After the Revolution’s penalty-kick loss to New York City FC in the Eastern Conference semifinals on Tuesday, head coach Bruce Arena characterized his team’s season as “excellent” and said that anyone who doesn’t consider it a success should “have your head examined.”
He is right… to an extent. Setting the MLS record for points and winning the Supporters’ Shield (awarded to the team with the best regular-season record) for the first time in team history is, in fact, a success.
In most of the soccer world, the regular season is all that matters. The champions of Europe’s top domestic leagues are determined by the regular season. There are no playoffs. Those domestic titles are generally considered more important than winning the Champions League tournament.
But Major League Soccer is not a European league. Like other North American sports leagues, its champion is determined by a postseason tournament, one New England has still never won.
And like other North American sports leagues, a great regular season that doesn’t end with a postseason title is going to be remembered as a disappointment, even if you can still find space to appreciate those regular-season accomplishments.
Patriots fans can recognize the greatness of the 2007 team that went 16-0 in the regular season, but they do not celebrate it because that season didn’t end with a Super Bowl. Bruins fans don’t care about the 2013-14 team that won the Presidents’ Trophy, only to then lose in the second round of the playoffs. The 2018 Red Sox that won a franchise-record 108 games in the regular season would not be remembered so fondly if they hadn’t also won the World Series.
European soccer culture does bleed into MLS fandom to an extent, so it’s possible that gap between the value of the regular season and the value of the playoffs is less than it is in the NFL, NHL, NBA or MLB among the diehards.
But this Revs season wasn’t just about the diehards who were already soccer fans. This was about bringing in new fans and breaking through to the Boston sports mainstream. The best way to do that was by winning the MLS Cup, in a championship game that would’ve been played at Gillette Stadium had they gotten there.
Fair or not, Boston sports fans respond to titles -- and not regular-season ones. Just on a personal anecdote level, you could sense some excitement building as what was supposed to be a two-week playoff run began. There was a real awareness that another Boston championship could be right around the corner. Friends watching who you know hadn’t watched a Revs game all season. Tweets from accounts who had probably never tweeted about the Revs before.
All that would have only increased the further the Revs went. More than 25,000 fans attended a second-round game on a cold Tuesday night. How many would have been at a Saturday afternoon MLS Cup on Dec. 11?
The MLS playoffs are cruel. The Revs’ “reward” for their record-breaking regular season was a 23-day break before their first playoff game thanks to an ill-timed international break and a first-round bye. Defender Andrew Farrell said the layoff “sucked” and midfielder Matt Polster acknowledged it “doesn’t help,” but the Revs refused to use it as an excuse.
Add in the fact that there is so little margin for error in a low-scoring sport like soccer to begin with, and the MLS playoffs’ single-elimination format means that a result like Tuesday’s was always going to be a possibility. There is really no such thing as an “upset” in this tournament.
This wasn’t a choke job either. In fact, the Revs showed quite a bit of resiliency in coming from behind twice. After giving up a goal less than three minutes into the game (there’s your rust from the long layoff), they responded by tying the game just six minutes later. After NYCFC took a 2-1 lead 19 minutes into the 30-minute extra time session, the Revs again responded with a beautiful goal set up by Emmanuel Boateng and finished off by Tajon Buchanan.
But then the game went to penalties, which are always a coin flip. NYCFC hit their spots, with Revs keeper Matt Turner missing a couple by mere inches. Adam Buksa didn’t hit his spot on a savable kick, and that one slip-up was all it took. Dream season over.
The Revs and their fans should, at some point, be able to take a step back and appreciate what this team accomplished. And they should get excited to see this team build on it as they start to turn the page towards next season.
In the bigger picture of the Boston sports scene, though, it’s hard not to view this as a missed opportunity and a disappointment.