FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – When Ryan Cochrane scanned through the New England Revolution's roster after the club selected him in the second stage of the Re-Entry Draft in December, he reached a surprising conclusion.

In a tight-knit league with familiar faces scattered from coast-to-coast, the seven-year veteran landed in one of the few locales in which there was no one he knew.

“This is one of the teams where I didn't know one person,” Cochrane told MLSsoccer.com. “Most guys will tell you that you end up knowing guys on different teams around the league. This is the first time I'm going in with a truly fresh start and not knowing anybody.”

While the clean slate certainly appealed to the veteran center back as he seeks to re-establish himself as a starter in the league, it also inspired a bit of uncertainty as Cochrane waited for his first Revolution training session.

Stepping out onto the practice field at the Dana-Farber Field House on Monday morning for the start of New England’s training camp went a long way toward addressing those concerns, according to Cochrane.

“It's nice to get out there on the field finally and get [rid of] this feeling of anxiousness,” Cochrane said.

Any lingering doubts dissipated from the moment he entered into the Revolution locker room. Cochrane, who spent the last season-and-a-half with the Houston Dynamo, pegged his new teammates as a “pretty welcoming group” and suggested he can already pick out a few of the key personalities within the squad.

“It's been great,” Cochrane said. “It gives you an anxious feeling before you get here, but I know this group has a low-key personality. Guys really get along, so it's been fun.”