Usseglio: New Year, New Revs
Let’s get the season started
Time heals all wounds. How long will it take for the pain of the New England Revolution’s 2024 season to heal? Let’s hope the couple of months since their last game against Inter Miami is sufficient.
The 2025 Revolution are undefeated. Hope is in the air and, as is true with the start of something new, anything is possible.
The team is currently in Florida, in the midst of their preseason preparations, the second under coach Caleb Porter. The team is remarkably different, with many players departing and a whole host of new faces for fans to learn.
Change can be good. Other times change can be harmful, and sometimes change is just change.
My bet is that change will be positive for the Revolution: this team will do better than last season. In all fairness, it will be hard to do worse.
Why the positivity? First, everything coming out of the stories and interviews from preseason has a positive vibe. The players seem motivated, with the new additions sparking competition, unburdened by the Bruce Arena saga and trials of 2024.
They have no point of reference, no weight on their shoulders. The club is finally moving out of the shadow of the past, emerging into a new era.
Second, the Revs have signed good players. Leo Campana should be a force up front, working with the likes of Carles Gil, Luca Langoni, Ignatius Ganago, and eventually Tomás Chancalay. Midfielder Alhassan Yusuf looked the part last season and could be the engine of this year’s team. A pair of new, untested center backs in Brayan Ceballos and Mamadou Fofana could either make or break this season. The new players will need time to come together, but it is clear sorting director Curt Onalfo brought talent into the squad.
Third, this is now Caleb Porter’s team. He wanted the team to get younger, more dynamic, and better suited to the style he wants to play.
Porter tried to make his style fit last year, and it clearly didn’t work. According to his interviews so far this preseason, he has the players to make his system run. We will see whether or not that works out, but there are no more excuses. It is now or never.
Lastly, it is the start of something new. Every season brings a sense of hope, expectations, and dreams of what could be. Maybe it is too easy to get swept up in that promise, but I would rather start in that frame of mind than chalk 2025 up as a lost season before it even starts.
So, will the New England Revolution be a good, competitive team? I have no idea. I could not begin to tell you whether Porter’s system will work, if the offense will come together with Campana at the helm, or if the new center backs will be up to the level of MLS. What I do know is that the Revs start their first preseason game against Austin FC on January 21.
Bring on the competition. Let’s freaking go.
This is EXACTLY my mindset. Let’s go Revs!
OH PUH-LEASE. It would be far better to have the season delayed by 2 months so a group of people who have NEVER PLAYED TOGETHER can learn how to function as a team.