FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – There was a special kind of buzz around the Revolution Training Center on Tuesday, not only among the flock of reporters watching practice from the sidelines, but even between the players on the field. Clever passes in rondos evoked playful cheers, crosses were whipped in with precision and venom in small-sided scrimmages, and a mixture of both determination and excitement generally permeated the crisp late-summer air.
To be sure, there was plenty to be excited about. The squad was bolstered by a number of familiar faces working their way back from injury, and for the first time in a month the team was looking ahead to an MLS fixture at the end of the week. But above all else, the buzz centered around one person in particular: Luca Langoni, the Argentinian winger who was training in a New England shirt for the very first time.
Speaking to the media after the session, Langoni said he had been looking forward to joining the action on the pitch, and was happy to be getting integrated with the group. He spoke to reporters in his native Spanish via an interpreter, though he did seem to express a desire to improve his English now that he was in Foxborough.
“Truthfully, I was very excited to train with the team,” Langoni said. “It was an intense session. I was just excited to get to know my teammates. It was a great [training session].”
La Langosta went on to say he had been getting along well with his new teammates so far, and that they had been making his transition to a new team and country much easier.
“It’s been great with my teammates,” Langoni said. “They made me feel very comfortable from day one. I’m very thankful to them, the technical staff, and everyone.”
The young winger came up through the academy of Argentinian giants Boca Juniors, and had spent his entire professional career with the Azul y Oro prior to joining the New England. When asked about what had interested him about the Revolution organization, Langoni shared that he felt the move was an opportunity for him to take his burgeoning career to the next level.
“When I learned about the possibility of coming here, I liked the idea,” he said. “I liked the idea of coming to a new city and I liked the idea of coming to a new country. It’s a big step for me. I’m going to treat it like a big step in my career.”
In the midst of all the excitement, head coach Caleb Porter was composed – focused on the immediate task of preparing the squad for their coming trip to CF Montréal as well as on the broader push for the playoffs in the coming 11 games that the team has been gearing up for. In that sense, Porter was perhaps not so much excited as he was assured: confident in the process that saw Langoni join the Revs for a club-record fee and satisfied with the initial signs that the club got what they paid for, while still fully aware of the fact that one solid day in training does not make an MLS champion – nor a championship run, for that matter.
“We saw what we saw when we scouted him, you know?” Porter said of Langoni’s first day in training. “We’re not going to see anything different. He’s a dynamic player, good one-v-one, very good in transition, hard-working player, so he’s a good pressing kind of player.”
But, Porter cautioned, “It’s going to take some time for him. These [international] guys are coming off an offseason, a lot of them, and it's going to take some time to get them fully fit.”
For his own part, Langoni was eager to help his team as soon as he could and however he could, going so far as to say that, while right wing and second striker are his most comfortable positions, “I think I can play wherever the technical staff needs me to play.” And, in terms of the club-record fee the Revolution paid to secure his services, Langoni said the weight of that gesture was not lost on him, either.
“I’m very thankful for everyone in the front office who supported me,” he said. “I’m very thankful for that. I approach it calmly, with excitement and humility. I will try to fight and give the best version of me.”
