NEW YORK – Major League Soccer announced Wednesday New England Revolution Head Coach Steve Nicol as the 2002 MLS Coach of the Year, giving the Scottish International the second straight such honor following up on his 2001 D3 Pro League Coach of the Year award for guiding the Boston Bulldogs to the semifinals.
Nicol is the second former USL coach to win the award in three years. Kansas City’s Bob Gansler was named the 2000 Coach of the Year three years after leading the Milwaukee Rampage to its first A-League Championship.
After assuming the reigns of the Revolution on May 23 after the squad stumbled to a 2-4-1 start, Nicol proceeded to guide New England to a 10-10-1 record, which included a six-game unbeaten streak to close out the season. Under Nicol's direction, the Revs completed a phenomenal rise from the bottom of the table to the Eastern Conference Championship and the second seed in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
The Revolution continued to rally under their interim head coach in the postseason, possibly removing the uncertainty of Nicol's contract status with an impressive march to MLS Cup 2002. With voting for the award completed before the end of the MLS Cup Playoff Quarterfinals, the Revolution's successful playoff run was not a factor in voting for the honor.
Nicol, formerly an assistant under the departed Fernando Clavijo, pulled the strings behind the Revs' charge from worst-to-first in the Eastern Conference. A loss at the hands of the Chicago Fire on August 18 sent the Revolution to last place in the East and the bottom of the League standings - seven points from the eighth and final playoff berth. The Revs went 5-0-1 in their next six matches to pull even with Columbus on the last day of the season, capping the run with a 3-0 win against the MetroStars, a team that had already beaten Nicol's side three times during the regular season.
A former standout with the Scottish National Team and England’s Liverpool, Nicol led an unlikely cast to just its third postseason appearance. The Revolution started the season with former Budweiser Scoring Champions in Mamadou Diallo (2000) and Alex Pineda Chacon (2001). Diallo was eventually traded, while Pineda Chacon, last year’s Honda MVP, took a back seat after the immergence of scoring phenom Taylor Twellman. The Revolution shored up its defense with the addition of Mali defender Daouda Kante, who combined with U.S. National Team defender Carlos Llamosa to ignite the Revolution down the stretch.
Nicol, 40, had been a player/coach for the Boston Bulldogs since 1999 before re-joining the Revolution coaching staff as an assistant on January 10, 2002. It is the second stint in the same capacity for Nicol, who served as interim coach for the Revolution for the final two games of the 1999 season, winning both games he coached to close out that season.
Nicol made 467 appearances for English powerhouse Liverpool between 1981 and 1995, during which time the club was one of the world's top club teams. Nicol anchored the Liverpool defense that won four English League Titles, three English F.A. Cup Titles, and reached two European Championship Finals. In 1984, the team defeated Italian club Roma to capture the 1984 European Cup.
He has made 27 appearances for the Scottish National Team, and started for Scotland in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. He made his last appearance for the Scottish national side in 1992. He also played with Sheffield Wednesday and previously with Doncaster Rovers in England. He served as player/coach for First Division club Notts County in England in 1995 and was named head coach of the Boston Bulldogs on July 13, 1999.
Nicol took over as interim coach of the Bulldogs with two games remaining in the 1999 season and posted a 9-18-3 record prior to the club moving down to the D3 Pro League in 2001. The move proved to be the right place for the club, which finished tied for third in the league table for the season at 10-6-2 (50 points) and were knocked out in the semifinals, 2-1, in overtime by the Greenville Lions. For his efforts, Nicol garnered the D3 Pro League Coach of the Year award.
The MLS Coach of the Year is an annual award given to the League’s top coach as determined through votes cast by MLS coaches, general managers, players and members of the Professional Soccer Reporters Association. Other finalists for the honor included Mike Jeffries of the Dallas Burn and Sigi Schmid of the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Gerald Barnhart - USL Public Relations - Tampa, FL - 813.963.3909 - fax 813.963.3807
