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| Friday, October 18, 2002 12:50 EST |
Nicol named Coach of the Year
[Associated Press]
FOXBORO, Mass. -- Steve Nicol won the MLS Coach of the Year
award Wednesday after taking a New England Revolution team with a
history of mediocrity to the championship game.
The Revolution, 8-1-3 in their last 12 games, play the Los
Angeles Galaxy for the title Sunday in Foxboro.
``It's fantastic. Obviously, I'm going to get a few pats on the
back,'' Nicol said after practice. ``I'm lucky enough to get my
name on the trophy, but it really is a team thing.''
The Revolution had four other coaches and just one playoff win
in their first six seasons. This year, Nicol moved from assistant
coach to interim head coach when Fernando Clavijo was fired on May
23 with a 2-4-1 record.
The Revolution were 10-10-1 in the regular season under Nicol,
finishing at 5-0-1, and began rolling after they adapted to his
disciplined, defensive system.
In their last 10 games, including four in the playoffs, they've
allowed just five goals. Two of them came on penalty kicks.
``We all bought into his philosophy,'' defender Joey Franchino
said. ``It took a while at the beginning and we all believed in it
and he believed in us. We stuck together as a team and as an
organization.''
In the playoffs, the Revolution beat Chicago in the
quarterfinals and Columbus in the semifinals.
The 40-year-old Nicol was New England's interim head coach for
the last two games of 1999 and won both. He was a player coach for
the Boston Bulldogs of the A League from 1999 to 2001 and joined
Clavijo's staff last Jan. 10.
From 1981 through 1995, Nicol made 467 appearances for
Liverpool, one of the world's top club teams. He made 27
appearances for the Scottish National Team and started in the 1986
World Cup.
Voting for the coaching award was completed before the playoffs.
Other finalists were Mike Jeffries of Dallas and Sigi Schmid of Los
Angeles.
Last year's winner was Frank Gallop, who led San Jose to the MLS
championship.
Nicol is the first Revolution coach to win the award.
``He deserves it. He had a rough go at it at the beginning as
interim head coach,'' goalkeeper Adin Brown said. ``I sure hope
they take the interim off pretty soon.''
Revolution managing director Sunil Gulati told him the team
wants him back next season, but Nicol wants to wait while he
handles more immediate matters.
``Let's get the important thing out of the way and get the games
won,'' Nicol said.
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