FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The 2024 Major League Soccer season was a disappointing one for the New England Revolution; it’s hard to put it any other way. A talented roster that has shown its potential in the past struggled to reach those same heights this year, and that doesn’t feel good for anyone – fans, players, and staff alike.
With the Revs now transitioning into the offseason, members of the squad were able to take an early opportunity to step back and reflect on the year gone by, while also looking ahead to 2025 with hope and determination. Led by club captain Carles Gil, Revolution players addressed the media for the last time in 2024 on Wednesday, with the general sentiment being that 2025 has every chance of being a much stronger campaign for the team.
Gil opened up his comments by acknowledging the expectations for a New England Revolution season, giving his thoughts on why the team failed to deliver on them.
“I think everything needs to start with our mentality,” he said. “The minimum needs to be [for us] to be a competitive team. Try to go to every stadium, or when every team comes to Gillette, be competitive. We were not a competitive team. We showed that. I think everything needs to start there, in our mentality. Be a team that works hard, have good ideas to try to win games. This year was the opposite.”
Matt Polster, who captained the side in Gil’s absence, also recognized the disappointment in falling short of the high standards the Revs expect of themselves year after year.
“I think, especially at this club, it's something I've said before, the bare minimum is always to make the playoffs,” he said. “To not achieve that goal is a disappointment. I know the entire group is disappointed. I am sure the staff, the organization, and the ownership group is. We definitely envisioned ourselves making it, that was our goal. But the entirety of the season, there's always ups and downs, and we had a lot more downs than ups.”
But Polster emphasized his belief, and that of the entire squad, in first-year head coach Caleb Porter. He expressed confidence in the leadership and tactical system of the two-time MLS Cup winner, saying that he and his teammates failed to execute on that game model as well as they could have.
“I think we were all bought in,” Polster said. “I don't think that was the problem. We believe in Caleb. We believe in the staff and what they were asking of us. I don't think we were able to execute it as players, especially at the start of the season. We started really poorly. You could factor in Concacaf [Champions Cup], but in the end, we had plenty of players. We were deep enough where we could have done better. I really do like to put it on the players, because I think we can demand more of ourselves to execute the game plan, and we were not able to do that. We had to tweak some things at the end of the season, just trying to find results. But in the end, I think when you look at what the staff has asked of us, I don't think the players, ourselves, were able to execute that. We need to look in the mirror, take it upon ourselves individually, assess how our seasons were, and then you can look as a whole. But you need individuals to perform well to win games in the end.”
And if the bad news was that the team’s core issues came down to things like mentality, consistency, and execution, then the good news is that those issues can be corrected. Gil stressed multiple times in his remarks that the best way he could lead the team was through the example of being the best possible version of himself as a player, recognizing that he fell short of that bar this year but affirming his commitment to starting on the work of improving himself right away.
“I think everyone had a bad season, me the first, as a captain and as a leader,” he said. “It wasn’t the season I expected of me and, obviously, of the team. I will try to be the best Carles ever. That needs to start in my preseason, or my offseason, working hard and having the right mentality.”
And he also drew from his own experience of the heights he and the Revolution have reached in MLS as an indication toward what needs to happen to make 2025 the best year for New England that it can be.
“Looking back on when I won the MVP [in 2021], in the end I think it was a very good year for myself, but the key was the team,” Gil said. “I think for every player, I think that’s important. I don’t care about my numbers. In 2021, I scored four goals. Just four. I think it was my worst season in scoring goals, but I did what the team needed in that moment. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m just looking to help my team. I know that, also, every player needs the team to be the best Carles, the best everyone, here. We need to look at the team and be focused on that … When the team works, normally, 90 percent [of the time], all the players will be better, is what I think.”
Dave Romney, fresh off of being announced as the club’s Defender of the Year for the second straight season, pointed to the team’s strong run of form back in June not only as a bright spot in a dark year, but also as a sign of the squad’s potential heading into 2025.
“We went on the run, it was five or six games where we won,” the center back said. “We still had a lot of games in hand as well, so that was something to be optimistic about. We knew one of those games in hand was away at Columbus, which is never going to be an easy result. For how poorly we might have done in stretches and how – I don't want to say we played poorly, because we had a lot of games where we were in them, and then we just lost some of those leads at home. I think in our last games, we lost [the] Dallas lead at home, St. Louis lead at home, Montreal lead at home. A couple of those games, if we are more clinical defensively, and we keep those leads, that's an extra six points and we're easily in the playoff run. It was crazy to think even going into the D.C. game, we still had an outside chance. Personally, I think the majority of the guys were optimistic throughout a majority of the season, up until maybe the last two games. If we just were more clinical in some of those home games, I think we would have had an amazing shot to get in."
And with the offseason comes an anticipation for fresh faces, new talent, key additions that will have the squad firing on all cylinders next year. Two midseason additions, Luca Langoni and Alhassan Yusuf, both demonstrated in a short time just how exciting they are and how much better they make the Revs, hopefully a sign of positive things to come under a coach who has consistently expressed his commitment to making the team better with every transfer window.
Commenting on the seasons the two international signings had, Gil said, “I think they are good players and competitive players. Yusuf, I think is a very good player and he’s showing that in the games that he had. For sure, he will help this team. I say the same thing, to have the best Yusuf or Luca, they need the team. In the situation that we had, they played good games, but in the end, we lose 4-0 and then it doesn’t matter what happened individually, if your team loses 4-0, you know? Luca is a player that works very, very hard with the ball and without the ball. I think this is very important for us. Also, he showed that he scores goals. He’s a guy that when he has a chance, he has a good finish. It wasn’t the season they expected. I hope we have better luck for next year.”
Lastly, Gil affirmed his own unwavering commitment to the Revolution. With his sixth season in Foxborough now in the books – his fifth with a double-digit assist total, no less – the captain said that New England was feeling more like home than ever, and that he couldn’t wait to see the team come back strong next year.
“This is my club,” the captain said. “It’s my sixth year and I love this club, everything. I love Boston. I’m here to help the club in any way. But I also want to win and I want to be competitive. Not just me, I think if you ask all the players, the staff, or anyone here. Like I said, I will try to help the team in any way. First of all, I want to look at me, try to be the best Carles possible in any way that I didn’t. I believe in me and I will come [back] strong.”
