Winning Mentality What Makes Brayan Ceballos and Ignatius Ganago Great

"Even in training, when you see guys in small-sided games, it just seems like some guys win and some guys don’t."

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

The New England Revolution need wins and head coach Caleb Porter believes that he has the right players in order to start racking up three points on a consistent basis.

One of New England’s lone bright spots outside of Carles Gil has been the arrival of Brayan Ceballos. The center back has been the best performer on the backline thanks to his impressive speed, physical play, and ability on the ball.

“[Ceballos] just has a great mentality,” Porter said. “He’s very focused, very competitive, and wants to win. He’s extremely competitive and hates to get beat, hates to lose, hates to give up goals. That pride, defending, and desire to win, that will to win, from a mentality standpoint is really huge with your defenders. I love that in him. Then from a talent standpoint, he’s extremely athletic. In this league, you have to be athletic against the talented players that we face every single week. I would say tactically and technically, he’s improving. We knew those areas needed to be cleaned up a little bit, but the improvement that I’ve seen in those areas from him, in a short amount of time in this league, he’s still pretty young. It really excites me for the future. I feel like he can be one of the best defenders in the league.”

In terms of mentality, Porter thinks similarly of Ignatius Ganago. The forward was placed on the short-term injured list on June 13 after suffering a quad strain.

New England went on a nine-game winless streak during his absence, a streak the club snapped when he made his return to the pitch on August 9 against D.C. United. Porter doesn’t believe that is simply a coincidence.