Caleb Porter Discusses Setting Expectations, Winning MLS Cup

The head coach doesn't regret his trophy assertions

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

2024 did not go to plan for Caleb Porter and the New England Revolution. Heading into 2025, the head coach doesn’t regret the expectations he set when he first was hired.

When Porter was first introduced, he was extremely complimentary of the roster. The head coach stressed that he believed that he could win an MLS Cup… eventually.

“The team is ripe for success, and I look forward to getting to work with the players and helping them continue to leave a legacy and hopefully put more trophies in the trophy case,” Porter said in his introductory press conference.

“The New England Revolution are very well respected,” he later added. “It was a club I admired from afar, and I feel fortunate to have the group of players that I have. Of course, we’ll put our tweaks on things. We’ll continue to always look at the roster and how we can make it better, but absolutely, I would not have taken the job unless I felt we could win an MLS Cup here. And obviously, you say that that's the vision, but there's a long process to get there. Over my nine years in the league, I've developed a blueprint and a process to get there. And so, I have experience in doing it, but I also know how hard it is to do it and it's going to take every single day. I believe that the daily details determine the difference. That's the edge. The work has already begun, but I plan when preseason starts to hopefully create that edge, those margins, the five to 10 percent which is the difference in winning an MLS Cup.”

The Revolution did not win an MLS Cup in 2024. In fact, they were one of the worst teams in MLS with a 9-21-4 record with a goal differential of -37. The only goals that were being scored were on the Revolution not by them.

While it is hard to expect a head coach to win immediately after taking over, the levels at which the Revolution struggled can not be understated.

New England’s roster has undergone a massive evolution since the end of the 2024 season. Carles Gil, Malcolm Fry, Matt Polster, Alhassan Yusuf, Luca Langoni, Jack Panayotou, Will Sands, Andrew Farrell, Noel Buck, Peyton Miller, Brandon Bye, Tomas Chancalay, and Aljaz Ivacic are the only holdovers from last year.

Now that Porter has “his team”, Porter believes that playoffs are the goal for the club and that MLS Cup is “the vision”.

“The goal is playoffs, the vision is win MLS Cup,” Porter told The Boston Globe. “Does it happen next year? The goal is, yes. The process is, it depends on how the journey goes. It took three years in Portland, two years in Columbus. I don’t know how this one’s going to be. But I can guarantee you this is now my roster, my team. I’ve picked these players, along with Curt [Onalfo, technical director], and we’re really happy with where we’re at.

“For MLS, we didn’t have quite enough guys that were rangy, with pace, power — penetrating players, guys that can win duels,” Porter added. “In my game model we need guys that were a little bit more athletic across the board. To play the way I want to play you need guys that train hard. We wanted to get younger guys who could train every day, push and compete, and run and press, and play the way we need to play both sides of the ball. We wanted to get guys that were used to winning. A little bit more in their prime. After ‘21, the group kind of got mature and we felt it was important to end that cycle and reset the group a little bit and rebuild. We want to get guys with a chip on their shoulder to some extent, who want to prove things.”

Still, Porter doesn’t regret the expectations that he set in his introductory remarks.

“I could’ve come in last year and been cagey on the expectation,” Porter said. “That hurt me a little bit, by saying we’re going to win MLS Cup and we’ve got the roster. But that’s fine for me. I’m OK setting the vision. I’m not going to shy away from what I want to do. That’s just my way of doing it, because winning MLS Cup doesn’t happen by accident. You have to actually have a vision to do it. Outside looking in, we had good players. They’re still good players. They just weren’t the right fit for my game model, but you only know that when you come in and work with them.”

Now that Porter has his guys, playoffs should be the expectation. The majority of MLS clubs make the postseason and with a full offseason to set his vision with his players, a stark improvement should be expected in 2025.

Because if Porter struggles, there will be no excuses. He has been practically given everything that a coach wants. The roster was completely transformed to his liking and memories of his predecessor have been erased with only a select group of players remembering the Bruce Arena era of the club.

If the Revolution have a poor start to the MLS season as they did in 2024, Porter’s seat will be reignited in 2025. If New England decides to fire the head coach then whoever takes over will have to deal with the same issues Porter did and a once promising organization could be basement dwellers for the near future.