Is 2024 the Worst the Revs Have Ever Played at Home?

The One Where Andy Shows You Things You Already Know in Your Heart to be True

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

A few weeks ago, while hosting an episode of Revolution Recap, someone asked if this was the worst things had ever been for the New England Revolution.

There is important context here. The question came on the heels of New England losing 4-0 to Charlotte FC, in a game that included several bookings (including a red card) for players yelling at the referees as well as a public shoving match between captain Carles Gil and CB Xavier Arreaga.

It was a release of all the pent-up frustration that had built up within the Revs organization all season. Through underperformances, injuries, and midseason trades New England players and their fans had suffered a steady trickle of unfortunate news.

With New England’s high place in the standings in July of 2023, nobody could have predicted life was going to be this way in October of 2024. But here we are, just one point above 28th place in MLS. There’s little doubt that things have been bad this season.

But has it been bad enough to qualify as the worst? It’s a valid question and one that is difficult to quantify.

For my purposes here I thought we could look back through the history books and compare this season to years past.

It won’t be a complete comparison. With a pair of road games (at CLB and at MIA) still remaining, we don’t truly know how the season will end.

Ok, maybe we have some idea how things will go.

Nevertheless, New England has completed their home slate of matches. And, certainly, a part of a successful season involves how well the team was able to perform for the fans that showed up to watch in-person. As such, let’s use their completed 17 home-game sample as a point of comparison.

Home Points

2000 was the first season that MLS allowed for games to end in a draw, so lets begin there. Only twice have the New England Revolution earned fewer points at home than in 2024, in 2011, and in a Covid-shortened 2020 season.

If we correct for seasons with fewer home matches — like 2020 — and organize in descending order of points earned per home game, things look like this:

The median points-per-game at home for the New England Revolution is 1.667, achieved in both 2003 and 2009. This year the Revolution fell well below that mark at 1.118 ppg. That was also ~21 percent lower than their next worst season in 2004.

They still performed better than 2011 and interestingly 2020 on points-per-game. But before we clap clap clap clap to celebrate, it’s worth noting that in 2020 home games were played without fans in attendance. Not to mention the Revs had a strong road record that season, which certainly hasn’t been the case in 2024.

Goals

Here I’ve included data from 2024-2005 which was the furthest back I could source home/road goals without having to count them manually.

If you’re a Revs fan who enjoys watching your team score in person then this wasn’t really the year for you. New England scored just 19 times in 17 home games in 2024. Only twice did the Revolution score less frequently at home.

In 2020 they scored just 10 goals (in 10 home matches), while they scored just 17 (in 17) in 2011.

On the other hand if you’re someone who likes watching goals happen, regardless of which team is scoring them; then maybe 2024 was a great season?

Whether it was mental manifestation from the ticket office (after boldly guaranteeing that Messi would score in New England), or just a result of constant and unchecked defensive disorganization, New England didn’t do much to stop opponents from finding the back of the net.

Whether it was Messi and Friends, or Hugo Cuypers, or even former Revs CB Henry Kessler, goal celebrations were frequent in Foxboro.

The 2024 season stands fairly far apart from the pack with a whopping 1.76 goals-allowed-per-home-contest. The next closest was 2011 at 1.41 and 2007 at 1.40.

Before this season, the average goals-allowed at home for New England was 1.04. They surpassed that average by 69% this year.

So Is It The Worst?

Looking at points and goals, three seasons found themselves consistently at the bottom of the rankings. An overall dismal 2011 season, a COVID-impacted 2020 season, and (of course) this year.

Seeing as fans were on a break from attending games in 2020, thus somewhat mitigating home field advantage, I think we can set that season aside as an outlier.

That leaves us with 2011 and 2024 vying for the title of ‘worst home performances in club history’. Both were at or near the bottom of points earned, ppg, goals scored and goals conceded.

2011 was the rock bottom New England hit after seasons of decline following 3 consecutive MLS Cup appearances from 2005-2007. The roster continued to age, players retired or left and weren’t fully replaced. Assistant coach Paul Mariner left in 2009, club legend and leading scorer Taylor Twellman retired in 2010 after missing almost 2 full seasons due to injury and the offense suffered. New England saw their goals/90 decline every year from 2007-2010 culminating in 2011 where the club scored just 1 goal/90 at home. The Steve Nicol era ended with a whimper.

2024, on the other hand, has been a very different kind of bad. While 2011 was the result of years of decline under Steve Nicol, New England is just getting their start under newly minted head coach Caleb Porter.

There’s context, of course. Caleb Porter was hired after former head coach Bruce Arena resigned following allegations of insensitive and inappropriate remarks.

Arena’s departure, along with the departure of star goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic and an injury to right back Brandon Bye served as bellwethers of a precipitous decline. Before all of that drama, New England sat in 2nd place in the league. The freefall has been as swift as it was unexpected, and as yet nothing has managed to slow the descent.

So which home season was worse? For me the tie-breaker lies within losses and goals conceded.

Both seasons were objectively bad. But the 2024 Revs allowing nearly 25 percent more goals at home than their next worst season and setting the record for home losses seals the deal asvery slightly worse.

Do you agree? Let me know what you think in the comments!