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Nicol Rues Rough Season
In a candid interview with the Liverpool Echo, Steve Nicol discussed the past season and the growth of soccer in America.
Dec 18, 2008 10:56:23 PM
New England Revolution Head Coach Steve Nicol is used to disappointment. He’s brought his team to the Major League Soccer Cup final four times and lost every single one. This season, he watched as his depleted squad fell at the first round of playoffs to a surging Chicago Fire.
The former Liverpool player looked back on the season with typical honesty and insight.
“The first half of this season was fantastic - we were top of the league and flying - but the second half was pretty bad,” Nicol said. “Winning the SuperLiga was great but it meant we spent July without a league match. We also had to go to Trinidad for a Champions’ League qualifier. It left us playing catch-up at the hottest time of the year and we only have 18 players on our roster. We ended up having to play something like 24 games in just 96 days and with all the travelling we do here it killed us.”
MLS has since moved to prevent such fixture congestion. Teams may now only participate in one of the SuperLiga or CONCACAF Champions’ League. Because of New England’s league placement, they will participate in the SuperLiga.
Nicol went on to discuss the relative size of the US, and how travel impacted his squad.
“If you go to LA it’s a five and a half hour flight and a three hour time zone change. You play on a Saturday, get home Sunday and have to prepare for the midweek game. I think we had one proper training session in two months. Towards the end of the season fatigue set in and we picked up injuries. Everything that could go wrong did. There was nothing I could do about it.”
Prior to that drastic dip in form and fortune, Nicol managed to oversee the conquest of one trophy. The squad found form over the month it played in the SuperLiga, and defeated rivals Houston Dynamo to bring the trophy back to Boston.
“We’ve won a couple of bits of silverware but the one we all want is the MLS Cup - it’s what we set out to achieve every year,” Nicol said. “I’ve taken the club to the final four times and we’ve lost them all - one in 90 minutes, two in overtime, and one on penalties. I would love to win it and we’ll start again in March. Hopefully 2009 will be the year.”
Having been on this side of the Atlantic for nine years now, the Scot took a moment to look back on just how far soccer has come in America.
“When I first came over in 1999 I couldn’t even find anywhere to watch games on TV,” he said. “Now it’s on every channel and interest in soccer has grown so much. We averaged about 14,000 at home this season but in the middle of the summer we were getting 20,000. The days of 35-year-old pros turning up in the States to earn easy money before retiring are long gone and the MLS is a really competitive league.”
Nicol went on to say that he has no plans on leaving New England, citing the extra couple years left on his contract. For MLS’s longest serving coach, that would certainly cement his place among those most integral in the success of soccer in America.
--Zac Lee Rigg, Goal.com
The former Liverpool player looked back on the season with typical honesty and insight.
“The first half of this season was fantastic - we were top of the league and flying - but the second half was pretty bad,” Nicol said. “Winning the SuperLiga was great but it meant we spent July without a league match. We also had to go to Trinidad for a Champions’ League qualifier. It left us playing catch-up at the hottest time of the year and we only have 18 players on our roster. We ended up having to play something like 24 games in just 96 days and with all the travelling we do here it killed us.”
MLS has since moved to prevent such fixture congestion. Teams may now only participate in one of the SuperLiga or CONCACAF Champions’ League. Because of New England’s league placement, they will participate in the SuperLiga.
Nicol went on to discuss the relative size of the US, and how travel impacted his squad.
“If you go to LA it’s a five and a half hour flight and a three hour time zone change. You play on a Saturday, get home Sunday and have to prepare for the midweek game. I think we had one proper training session in two months. Towards the end of the season fatigue set in and we picked up injuries. Everything that could go wrong did. There was nothing I could do about it.”
Prior to that drastic dip in form and fortune, Nicol managed to oversee the conquest of one trophy. The squad found form over the month it played in the SuperLiga, and defeated rivals Houston Dynamo to bring the trophy back to Boston.
“We’ve won a couple of bits of silverware but the one we all want is the MLS Cup - it’s what we set out to achieve every year,” Nicol said. “I’ve taken the club to the final four times and we’ve lost them all - one in 90 minutes, two in overtime, and one on penalties. I would love to win it and we’ll start again in March. Hopefully 2009 will be the year.”
Having been on this side of the Atlantic for nine years now, the Scot took a moment to look back on just how far soccer has come in America.
“When I first came over in 1999 I couldn’t even find anywhere to watch games on TV,” he said. “Now it’s on every channel and interest in soccer has grown so much. We averaged about 14,000 at home this season but in the middle of the summer we were getting 20,000. The days of 35-year-old pros turning up in the States to earn easy money before retiring are long gone and the MLS is a really competitive league.”
Nicol went on to say that he has no plans on leaving New England, citing the extra couple years left on his contract. For MLS’s longest serving coach, that would certainly cement his place among those most integral in the success of soccer in America.
--Zac Lee Rigg, Goal.com
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