Focusing on the physical world versus what we can create in our heads has sparked philosophical debates for eons. Is there an objective reality? Can we create our own reality? These are questions that can be central to our entire being so it is not surprising to see them arise on a soccer pitch.
A common refrain from New England Revolution head coach Marko Mitrovic is that the club is taking things day-by-day. He routinely mentions that him and his staff aren't focused on the standings. Even after clinching a playoff spot, the head coach was quick to turn attention to the end of the regular season.
"It’s great, but we have another amazing opponent on Saturday [Chicago Fire FC], in just three days," Mitrovic said after the win over Cincy. "We have travel now back home, we have to recover, and that’s all I’m thinking of right now.”
But the accomplishment of making the playoffs is worth celebrating. New England has missed the postseason in the previous two seasons. In a league where more than half the league makes the playoffs, there has been some dire performances under former head coach Caleb Porter.
That is what has made the success of 2026 so rewarding for Revolution fans. They are getting to see the team they love perform well again.
With Mitrovic stressing the focus on the here and now, The Blazing Musket asked him how he approaches evaluating short-term goals with his long-term vision for New England.
“That’s actually something where I think we cannot separate these things," Mitrovic said. "It's a great question because there is short, medium, and long-term planning. And there is always more certainty around short-term planning. It's like, ‘Okay, we have a game on Saturday. Now we know [we’re in] the playoffs. Okay, in the postseason, we have a certain amount of days, and that's where we have to plan.’ That's maybe something that is mid-term, but then in the long term, where do we want to go with the club, and how is every step that we take going to make us better in the long term?"
There can be a hyper-fixation on recent runs of form rather than viewing a season in totality. If Revolution fans had been told that New England is going to clinch a playoff spot with five games left in the season, they would have been ecstatic.
But then there can be a poor run of form as New England saw in matches against Real Salt Lake and Seattle can force fans to panic. Double game weeks add to the inclination to struggle to see the forest for the trees.
“I always try for us to be very reflective and [put our emotions aside] because they're present every day," Mitrovic later said. "Before the game against Cincinnati, we lost two games in a row. Sometimes you win two less games. That’s just part of this game. But something that is very important, at least for me, is that there can be an emotional stage when something happens, but then how can we just get back to reality? – ‘Okay, this is what we have to do, and this is the best [thing] to do.’ And take those emotions out of it. That's something that [applies] whether short, mid, or long-term planning is present. “For me, it's more like I love to have planned things that are certain, that I know will happen, and everything else is imagination. If we are at the beginning of the season imagining for ourselves, ‘Oh, we want to make the playoffs,' that's not going to take us there. There are so many actions that we have to execute to get there. That's why I believe in that day-by-day approach while knowing what the big picture in front of us is.”
Sometimes an answer to a yes or no question can be both. In order to see how far you have come, you need to recognize the growth occurring each and every day. No matter how you slice it, the Revs have come a long way and building a good foundation for success in the future in Mitrovic's first season as head coach.
