Exclusive: Revolution II Head Coach Richie Williams Speaks For 1st Time Since 2023

After a rollercoaster 2023, Williams is focused on leading the second team.

Photo By Spenser Powell

Richie Williams had a rollercoaster of a year in 2023. The head coach was thrust into the spotlight after taking over for Bruce Arena after he was placed on administrative leave. Soon after taking over, he ended up being replaced by Clint Peay and took some “time off” as described by sporting director Curt Onalfo.

Williams’ absence came after a report in The Athletic that named Arena’s assistant coach as one of the individuals who made complaints against the American soccer icon.

But now Williams is back on the sidelines and will be leading Revolution II in 2024, replacing Peay who is now a member of the first team coaching staff under Caleb Porter.

“I don't think we really need to speak about last year,” Williams said when asked by The Blazing Musket about 2023. “I kind of just want to speak about and I think we all wanted to speak about kind of the present time now. I think we've all moved forward. Everybody's grown and learned from the past and we all are now moving into 2024 looking forward to working with the second team and enjoying coming to work and working with a lot of very young, talented players that are eager to perform well and eventually hopefully play with the first team in some time.”

When asked about what he learned from his experiences in 2023, Williams focused on his previous experiences as a head coach rather than anything specific from his time as interim head coach.

“I've done it many times,” the head coach stated. “I've been a head coach elsewhere, not just with the Revs. I've been a head coach in MLS before. I've been a head coach with the youth national teams so I do have head coaching experience. I have assistant coaching experience and I just think when it comes to head coach and assistant Coach — obviously a little bit different — the head coach is basically you have the final say but you have to work. The biggest thing is with the head coaches now you have to manage and lead everybody and that goes from the players, to the staffing, to the backroom staff, to everyone, in a way to bring the whole group together and help in every way you can to bring everybody together, to work together, when times are tough to lead. That's the difference between the assistant coach and the head coach. There's pros and cons to both and there's great experiences with both. I've done it in the past. I've done both in the past. So this is my position now and I just move forward with it.”

Williams is inheriting a Revs II program that has had some recent success. In 2023, the squad appeared in the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference Final, dropping a 1-0 result to Columbus Crew 2.

The team has also served as a stepping stone for many current first-team players, including Noel Buck and Esmir Bajraktervic. Last year, Malcolm Fry, Tiago Suarez and Peyton Miller were signed to first team contracts.

While some playes will be returning, such as Marcos Dias, Brandonn Bueno Victor Souza, and Patrick Leal to name a few, there are plenty of fresh fresh faces that will be returning to build off previous success, such as Alex Monis, Gevork Diarbian, Luka Borovic, Collin Smith, Andrej Bjelajac. Revolution II also recently announced that six Academy players have signed amateur agreements to play for the second team.

When evaluating the roster, Williams was impressed with the talent and also discussed what first team players could be featuring with Revs II.

“Yeah, I think there's some turnover but there's some players that have been here from the past,” Williams stated. “The way that you put the team together is that you still have, we'll take goalkeepers for example — Jacob Jackson and Max [Weinstein] — they train with the first team quite a bit but then they play games with us. So, they’re not with us on a day-to-day basis, but they are at times and then there's certain players, Jack Panayotou, and Tiago Suarez who have been training a lot with the first team and now will be playing games with us in the future. So you have those situations. So those are all very good young players that obviously have been playing with the first team quite a bit and now you hope when they come down to the second team, they're gonna get those game-like experiences in a professional environment in games. But then the guys that are here, we have a player like Maciel that used to be a first team player for a couple years and then had a bad injury and is coming back and who's a very talented player. “You got guys like Victor Sousa, who's been with the team for a couple of years as a center back who has had time with the first team also. You have a couple young players like Damario McIntosh and Cristiano Oliveira, who is 16 years old, who had just come through the Academy ranks who are super talented players who add a lot.”

It’s clear that youth will be relied on a lot when it comes to the second team with the goal of eventually developing these youngsters into first team players.

“You go through the team and it's just a lot of players that are in the younger side that are trying to show up every day in a professional environment with Revs II and continue to develop every day,” Williams added. “The thing that I speak to them about a lot is that it is our job to develop the players and it's your job to develop as players but also it's going to be better off for everybody if we develop you individually but within the group and within the team and that means can we be competitive? Can we be a team that wants to go out and not just develop technically, tactically, but also a competitiveness about you playing as a team. If we play as a team together, it's going to help everyone to get to what their goal is, eventually to a first team, either our first team or a first team somewhere else down the line.”

While there is always an innate desire to win games when playing in any competitive league, the focus for the head coach is on developing the stars of tomorrow. Moving from coaching the first team to the second team allows Williams to experience player growth in a different aspect.

A lot of the players on the first team are entering the prime of their careers and are quite refined when it comes to their game. At Revs II, Williams will look to jump start player growth and help mold players into future MLS players (or even stars).

But player development and winning can also go hand in hand as the head coach was quick to point out when discussing goals for the 2024 season.

“I do think being competitive is part of development, knowing how to win and knowing how to play in a soccer game, that's going to help in their development to get to the first team,” Williams said. “That is what it is, developing individual players for the first team, but then also bringing the team together collectively as a group as a team and lead them and trying to be competitive by doing things the right way on and off the field.”

2024 will offer a fresh start for Williams. While moving from the first team to Revs II might be viewed as a demotion, the coach has a chance to have a greater impact on player’s careers by developing the stars of tomorrow.