Preseason Officially Underway for New England Revolution

Training has begun as New England prepares for the 2024 MLS season

Photo Courtesy of New England Revolution

The New England Revolution descended on Foxboro this week as training for the upcoming MLS season began.

A new season will provide new opportunities for the Revs with Caleb Porter leading the way as head coach. Players will look to make an impression on the new gaffer and become a major part of his setup.

But there isn’t a lot of change when it comes to New England’s roster. Outside of Gustavo Bou and Tomas Vaclik’s exit, the foundation of the 2023 roster remains. Porter also has made some additions with Jonathan Mensah and Henrich Ravas joining the Revs.

“Yeah, it's great,” Porter said when asked about his first few training sessions with New England. “It's what brings me to life. It gives me a purpose. It’s what I love to do. It's my calling and it's nice to be out there with the guys and feel their energy and I love to build day-by-day in the preseason. I love that because we're not focused on the opponent right now. We’re focused on ourselves and being the best version of ourselves and getting better., and every day is a lesson. Every day, there's some improvement. It's not just the soccer tactically, it's the chemistry and the unity and the cohesion that we're building every single day.”

While there is no opposition to face just yet, it doesn’t mean that Porter hasn’t laid out his intentions. He talked with the players about what it will take to finally bring an MLS Cup to New England.

“In the first meeting, I talked about the key things you need in any championship club and yes, it's the talent, but you don't need more talent to win an MLS Cup,” the head coach said. “You need to have a better locker room and your performance environment needs to be a top, top performance environment. So, I think we're trying to improve the performance environment. You know, can we have a top-class Sports Science department where we minimize injuries through our awareness of analytics and sports science? Can our game model be more clear, to help bring that, as I've said, 10 to 15 percent more? Can the locker room be even tighter? Teams I've had, we're tight and they were unbreakable. So, can we develop a unity where we take the pitch and we trust each other, and we have each other's backs and we're fighting for each other and fight for the supporters? So, those are little things where you can make gains, and marginal gains in this league are a lot, so I'm enjoying it.”

What also comes with a new head coach is a new tactical setup. Each leader has a way they want their team to play.

Porter discussed the changes that will be noticeable to fans and where New England needs to improve if they want to lift some trophies.

“I think it'll be definitely some changes, yeah, but it's a good group,” the head coach explained. “Generally speaking, they play in an impressive way, which is good. I like their mindset on the defensive side. They want to go win the ball high. That's a good nature and a good habit. I think in general, we can be a little bit, I think, more organized in some ways defensively and how we go about that based on triggers and based on a shape, and same thing in the attack. Can we have a shape and some clear rotations in how we build our attack and how we create chances on goal? This team takes ownership. We have a bunch of leaders, a bunch of guys that want to win. The attitude is excellent. The energy in training is as good as I've seen in a group, but I think there's some things to improve, but they are already taken those ideas on immediately. I thought we got better today and we're looking forward to tomorrow. It's step by step. It's like a grain in the hourglass. Eventually, it adds up though.”

Revolution Notebook: Porter Pontifications and Captain Carles

This will surely be a new but welcome experience for Revolution players. After the chaos of last season, some sense of normalcy has returned with a permanent head coach.

Revolution captain Carles Gil has been impressed with Porter so far.

“Yes, obviously it’s a new beginning for everyone with a new coach,” the Spaniard stated. “Everyone’s really excited to have a good year. We know that for this we need to have a good preseason, good training, good intensity, so yeah, we’re happy.

“[Porter] is coming with very good energy, to try to have very good chemistry. We need to adapt with him, him with us. So yeah, the first days are for training hard, to have the legs ready. We have a difficult start to the season, so we need to be ready.”

Matt Polster has also been pleased with Porter.

“Yeah, I think so far, from the two meetings we've had on day one and now day two, you can tell he brings a presence about him where he's very determined and organized and has a plan ahead,” the veteran said. “You can see that he wants to win. He's done that in his previous clubs and he's going to want to do the same thing here.”

But the proof is in the pudding and all the talk of positive change and presence will be for naught if the Revolution struggle to start the season.

It will be a busy beginning for New England with Concacaf Champions Cup play along with the start of the MLS season. Soon after comes the historic Leagues Cup and some rinky-dink tournament called the U.S. Open Cup with no history whatsoever.

Porter stressed the importance of getting off to a good start especially since this is his first season in New England.

“Yeah, I think it's always important to get off to a good start,” the coach said. “When you're imprinting your ideas, you want to maintain the buy-in. You need results to maintain the buy-in and I think these guys are really thirsting for some new ideas and are taking the ideas really well. But yeah, we have to execute in the end and our goal is to get through preseason healthy. That's number one, probably because if we start the year healthy, we've got a roster to be able to rotate in games. And I think our one-two is really strong, so those first couple games in Panama and D.C. with a short window in between, you'll probably see a lot of different guys play. I think we can put different guys out there and call different guys’ names and put together some game plans where we're rotating, but still putting out a high-level lineup where we're going to win both games.”

After last season, fans will simply be hoping for an exciting product on the field that can win games. The path to success begins with a step — not a leap — and New England will be looking to make one every day as they prepare for the 2024 campaign.