Marko Mitrovic’s initial Revolution coaching staff will be a blend of old and new, the incoming head coach adding Sean Hughes and Michael Morris from his time leading the United States U-20 national team.
“They are both experienced coaches with strong knowledge of the game and tremendous abilities to lead processes,” Mitrovic said Thursday in a release. “I’m excited they made the decision to join our staff here in New England, where they will complement the many talented people already with the club.”
Mitrovic said at his introduction last month he planned to retain some of Caleb Porter’s staff to “have continuity with the work.” That meant keeping goalkeeper coach Kevin Hitchcock, hired under Brad Friedel in 2019, as well as former Porter assistant Blair Gavin and set piece specialist Marc Orti Esteban, who was added last offseason.
Hughes boasts more than a decade of collegiate coaching experience, most recently as an assistant at Michigan. Morris has been with the Seattle Sounders organization since it joined MLS in 2009, rising from overseeing youth camps to an assistant role with the Tacoma Defiance, Seattle’s entry in the developmental MLS Next Pro.
Both were part of Mitrovic’s staff at this year’s U-20 World Cup, where a US team including New England’s Peyton Miller reached the quarterfinals.
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The Revolution will be part of a slimmed-down US Open Cup in 2026, one of 48 professional teams scheduled into the US Soccer Federation-run national club championship.
The 111th staging of the tournament will feature 80 teams and seven rounds, down from 96 and eight this year, to avoid overlap with this summer’s men’s World Cup. Sixteen of MLS’s 30 squads will take part, entering in the third round on April 14-15. MLS has not put all its senior-level teams into the Open Cup the last two years, citing an overstuffed schedule. (The Revolution played backup lineups in last year’s event, in which they won at Rhode Island FC and were eliminated by the Chicago Fire.)
Next year’s event will similarly not feature all teams from the second-level USL Championship, though both RIFC and Hartford Athletic will take part. The Portland Hearts of Pine from USL League One also are in the field, as are two New England amateur teams — the reigning USL League Two champion Vermont Green and Winthrop’s CD Faialense, which qualified for the second straight year out of the Bay State Soccer League.
