Bruce Arena’s Winning Philosophy

It’s certainly a platitude, but a strong work ethic is a vital element of any successful team.

Bruce Arena, the winner of five MLS championships, knows this. It’s a point he’s been stressing to his players in New England since day one, and he expects his roster to subscribe.

On Thursday, A.J. DeLaGarza and Emmanuel Boateng both appeared before local media for the first time. They are new additions to the roster, but both bring experience playing under Arena in Los Angeles. It was this time spent together in LA that gave DeLaGarza and Boateng a taste of what to expect in New England, allowing them to jump right into the preseason without any surprises.

“I think you just look at the first few days of training, and they’ve been very tough,” DeLaGarza said over Zoom on Thursday. “Bruce is like, ‘there’s no need to ease into [preseason] because guys have been on top of it in the offseason.’”

“I’m getting challenged every day,” Boateng added. “You can just tell the mindset. We had at least 15 guys in here every day [during preseason], coming in and working, when you know they could have just stayed home and shown up on Monday.”

Bruce Arena is a winner, and he knows what’s required to win: hard work. It’s a philosophy that he preached to DeLaGarza and Boateng when he coached them in Los Angeles, and it’s a philosophy that holds strong today.

As the Revs roster gears up for another title push in 2021, they’ll have to be all in. Bruce won’t expect any less.

“Players have been here some weeks now working hard and you can see that the fitness level was pretty good for the start of preseason,” said Arena. “That’s something that’s a real positive and we hope we can move them along a lot quicker.”