Revolution begin training camp with objectives in place

The New England Revolution enjoyed a monumental run in the 2021 regular season only to experience a titanic collapse in the MLS playoffs.

The Revolution’s objectives were to replicate the former and amend the latter going into Wednesday’s opening day of training camp in Foxboro.

“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but certainly I think we have a really good squad,” said center back Henry Kessler, a third-year pro out of Virginia and 2020 first-round draft pick.

“We certainly have a good team on paper and we hope to do as well as we did in the last regular season and even better in the playoffs.”

The Revolution will practice for two weeks at their training facility before departing for Los Angeles on Jan. 25 to play a pair of friendlies against Los Angeles FC and the LA Galaxy at Banc of California Stadium.

The Revolution will host a pair of Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League Round of 16 matches against the Haitian club Cavaly AS on Feb. 15 and 22 at Gillette Stadium. The Revolution open the 34-game 2022 season at Portland on Feb. 26.

“It was good to get them back and our first training session was in our field house because of the weather conditions,” said Revolution sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena. “They looked good for the first day and we are going to build on that here in Foxboro then go out to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks before we return for the CCL.”

The Revolution clinched the 2021 Supporter’s Shield with an MLS season record 73 points and their 22-5-7 mark tied the league record for the most wins in the post-shootout era.

The Revs’ historic season ended with a 2-2 draw and a 5-4 penalty kick loss to New York City FC in the MLS Cup Eastern Conference semifinals at Gillette on Nov. 30. NYCFC went on to win the MLS championship.

Arena was named MLS Coach of the Year for the fourth time and begins the campaign tied with Sigi Schmid for the MLS record for career wins (240) in the regular season. Midfielder Carles Gil was named the league’s MVP and Matt Turner was selected Goalkeeper of the Year. Turner will miss a portion of training camp working out with the U.S. Men’s National Team.

The Revolution made a significant addition to compensate for a huge subtraction in the offseason. The Revs acquired midfielder Sebastian Lletget from the L.A. Galaxy. Lletget is a 2021 MLS All-Star and member of the U.S. Men’s National team with 33 international caps.

Lletget will be in the mix to replace dynamic forward/midfielder Tajon Buchanan, a member of the Canadian National Team. The Revolution transferred the 22-year-old MLS All-Star to Club Brugge of the Belgian First Division A.

“We are thinking about that (replacing Buchanan),” said Arena. “Obviously in preseason we will utilize a few different formations and different personnel to see how we can make our team as good if not better on the attack than we were last year. I would anticipate there will be some changes to our roster but exactly what I don’t know at this point in time.”

Arena shored up the Revs’ substantial back end by signing center back Omar Gonzalez, a 10-year MLS veteran with 52 international caps with the U.S. team. The four players competing for the two center back spots are Gonzalez, Kessler, Andrew Farrell and Jon Bell.

“I’ll say we have four guys for two center back spots and I’m sure there will be good healthy competition within the team,” said Kessler.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3fibxrt