Pablo Moreira Reflects on Interim Head Coaching Stint

“I’ve loved every bit of it. I think, ultimately, with how it happened, it’s not how I envisioned it and that’s just the truth. Let truth be told on that one. But I believe God’s timing is perfect."

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

Now that the 2025 MLS Season has come to an end, so does the interim stint of head coach Pablo Moreira.

The assistant coach stepped up after the firing of head coach Caleb Porter and served as a caretaker manager for the final four games of the season. With New England long out of the playoff hunt, there was always the potential for the season to end as poorly as it had largely gone in 2025.

But the tone coming from the head coach instantly changed. In one of his first press conferences, he discussed letting the preverbial chains off of the players and encouraging them to play freely while within a structure.

“The opportunity is something that is a dream for me,” Moreira said prior to the season finale. “I’m in a moment where it’s everything that I want in life. When you’re in this position and you can do what you envision, and you see the players pushing, they like how we’re training, they like our tactics, how we’re talking, it’s everything for me. I do it for the players. Yes, we want to win every game. But I want to be someone that this club and these players have faith in, and I have faith in them to win games. It’s a dream for me.”

While the overall vibe of the team shifted, the results were relatively the same. The Revolution only secured three points in one of the matches and largely looked like the same team they have been all season.

But still, there were some high points. Dor Turgeman looks worth every dollar spent on him and could be the key player for whoever is head coach come 2026.

It might not have been the dream end of the campaign for Moreira but he believes that the ingredients are there for New England to get back to the top. Whoever is the next head coach just needs to put the ingredients together and maybe add a secret ingredient of their own.

“For me, in these last four games, you look at Philadelphia, [2025] Supporters’ Shield [winners], in talking with their coach after the game, we gave them a lot of problems [on Sept. 20]. You look at Atlanta, a high-budget team that we took care of [on Sept. 27]. Miami [on Oct. 4] was not the greatest performance, but we battled back and just shot ourselves in the foot,” Moreira said after the final regular season game. “This game, [Chicago] is probably one of the hottest teams in soccer right now, and we were able to compete with them. At the end of the day though, we’re not a club that wants to compete, we’re a club that wants to win, and win trophies. You look at the history of this club, not too long ago, they were raising the Supporters’ Shield. I think the front office has done – I mean, you look at from last year to this year, how many players were turned over, like this is a playoff roster. I’m not afraid to say that, and I also understand that I was part of the staff before that didn’t get us to the playoffs. From that standpoint, that will change. The [Revolution] President [Brian Bilello] has that mindset, the Sporting Director [Curt Onalfo] has that mindset, and this club is in great hands. In terms of that roster, it’s a proper roster that will make the playoffs next year.”

Additionally, he will look back fondly on his time as an interim head coach.

“I’ve loved it,” he said prior to the season finale. “I’ve loved every bit of it. I think, ultimately, with how it happened, it’s not how I envisioned it and that’s just the truth. Let truth be told on that one. But I believe God’s timing is perfect. For me, I know that it’s what I was supposed to do in this time. All I did was focus on the daily and try to help the culture, try to help the training atmosphere, and then obviously prepare and try to win games. I still have one game left to do that. Definitely all my mind and all my efforts are in that. In terms of what that meant for me, it meant the world because I think every coach that’s in my position, ultimately, wants to be a head coach at some point in their life. Thankfully, in this scenario, I was given the opportunity to lead those men. And like you said, who knows what happens in the future, but all I can control is the today. It’s something that I don’t take lightly. To be able to lead that locker room and lead this club for a month’s time, it means the world to me. I know, like I said, God’s timing is perfect, so if it’s meant for me, it’ll be for me moving forward. And if it’s not, I’m okay with that because I have faith in that. Ultimately, I just love this opportunity. I love how I’ve been supported by this club, by the fans, by all you guys, so you’ve made that transition easy knowing that it wasn’t the easiest situation to walk into.”

Moreira walked into a difficult situation and made the most of it. While it is a limited sample size, he seems capable of leading a club if he gets the opportunity.

With the head coaching job still up for grabs, it will be interesting to see if Moreira sticks around. Of course, he threw his name into the preverbial hat during the season but with it seemingly unlikely that an interim coach takes over for a team looking to shoot up the table, the Revolution would benefit from having Moreira stay with the club.