Another year, and it’s another trip home from the MLS Cup empty handed for New England Revolution.   After leading through the first half of the match, the Revs let a one nil lead slip out of their hands in what was an all too familiar MLS Cup story for the team.  Three years in a row now the Revs have had to settle for being runner ups in the playoffs, and will have to wait another year to win their first.

The first half started out very strong for the Revolution as their 3-5-2 lineup overpowered Houston in the midfield with the extra man.  Twellman notched another playoff goal, making three games in a row, and his second consecutive MLS Cup with a goal.  Things seemed to be going well for the team, they had everything I mentioned in the Revs Keys to Finally Winning post the other day.

Perhaps I should have emphasized the final point of keeping control of the game in the second half against Dynamo.  Houston came up big in the 57^th minute when New England’s defense let up and was unable to clear the ball out from in front of the net.  Joseph Ngwenya slipped the ball just under Matt Reis, for the first playoff goal he had let by this year.  After this Houston switched up their 4-4-2 line up to a 3-5-2 to match New England’s five midfielders.

Steve Ralston seemed to know right were to put the ball to give Noonan some great shots, however Noonan just couldn’t find the net sending blistering shots just wide or over the goal.  The rest of the team looked tired, and frustrated to the point where Smith resorted to head butting.  That’s when Dwayne De Rosario scored the go ahead goal for Houston.  To make matters worse, one of the few bright spots for the Revs, Ralston couldn’t finish the game due to a strained leg.  

New England had a couple chances to equalize the game, including a header off a corner from Jeff Larentowicz.  It was shear luck that Onstad happened to be standing in the way of the ball as there was no time to react to Larentowicz’ header.  The Dynamo was able to keep the lead to once again take home the MLS Cup.

Robert Kraft, Revolution owner made it out to the game, and offered fans a free bus ride down to Washington to watch the game.  It is nice to see such a big name in sports (Kraft also owns the New England Patriots) putting up such an effort to promote Soccer in the US as well as support his team.  Hopefully they will make mention of this tonight at the Pats vs. Bills game when they are talking about Kraft.

The 2008 season starts in April, check back here for all Revolution off season news, speculations, and pre-season expectations and evaluations.