New England Soccer Roundup: January 22, 2025
The Revs won their first preseason game, Hartford Athletic preseason schedule announced, and some USL 2 Northeast Division news
There was a ton of news on Tuesday so instead of having a ton of articles why not have it all in a single email? So let’s get into it.
USL League Two
This is journalism so let’s utilize a nice inverted pyramid and start with USL League Two.
The Northeast division saw former players make headlines along with the return of a head coach.
Two former Vermont Green FC players will be starting their careers abroad. Defender Lucas Windschauer and Goalkeeper Nick Christoffersen both inked contracts.
Windschaur will be playing in Brazil for Paulista FC. The Brazilian club currently plays in the Campeonato Paulista Segunda Divisão, the fifth tier of the São Paulo state league.
Christofferson, a member of the 2022 and 2023 roster signed a deal with Akademisk Boldklub Gladsaxe in Denmark. The club currently plays in the third highest level of Danish domestic football in the Danish Second Division Group 1. The goalkeeper was drafted by CF Montreal in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft.
On the other side of the region, Western Mass Pioneers announced that Federico Molinari will be returning as head coach. The Pioneers finished second in the Northeast Division with an 11-1-2 record in 2024.
Finally, a shoutout to Patrick Agyemang who earned his first U.S. Men’s National Team cap and scored in his debut against Venezuela.
Portland Hearts of Pine
Portland Hearts of Pine held its first-ever training session on Tuesday. The club is beginning its preparations for its inaugural season.
The Hearts have some quality players but are still far from having a full roster. Samuel Camacho, Ollie Wright, and Michel Poon-Algeron were those not ina attendance for the session.
Images seem to indicate that a goalkeeper signing is on the horizon but trialists helped fill out some spaces on the field.
Portland begins its inaugural campaign on March 29 when the Hearts head down to Florida to play FC Naples.
Hartford Athletic
Hartford Athletic announced its preseason schedule and there will be plenty of inter-New England battles.
While the preseason begins with a match against New York Red Bulls on February 3, The Latics go on to play the New England Revolution on the road (February 7) and then Rhode Island FC at home (February 19).
Hartford then faces off against Boston University on the 22nd and then returns to professional competition against New York Red Bulls II on the 28th. The preseason schedule concluded with a home match against the Hearts of Pine on March 1.
The Athletic haven’t made a lot of moves as they have retained lots of talent. Brenden Burke will have a strong foundation to build on along with the additions of Samuel Careaga and Jonathan Jimenez. In a league that sees a lot of turnover, Hartford has retained a decent chunk of talent. It will be interesting to see if that means success for The Latics in 2025.
New England Revolution
The Revs won their first friendly of 2025, a promising sign that this year could be an improvement after the disaster of 2024.
A Wyatt Omsberg goal propelled New England to victory over Austin FC in a 70-minute friendly. Head Coach Caleb Porter was pleased with the defensive effort of his squad.
“We worked on the defensive side for the last several days, so I thought from that standpoint we were excellent today,” he said. “We got a clean sheet over the 70 minutes. Our goal was to win each half, and we won the first half, which was good. We found a goal, won 1-0, and then in the second half was 0-0. But I really liked our work rate, how competitive we were, how disciplined we were. I thought we were really tough to break down, and that gives us a really strong foundation to build from. In that first half as well, I loved the quality of chances that we created. It was much improved from the first intra-squad [scrimmage last Friday]. I thought we got great rhythm on that side of the ball and control and then turned that into chance creation. Our transition play was good too.”
Newly-acquired striker Leo Campana seems to be making an impact as Porter noted that the striker had two chances that could have added to the scoreline. The head coach also deployed two groups that were on the field for 35 minutes each.
Porter also applauded the team’s work ethic noting that the team has no “luxury guys”.
“You saw today, we had, in both halves, 11 honest guys on the pitch working hard, no luxury guys,” Porter said. “When you have no luxury guys and you have 11 players who are defending, all working, and organized – because that’s the other thing, is tactically being organized – then, you’re tough to play through. Last year, at times, we would have 10 or nine players defending and a lot of times had guys taking breaks. That was a real, for me, initiative in the players that we added is we’re going to be an honest team and we’re going to be a competitive team. Yeah, we’re going to attack and of course we want to score goals. But also, as a base starting point for every game home and away, we want clean sheets, and we want to be competitive. If you start from that type of foundation, you’re in every game.”
Considering the Revs struggled in the 2024 preseason, the fact they are winning games is a pleasant sight. Still, these are in fact preseason games that purely serve as a way to build fitness and implement tactical game plans against opponents who are not your teammates.
Love that the revs won a preseason game this year. Already better than last year haha
Any news on New England FC? I only ask because in the announcement that they’d be joining USL 2, they said they’d play their games in Worcester which is very close to me and I’d love a small local team to watch sometimes!