The New England Revolution took the field Monday for the first time since mid-March, and the team is more than pleased to be back in action.
Revs players took part in a full team practice at the franchise’s training center in Foxboro, Mass. And by the looks of it, players and staff were having a ball (no pun intended).
A smile is worth a thousand words but we only have 280 characters ?#NERevs pic.twitter.com/4wIATiQw2s
— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) June 8, 2020
“The first day of training was good,” head coach Bruce Arena said after practice, via MLSsoccer.com. “You can’t expect too much on day one, but we have approximately four weeks to get our team ready for real competition. We’re going to work hard and get there, but I was impressed with the effort to day.”
“We’re excited to be together again,” midfielder Carles Gil told MLSsoccer.com via a translator. “The fact that we’re back to full training, it’s a sign that things are getting better and improving. That’s something to be excited about.”
Major League Soccer paused its 2020 season March 12, one day after COVID-19 struck the NBA. And nearly three months since professional sports leagues in the United States were put on hold due to the pandemic, MLS, like many other leagues, slowly is beginning to resume play.
Defenders Henry Kessler and Alexander Buttner simply are happy to get back to work.
“This might be a defender’s answer but I missed competing the most,” Kessler said. “Battling with guys. That’s probably what I missed most. You can kick a ball around, still try to do technical stuff, but competing against another guy – that’s something we didn’t have. I think that’s what I missed the most.”
“Finally we can play football (soccer) with each other again,” the defender said. “It was a long time we had to train by ourselves, but finally we are back.”
Like the NBA, MLS plans on resuming its season at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. When league play will resume, however, still remains unknown.
