No team in MLS history has lost more MLS Cup finals than the New England Revolution. The only team to match the Revolution’s four finals losses are the club they’ll face in Sunday’s 2014 finale (3 pm ET), the LA Galaxy.
Those four losses mark the Revs’ entire MLS Cup finals history — four appearances, four losses, including three consecutive finals shortcomings from 2005-2007 — while the Galaxy have been their eight times in total, lifting the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy the other four times.
The two sides with plenty of finals parallels between them — except, of course, those pesky victories — have even faced each other in MLS Cup finals on two different occasions (2002, 2005). When the Revs and Galaxy take the field at the StubHub Center, the former will be playing to avoid losing their fifth title game, while the other will be aiming to win its fifth.
A look at the Revs’ heartbreaking MLS Cup finals appearances:
2002: LA Galaxy 1-0 New England Revolution (golden goal) — The Revs suffered their first finals heartbreak upon Carlos Ruiz‘s 113th-minute winner, the last golden goal in finals history.
2005: LA Galaxy 1-0 New England Revolution (after extra time) — The two sides met in the final three years later and second-half substitute Guillermo Ramirez‘s extra-time broke Revs hearts again.
2006: Houston Dynamo 1(4)-1(3) New England Revolution (on penalties) — Losing a final is bad enough, but to do it on penalties, after a 114th-minute equalizer? Brutal.
2007: Houston Dynamo 2-1 New England Revolution — At this point, the Revs would probably love to see someone other than the Galaxy or Dynamo in a final. No such luck in 2007, or this year.