With the 2026 MLS season starting this weekend, preseason predictions have been coming out of every outlet that covers the league.
Even the league's own website managed to spit out some predictions. Most have the New England Revolution finishing outside the playoffs for the third year in a row and fourth in the last five. Even our beloved Revolution Recap stalwarts, heroes of the struggle in recent times, Greg and Sean have picked your Revs to finish 12th and 13th.
Boys!
There are plenty of logical reasons to build a case against the Revs making the playoffs, that can't be denied. But we do not live in a logical world and sports repeatedly show us that the illogical and the impossible can happen.
Let us then embark down a path of developments this season that will see the Revs improve from last season's 11th place finish, not to just the play-in game for the 8 and 9 seeds, no, a march down a path that will lead to a finish in 6 or 7th place at the least.
Going from 11th place to 9th place will come from the new head coach – Marko Mitrovic – being better than the last one. Can a coach be worth two spots in the standings year over year?
Easily.
It won't just be about the tactics, player selection, substitution patterns and the elements of coaching we can see from afar. A coach can have an out sized influence on a group of players in the way he motivates them, connects with them and teaches them.
Mitrovic has a full season, day in and day out, to work with this team and get them to fuse together into a cohesive force that defends, attacks and wins as a collective. He's had to get it done in short windows of time with his recent national teams and he largely did.
Mitrovic puts the Revs up into 9th, the players he's brought here with him will move the Revs up one spot further into 8th.
The Revs added Griffin Yow to the forward line and he'll soak up minutes that were going to the likes of Tomas Chancalay, Luis Diaz and the force ghost of Maxi Urrutti a year ago. It's impossible to think he won't create more chances and score more goals on a per 90 minute basis than those three.
Brooklyn Raines' presence in the midfield this year means less minutes for Matt Polster and Jackson Yueill compared to 2025. Polster's decline will continue and Yueill might never get going for however long he's in New England. Raines has the skills with the ball, mobility and tactical awareness to make a real difference in the Revs midfield.
Lastly, Ethan Kohler adds depth at center back and outside back. He could potentially cut drastically into minutes that would have been played by Tanner Beason and Will Sands last year. They're still here but we will hopefully see a lot more of Kohler than those two combined.
Adding a young, highly technical, skilled player to each line of the team who the coach trusts is worth a spot in the standings for sure.
Luca Langoni and Alhassan Yusuf looked great at the tail end of 2024 before faltering throughout 2025. Both look to have an opportunity to bounce back in 2026. Maybe they were never going to be as good as they looked in 2024 but both have the ability to do far better than they did in 2025.
Langoni is a multi-dimensional threat with great speed. He's someone Carles Gil should love to play with and setup for goals. He should blossom with the extra space he'll surely have with whichever two of Dor Turgeman, Leo Campana and Yow he shares the field with.
Yusuf was held back too much in a double pivot last season, Raines' range and Mitrovic's know how will see him back into the box to box, highly mobile center mid role he can and will flourish in. These guys push the Revs up out of the play-in game to 7th place.
A full season of Matt Turner and Dor Turgeman is the key to a 6th or even 5th place finish. Turner could leave midseason but he loves New England and New England loves Matt Turner. And a 31 year-old who's the USMNT's #2 or #3 keeper isn't going to garner huge international clamoring for him to move abroad again.
The Revs said at the Season Ticket Members Event they will do everything they can to keep Turner here. It seems likely that the club will make him a designated player and lock him down with an eye towards him being here when they move to Everett.
A full season of Matt Turner means a full season of a top five keeper in the league. That's worth something. Not just in his individual performance either but the confidence the team in front of him will have to press high up the field, keep a high back line and take chances going forward. He's a leader and an excellent shot stopper. Is he great with his feet? No, but he knows he's limitations, he knows what he can and can't do. He's back in New England to make a home and get this team winning at home again.
Dor Turgeman for a full season should mean plenty of goals, maybe as many as 15 if he stays healthy. A healthy, consistent goal scorer at the center forward position opens up so much attacking potential for the rest of the team. He can score, he can help Yow, Langoni and even Gil score as well.
These two for a full year is what pushes the Revs safely into the playoffs.
That is, admittedly, a lot that needs to go right. If it all does, the path is there to vault from 11th to a 5th-7th place finish and an end to the quagmire this team has been in since the second half of the 2023 season.
No one is asking the Revs to match the Patriots first year with their new coach, let's just enjoy a playoff series for the first time in a while this fall and take it from there.
