For the first time in Major League Soccer history, the same two teams which vied for the MLS Cup during the previous year meet again in a championship game rematch. While the struggle to return to the Cup final was arduous on both sides, finding the underlying reason for it is quite simple.
The answer is stability - stability in playing personnel, philosophy and coaching.
New England and Houston were the two least changed sides during the offseason, and were picked as preseason favorites to pull off this title matchup redux. The starting 11 each side will roll out Sunday at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. will be almost exactly the same as last November. And the same two coaches will be seated on the sideline, with no major change of system or game plan.
"I think both teams are the same," said Revs head coach Steve Nicol, in his sixth-year at the helm - the longest tenured coach in MLS. "They try to do things the same way they did last year; the same way we are. There are some personnel changes, which brings about a wee change. But the actual style and how they go about their business is the same."
It's always a two-man race when discussing the most respected and liked coaches in the league, between Nicol and Houston's Dominic Kinnear. Both are considered players' coaches, fostering allegiance and respect from their charges.
"I don't always like the term player-coach, but I think Dom is a coach that everyone on the team enjoys playing for," Dynamo captain Wade Barrett told Bernando Fallas of the Houston Chronicle. "Dom - and (assistant) John Spencer, too, but Dom in particular - has created an environment where it's easy for guys to be successful, which I think is the most important thing."
Now, check out these eerily similar comments from Revs keeper Matt Reis about Nicol:
"He enjoys the game of soccer, and that kind of comes out in us. He gives us the chance to enjoy what we do, and I know everybody does. Coaches in other camps, it's not like that. They might not let your spirits show, and look to make you into robots. But here they let us play. He's been at the highest level and knows what the game is all about, so he's been great for us - and great for me personally."
Kinnear, meanwhile, is in his fourth season in charge. He coached this squad for two seasons in San Jose, and then went with it when it relocated to Houston. It was a major change for most of the organization - some of them even spoke out against it - and yet the Dynamo won the league championship in their first year in their new home.
"Hey remember, in '05, both of us should've been in the final. It was just that L.A. went on a crazy run," Taylor Twellman reminded the press corps. And he's right - San Jose was the best team in MLS in 2005, but then were shocked by the archrival Galaxy in the first round of the playoffs. L.A. went on to beat the Revs in overtime in the MLS Cup.
"So, it's been three years running where Dom and Steve have put together an incredible string of seasons. It's been unreal," Twellman continued. "Steve Nicol is the best coach in MLS, hands down, and I think Dom Kinnear runs the same program in Houston."
The past offseason was especially tricky, with the addition of the Designated Player rule. But neither Houston nor New England used theirs. The Dynamo were too tied up in cap room to take the big plunge, while the Revs made one offer to a player - but that got turned down, and the Revs moved on.
"The league might not be happy I'm saying this, but you got no DPs on either team, but you have probably four or five players on each team who could be DPs," said Twellman, one of the top 10 paid players in MLS. "It's just the way Stevie and Dominic run their programs. There's no egos. You don't worry about the name on the back; you just show up and worry about the name on the front."
The blueprints have been slightly different. Houston has done most of its work through shrewd trades for the likes of Brad Davis and Ricardo Clark, as well as starters Nate Jaqua, Joseph Ngwenya and Richard Mulrooney just this year. New England, meanwhile, has been built through the draft - seven of Sunday's expected starting 11, to be exact.
"We've been fortunate to draft good young talent, and come into a group that's settled and is a great environment to be a young professional - and they've thrived in it," Nicol explained. "So it's more of a case of that. We don't really worry or think about what other teams are doing. That's up to them to look after their own business, and we're look after ours."
That singular focus, for both teams, has them staring at each other yet again in the Cup final.