Grenadan native Shalrie Joseph has emerged as arguably the best all-around player in MLS, and has made the Revolution a force. Martin Morales/MLS via Getty Images

By Ridge Mahoney, Special to SI.com, Soccer America

Is this the year New England finally breaks through to win the league title, and one of its players breaks new ground by winning the MVP award?

Since losing the 2002 MLS Cup to Los Angeles in what then was its brand-new stadium, the Revolution have tried to shrug off a stigma as soccer's version of the Buffalo Bills, who lost three straight Super Bowls. Defeats in the last three championship games have tagged the Revs as accomplished losers, despite a remarkable record (85-60-50) since Steve Nicol took over as head coach during the 2002 season, and they lag in the middle in league attendance.

Those fans who do show up, though, are well-steeped in ways to honor their own. Nearly every Revs player is saluted with a banner or poster at home games, and a flag unfurled at the SuperLiga final played in Gillette Stadium showed the pride Revs fans feel for one of their adopted sons.

"Supah Revs" is the club's signature cry, chanted by its fan club, the Midnight Riders, and once popularized by a defunct fanzine, Pictures of Chairman Mao. Held aloft in the stands that night appeared a flag of red, yellow and green -- the colors of the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada -- framing capital letters that read "SUPAH SHALRIE."

"He's strong, he's a leader, and he's honest," says teammate Khano Smith, a native of Bermuda. "Stevie Ralston is our captain, but Shalrie's our emotional leader. He's the one who gets us going if things aren't going right."

Around MLS, and CONCACAF as well, there's little need to add the last name. Once the Revs signed him in December '02, a month after losing their first MLS Cup final, Shalrie Joseph soon emerged as talented, dedicated and unique. Blessed with size (6-foot-3, 180 pounds), strength, touch and vision, he's the perfect package to battle as well as dazzle in the modern game.

"He's always in there, always at training, always putting in the work, especially playing in the middle and playing on turf is very, very hard to do," says Revs keeper Matt Reis, a teammate of Joseph since '03. "He's done it and done it well."

This season, Joseph passed the milestone of 150 league games. His low-water mark of 23 games played occurred in '04, when a broken nose, strained hip flexor/quadriceps and international duty took him out of league action. Nicol marveled at his performance in the '05 MLS Cup, which he finished utterly exhausted, dazed by a concussion, and stitched above his left eye to close a gash. He'd been hobbled during the playoffs by turf toe and sore ankles.

"He probably shouldn't have been in there at all during the playoffs, but there's no way he was coming off the field," said Nicol during the '05 post-mortem. "That's the kind of person he is."

When asked about the physical discomfort and psychological anguish he was feeling, Joseph said, "We can win the Cup next year and a lot of the pain will go away. Guys don't want to feel like this every year."

He and the Revs have yet to exorcise those ghosts, though they won the U.S. Open Cup last year and added the '08 SuperLiga trophy to their cabinet. Holders of one of the league's best records heading into the final third of the season, and with yet another fleet of young players grafted onto a strong core of veterans, the Revs may have their best chance ever.

Achieving goals

"I think I'm doing well, and there are still a lot more goals that I want to achieve," says Joseph, who as a young child endured the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 and moved to New York 11 years later.

"The main goal in MLS is to win the MLS Cup. We've been to the final four times now and won the Eastern Conference six years in a row, but at the end of the day, we haven't won it yet."

Joseph is a fixture at All-Star Games, during which MLS opponents are grateful for a rare chance to play with him, rather than having to chase, evade or tackle him.

"He's good," says Galaxy and U.S. national-team forward Landon Donovan. "Being on the field with him is fun. 'Dominant' is the right word because defensively, he's a handful, but then when he gets the ball, he moves, he moves the ball for you and does things that make it easier to be a forward and not have to do the other stuff. He's very good. I'd like to trade for him."