Usseglio: The Tomás Chancalay Era in New England

Brilliant potential limited by fate and injury

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

The Revolution announced that they have traded Tomás Chancalay to Minnesota United.

Why did they feel it was necessary to do so?

Let’s go back to the beginning. I was personally very excited when New England signed Chanca on loan with an option to buy. Chancalay was hailed as a dynamic player, someone with a lot of offensive potential that could help the Revs attack. He was a product of Racing Club, one of the premier teams in Argentina that Gustavo Bou had also played for.

When I first watched Chancalay play for the Revs, I actually thought his game was very similar to Bou’s. He was a bit of a dynamo, not a true number nine but also not a true winger that gets up and down the flanks putting in crosses. He was more in the mold of what we had seen from La Pantera. Biding his time, he waited for the right opportunity to pounce and fire a shot on goal.

One of the biggest differences between Bou and Chanca was Chancalay’s absolute cannon of a right foot. I remember seeing some of the videos from the Revolution’s social media team of him in training, and then some of his first shots on goal during a game. It seemed like he could shoot from anywhere and good luck to any keeper trying to stop that rocket of a shot if it was on target.

I thought Chanca would make an instant impact during his time in New England, just like his compatriot Bou had success in his role with Adam Buksa up top and Carles Gil pulling the strings. Unfortunately, that is not how things played out for Chancalay. Despite so much promise, he never became the type of player I think we all knew he could be.

Part of that was due to a devastating knee injury he suffered in 2024. That setback took him out for about a year, with him making his return this past April in Atlanta. Seeing him walk back onto the field to make his first appearance since the injury was one of my favorite moments of this season. He wore his emotions on his sleeve, and it was great to see him celebrating with his teammates after the game for one of the rare wins the Revolution had in 2025.

The other half of the situation was the coaching carousel. Chancalay was brought in under Bruce Arena, the same coach that had signed Gustavo Bou. If Arena had not been suspended, I sincerely wonder if Chancalay would have been much more successful here.

Alas, that was not the case. Instead, Arena departed and Caleb Porter was hired as head coach. Chancalay, even when healthy, never fit into Porter’s game model.

It seems like Porter preferred wingers who played wide and provided service into the box for a non-existent striker threat rather than the dynamo-type player that Chanca was. At times, Porter played him as a striker, but to me that was not a great fit either. If anything, Chancalay played the position more like a false nine, which is the opposite of what Porter wanted to do with his wingers getting crosses into the box.

If Porter had been more flexible, maybe Chanca could have produced at the level I thought he was capable of. I would not be surprised if he does well in Minnesota, especially if he is given more of a free role.

Why did the Revs want to move on from him now? Did they look at his production and think he was not worth the contract? Did new Head Coach Marko Mitrović not see him as a fit for his own game style? Honestly, after everything that has gone down the past couple of years, maybe Chancalay wanted a fresh start.

If that is the case, I cannot say I blame him.

Gracias por todo, Tomás Chancalay. I am sorry things did not work out here in New England. You were an exciting, dynamic player, someone I looked forward to watching each time you stepped onto the field.

As we look forward to 2026, the Revolution now have an open designated player spot. How will they choose to use it? What reinforcements, in addition to new signing Brooklyn Raines, will they bring in to create an attack that has been nonexistent for years?

Let’s wait and see.