How long has it been since the city of Boston got to celebrate a championship? A couple weeks, maybe?Boston is going through quite the purple patch right now. The Red Sox won the last World Series, the Celtics are the reigning NBA champs, and the New England Patriots, who have won three Super Bowls this decade, might have been one amazing catch away from a fourth. (I attribute that to karma, but that's just me.)
Well, don't look now, but the New England Revolution, who won the U.S. Open Cup last year, are ready to outdo every other team in Boston. This club is up for not one, not two, but four trophies this season.
The Revs are currently five points clear in first place for the MLS Supporters Shield, which goes to the top club in the regular season. In addition, they're in the semifinals of both the Open Cup and Superliga, and they look poised to make another run in the MLS Cup Playoffs. They've reached the Final the last two seasons, only to lose both times the Houston Dynamo -- which, by the way, is the other MLS club in the Superliga semifinals.
Of course, this doesn't include the trophy that passengers on Flight 725 probably want to give them.
What's more, the Revs have done this without any Designated Players and with a few key injuries. Steve Nicol has managed to build a consistent, entertaining side on a shoestring budget, adding a handful of solid African players -- including Gambian international Kenny Mansally and Zimbabwean forward Kheli Dube -- into the mix to give his team a much-needed boost in pace and skill.
The Revs' play in Superliga has impressed some Mexican players enough that they've started suggesting that Superliga could be a path to the Copa Libertadores -- which probably a bad idea until MLS expands its roster sizes and raises the salary cap, but the fact that any MLS club is getting this much respect from Mexico is a good sign for the future of the league.
Can Nicol keep the Revs focused on all four trophies, plus the upcoming CONCACAF Champions League? That might depend on how fatigued the players get from the schedule. Last spring, Scottish club Rangers was up for its own quadruple -- the Scottish Premier League, the UEFA Cup, the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup -- but injuries and late-season fixture congestion wore the players down. Rangers managed to win only the domestic cups, losing the league title to Celtic and losing UEFA Cup Final to Zenit St. Petersburg.
Regardless, this is the Revolution's season so far, and you can already hear fans outside of Boston hoping that changes very soon.
