also got Shalrie Joseph, Clint Dempsey, Andy Dorman – really quality players over the years. So to be one of those seven on the wall is pretty cool.”
Although he rarely finds himself back in Foxborough, Moore does continue to follow the Revs, even attending last year’s MLS Cup at StubHub Center: “Pretty bummed that they didn’t figure out how to win the championship there, but I know it’s coming,” he said.
Moore says the Revs are in good hands with former teammate Heaps – who Moore knew was headed toward a coaching career even 10 years ago – and he’s looking forward to seeing how they fare this season with much of the same squad as last year’s run to the final.
But mostly Moore’s just thrilled to follow the league and realize how far everything’s come since those early, pioneering days almost 20 years ago.
“The league’s changed on the field and off the field. It’s been incredible,” he said. “We used to train at small community colleges and the facilities were terrible, to be real honest. So now to see the passion between the fans and everything else that’s happening, I’m proud to say I was one of pioneers of it, that’s for sure.”
Some say pioneer. Others say legend.
