2008 North American SuperLiga final
Event | 2008 North American SuperLiga | ||||||
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After extra time New England won 6–5 in a penalty shootout | |||||||
Date | August 6, 2008 | ||||||
Venue | Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, U.S. | ||||||
Referee | Howard Webb (England) | ||||||
Attendance | 9,232 | ||||||
Weather | Partly cloudy, 71 °F | ||||||
The 2008 North American SuperLiga final was a
En route to the final, Houston won group A while New England won group B. Both teams faced opposition from Liga MX in the semifinals, with Houston dispatching
The match was won by the Revolution, who defeated Houston 6–5 in a
The win marked New England's second trophy in club history, following their win in the 2007 U.S. Open Cup final. They were the only MLS club to win the SuperLiga trophy during its four years in existence, and the 2008 final was the only one contested between two MLS clubs.
Venue
The final was hosted at
Background
The
The New England Revolution are one of ten original MLS teams, beginning play in 1996.[10] They were not invited to participate in the
The Houston Dynamo began MLS play in 2006 after the
Both the Houston Dynamo and the New England Revolution qualified for the 2008 tournament based on their performance in the
Route to the final
New England Revolution | Round | Houston Dynamo
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Opponent | Venue | Score | Opponent | Venue | Score | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Group B | Group stage | Group A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Santos Laguna | Home | 1–0 | Atlante | Home | 4–0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pachuca
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Home | 1–0 | Guadalajara | Home | 0–1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chivas USA | Away | 1–1 | D.C. United | Away | 1–3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: Livesport
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Source: Livesport
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Atlante | Home | 1–0 | Semifinals | Pachuca
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Home | 2–0 |
New England Revolution
The Revolution opened their SuperLiga campaign with a 1–0 victory over Santos Laguna on July 13, 2008, at Gillette Stadium.[21] Santos Laguna had won the 2008 Clausura, the most recent championship in Mexico.[22] The Revolution were without Taylor Twellman and Mauricio Castro due to injury.[23] At the start of the match, the Revolution began in a 4-4-2 formation, but would shift to a 3-5-2 in the second half.[24] In the first half, Santos Laguna were reduced to 10 men after Juan Pablo Rodríguez was shown red for an elbow to the head of the Revolution's Sainey Nyassi.[21] In the 70th minute, Kheli Dube scored the match's only goal to give the Revolution their first competitive victory against a foreign opponent at Gillette Stadium.[21] This win extended their unbeaten streak to five matches across all competitions.[23]
Their second outing in the SuperLiga was against
Their final group stage game was on July 20, against
In the semifinals, the Revolution returned to Gillette Stadium to face off against
Houston Dynamo
The Dynamo's first SuperLiga game was a 4–0 win against
The Dynamo next played
The final group stage game for the Dynamo was played on July 19 against
In the semifinal matchup on July 29, the Dynamo beat defending SuperLiga champions Pachuca CF 2–0 at Robertson Stadium.[39] The Dynamo had faced Pachuca in the previous edition of the SuperLiga, as well as in the 2007 Champions' Cup, losing both competitions in the semifinal stage. In this matchup, the Dynamo were without Richard Mulrooney and Eddie Robinson, who were injured.[40] The first goal was scored by Boswell. Pachuca had a potential equalizer waved off for offsides in the 58th minute. The Dynamo's Corey Ashe scored on a header in the 87th minute, which secured their place in the SuperLiga final.[39]
Pre-match
Prize money
The first prize for the tournament was $1 million.[13] Under the collective bargaining agreement, the players of that winning team would collect 15% of the total sum, or $150,000 split between a 28-man roster. The players on the runner-up team were set to split $100,000 in prize money.[41] On the day of the final, the MLS Players Association announced that the teams would be splitting the prize money regardless of the outcome of the match, as they viewed the low prize money as a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.[42]
"The players on the Houston Dynamo and the New England Revolution have agreed in advance of the SuperLiga final that they will split evenly the bonus money at stake in the game. The players have made this decision to show their solidarity and in protest of the league's violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with respect to the negotiation of bonuses for this tournament."
