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Bruce Arena thinks 2021 Revs are unique to past championship teams

For the legendary head coach, this team can’t be compared to prior teams who have lifted the MLS Cup.

MLS: New England Revolution at Philadelphia Union Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

What makes up an MLS champion? If anyone knows it is Bruce Arena.

The legendary MLS coach has won five MLS Cup titles and will go down as the best soccer coach in the history of the United States.

Everything in New England has changed since Arena came to the Revolution. He brought a winning atmosphere and that is clear in the moves that the club has made as well as their recent success.

Arena’s side has been the best team in the Eastern Conference if not the entire MLS in 2021. With a 17-4-4 record and a whopping 55 points, New England looks ready to finally get the monkey off their back and lift a trophy at the end of the season.

The head coach was asked by Frank Dell’Apa of the Boston Globe on Thursday if he could compare this current group to some of the championship sides that he has coached.

Arena said, “Well, they’re all different. I think this team is unique to the teams I had in D.C. and L.A. A different mix of players, different backgrounds, different understandings of the game. We’ve built this team a little differently and we’ve done a lot of developing our players over the last two years that have gotten us to this point. But, we’re certainly not a championship team at this point. We have a lot of the regular season remaining. I know there are all possibilities of what we could achieve, but we haven’t achieved that yet. So, as a team, we haven’t paid any attention to those matters at this point in time.”

With only nine games left in the regular season, the Revs appear to want to build momentum heading into the playoffs. A home win against 10th place Columbus would do just that.