FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The first significant additions of the New England Revolution’s offseason arrived on Tuesday afternoon as the club strengthened its technical staff by bringing on former defender Carlos Llamosa as an assistant coach and Aidan Byrne as head of fitness.
Byrne replaces Nick Downing, who served as the Revs’ strength and conditioning coach for the past five years, but the addition of Llamosa expands New England’s technical staff, as he joins head coach Jay Heaps and fellow assistants Tom Soehn and Remi Roy.
New England had been looking to grow their staff for some time, and Llamosa’s experience within MLS – and specifically with the Revolution – made him the ideal candidate.
“We’ve been looking to add another assistant coach for a little while now, but we wanted to make sure it was the right fit for our current coaching staff,” said General Manager Michael Burns. “He was the right guy at the right time for the right position.”
Llamosa will be a familiar name to longtime fans of the Revolution, as the defender’s 10-year MLS career brought him to Foxborough for 38 appearances in 2002 and 2003. A U.S. National Team stalwart from 1998-2002, he also appeared for D.C. United, the Miami Fusion and Chivas USA.
A teammate of Heaps in both Miami and New England, Llamosa played on the same backline as the Revs’ head coach, often pairing up in central defense. That familiarity played a significant role in hiring Llamosa, whom the Revs believe will transition seamlessly into their locker room.
“I think there’s a familiarity and a comfort level – and I don’t mean that in a loose way; I mean that they know each other’s personalities,” Burns said. “The fact that they have a history together only adds value to their relationship and their working together.”
It wasn’t just Llamosa’s past as a player that made him attractive to New England, but also as a coach. The 47-year-old has spent the past seven years in the coaching ranks, serving as an assistant first with Chivas USA (2010-12) and more recently the New York Cosmos (2013-16).
Llamosa’s experience on the sidelines will prove beneficial on the training ground and while navigating game day, but also in the area of scouting, as expanding the staff will offer New England a bit more flexibility in that department during the season.
“It’s extremely challenging for us with our current staff during the season to go places, because the games come so quickly and the season’s so long,” Burns said. “Having that extra coach I think will allow us a little bit more freedom to address those sorts of things.
“He’s another person we have the ability to tap into that can travel, and can scout, and can identify players and has done that for a good portion of his career.”
Byrne, meanwhile, also has coaching experience at a variety of different levels, including MLS. A native of Dublin, Ireland, Byrne came to the United States more than 20 years ago to play collegiately, and he’s spent the past 15 years climbing the coaching ladder.
Most recently Byrne coached at a pair of local schools – he was an assistant at Northeastern University from 2010 to 2013 before serving as head coach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014. He made the leap to MLS in 2015, serving as NYCFC’s physical performance coach the past two years.
Byrne’s unique combination of experience – including time on an MLS staff, a variety of coaching gigs, and an expertise in strength and conditioning – attracted the Revolution’s attention.
“He won’t be asked to run training sessions, but the fact that he has had coaching experience certainly adds value to his resume,” Burns said. “He has, first and foremost, the fitness background, which we needed, but also the MLS background and the coaching background. That’s not always easy to find.”
