FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It’s only been a few days since the New England Revolution assembled in Foxborough to begin 2022 preparations, but the team is ramping up quickly.
“It’s great to see everybody,” said Matt Polster. “We’re motivated to get back to playing again. It was a short off-season, but I think the guys are ready to play.”
From the squad’s first training session on Wednesday, New England will only have 34 days to prepare for its first game in the 2022 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League Round of 16 against Cavaly A.S. on February 15 at Gillette Stadium, with the second leg on February 22. A short four days after, the regular season will begin on February 26 at the Portland Timbers.
The first step in this process was getting the team in for their initial training session of the new year.
“Well, it was good to get [the players] back, obviously,” said Bruce Arena. “[Wednesday] was our first training session. We did that in our [Socios.com] Field House because of the weather conditions here.
“For the most part, they looked good for the first day. Obviously, we’re going to build on that. We’re going to have a couple weeks here in Foxborough, then go out to Los Angeles for a couple weeks before we return for the [Concacaf Champions League.]”
The positive impression of the first session was present in both Arena and the players.
“I thought the first session was good,” said Henry Kessler. “We did some possession, passing drills, and then went to small-sided, but I thought it was good. The intensity was good for the first day. I think some guys are still getting their legs underneath them, but we'll do some fitness as well.
“And the locker room has been good so far. There are obviously no problems and good veteran leadership and a combination of a few younger guys coming in, so I think it's been nice.”
Ahead of the team’s first training session, Arena had his inaugural meeting with the squad for the 2022 season, and his message was clear – to come into this year with the right frame of mind.
“[Arena said] to come in with the right mindset,” said Polster. “It doesn’t matter what we did last year. A lot of the teams are going to come for us to prove a point so we’re going to have to be ready from the go.
Following their first session in the Socios.com Field House, the Revs played outside on their heated fields to close out the week.
The Revs will head to L.A. for the first leg of their preseason trip on January 25, and are eager to get to work for the 2022 campaign.
“We certainly have a good team on paper and hope to do as well as we did last year in the regular season and even better in the playoffs,” said Kessler.
