SuperLiga win soured over payout dispute
I'm still feeling a little jaded after the New England Revolution's penalty shoot-out victory in the SuperLiga final against our nemeses' Houston Dynamo at the Gillette Stadium.
Our squad joined together for some late night celebrations in Boston after Tuesday's nerve-shredding win - although the memorable occasion was soured due to the controversy surrounding the Superliga payout.
The winning team receives $1 million but the players get around 15 percent of that money, per the collective bargaining agreement.
We all feel a little short changed by it all and it doesn't add up to much when you divide it between all the players. We decided not to collect our medals after the match and our skipper Shalrie Joseph went up by himself to pick up the trophy.
We had spoken with the Houston Dynamo players before the final and decided as a show of solidarity neither team would collect their medals and would share the bonus money between both teams regardless of the result.
Our discrepancy is with the MLS not with our owners. They didn't even give us a chance to negotiate our win bonuses – after all we're the ones who are doing all the work out there.
It seems very unfair, particularly when we discovered that the if a Mexican team had won the tournament their players would have received a lot more than us.
Still, it was great to win the tournament and I was pleased to come off the bench on 71 minutes to play my part.
I had a chance to win the game for the Revs but saw my penalty saved. Thankfully Matt Reis pulled off a few penalty saves and eventually we prevailed to become the first MLS team to win the trophy.
The game had finished 2-2 after regulation time and it's psychologically important to put one over on Dynamo in a championship setting for the first time in three attempts.
Premiership referee Harold Webb officiated the match and I have to say he is the best ref I've ever played with.
He refereed at the Euro 2008 and in big Champions League matches and is obviously a top ref. He was very personable and instantly won the players respect.
After the game I told him I wished the MLS would fly him over from England to officiate all the games I play in! He's set the standard all the MLS referee's should aspire to.
Since I've been in the MLS I've managed to win the US Open Cup and now the SuperLiga, but I'm still searching for the MLS Cup despite playing in two finals.
Hopefully this season the Revs can set the record straight.
We return to MLS action this weekend when we take on the Chicago Fire at Gillette Stadium.