— MLS Players Union Statement, [42]
League commissioner Don Garber rejected the players' decision to split the prize money.[42] Garber claimed that splitting the prize money was prohibited by the CBA. The commissioner stated: "We never implied that the players were going to receive a million dollars. The winner's the team. The club gets the prize. And then we have an agreement as to what the share would be for the players."[41]
Columnist Greg Lalas, writing for Sports Illustrated, claimed the tournament was dependent on Mexican clubs for attendance and viewership, and that the all-MLS matchup would be considered a failure by the leagues' marketing teams.[43] In a match preview for The Guardian, writer Shaka Hislop called the league's approach to the bonus system a "blinkered view", and said that the statement from the union "was a move of true solidarity by both clubs in an effort to show MLS commissioner Don Garber that the players and the clubs also have a voice and deserve to be heard."[44]
Match
The match was played on August 6 at 8 pm at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.[45] The weather was partly cloudy and the temperature was 71 °F.[46] The match drew an attendance of 9,232 people.[20] This was a 26.1% decrease in attendance from the previous year's final between Pachuca and the LA Galaxy.[47] The Revolution were missing Jay Heaps, who was suspended after the semifinal matchup with Atlante, as well as Michael Parkhurst, who was on the US Olympic team. These players had started every group stage game as centerbacks, which led to Jeff Larentowicz and Amaechi Igwe filling in, despite both having limited experience in that position.[46]
First half
Both sides began the match with early chances to score that were narrowly missed.[46] The scoring opened in the eighteenth minute, when Houston player Nate Jaqua capitalized on a mistake from Igwe, who cleared the ball directly to Jaqua.[48] After stealing the ball, Jaqua had an open shot that he finished in the bottom left of the Revolution's goal.[20] Chris Albright said in a post-match interview: "The goal is a mistake, and Igwe would tell you that. Igwe didn't hear us calling him off the ball, but he bounced back well from it."[48] Only a minute later, the Dynamo nearly scored a second goal, when Brian Ching fired a shot into the left post. Late in the half, Dwayne De Rosario and Jaqua came close to scoring, but their shots were cleared off the line by Albright and Chris Tierney. In the 41st minute, Steve Ralston received a cross from Mauricio Castro, and volleyed the ball into the lower left corner of the net to bring the game level.[46]
Second half
The second half saw fewer chances for both teams.
Extra time
In the 98th minute, Kei Kamara scored a header off of Brian Ching's cross to bring the match to 2–1.[49] Kamara rose above Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis to head the ball into an open net.[46] Four minutes later, a Ralston free kick was headed into the lower corner of Houston's net by Shalrie Joseph to bring the Revolution level again and to ensure the game was decided by a penalty shootout.[48][20] In the 110th minute, Chris Wondolowski subbed on for the Dynamo, replacing Brad Davis.[46]
Shootout
The Revolution took the first kick, with Steve Ralston scoring on his attempt. Houston's Craig Waibel equalized on his attempt.[45] In the second round, Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis missed his penalty kick, but then had back-to-back saves in the third and fourth rounds against Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Ching to give the Revolution the advantage.[46] Khano Smith had a chance to win the game in the fifth round, but Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad saved it, and Ricardo Clark scored a must-score penalty to bring the shootout to sudden death at 3-3.[46][49] In the sixth and seventh round, Jeff Larentowicz and Chris Tierney scored for the Revolution, while Wade Barrett and Kei Kamara scored for the Dynamo.[45] In the eighth round, Albright scored his penalty to give the Revs the lead.[49] Corey Ashe's attempt hit the crossbar, which sealed a 6–5 win in the penalty shootout for the Revs.[20]
Details
Houston Dynamo | ||
---|---|---|
Ralston 41' Joseph 102' 82' |
Report | Davis 14' Jaqua 18' Kamara 98' |
Penalties | ||
Ralston Reis Joseph Twellman Smith Larentowicz Tierney Albright |
6–5 | Waibel Wondolowski De Rosario Ching Clark Barrett Kamara Ashe |
New England Revolution[50]
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Houston Dynamo [51]
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Hector Vergara
Greg Barkey Fourth official: Jorge González |
Match rules
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Post-match
"To be honest, had we not [won], it would have been a complete and utter disaster."
Steve Nicol, New England Revolution Head Coach, [1]
The Revolution were named 2008 SuperLiga champions after their victory.[48] Of the three finals in three years between the Revolution and the Dynamo, it was the only one won by the Revolution.[48] Revolution investor/operator Robert Kraft, who attended the match, stated afterward that he hoped the title was one of many future championships,[20] although it would take until the 2021 Supporters' Shield for the Revolution to win their next trophy.[52]
On November 21, 2008, MLS announced that the 2009 SuperLiga would be contested by the top four teams in the 2008 MLS regular season standings not already competing in the CONCACAF Champions League in 2009–10.[53] The Dynamo did not qualify as they were competing in the Champions League,[53] while the Revolution did qualify for and were eliminated in the semifinals after a 2–1 loss to the Chicago Fire.[54] Both the Dynamo and the Revolution qualified for the 2010 Superliga.[55] The Dynamo reached the semifinals of that tournament, losing 1–0 to Atlético Morelia.[56] The Revolution reached the finals, losing 2–1 to Morelia.[57] The tournament was discontinued after the 2010 edition, with MLS commissioner Don Garber stating that "SuperLiga was a great tournament which served its purpose during its time. CONCACAF got more and more committed to a continental tournament with the Champions League, which we're very supportive of. It has delivered the value we intended in SuperLiga to put our teams against the best competition in this region."[58] The Revolution were the only MLS club to win the SuperLiga over its four editions.[59]
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{{cite news}}
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