Revolution kick off new era against ambitious Nashville

Nashville SC and the visiting New England Revolution took different offseason routes ahead of their season-opening matchup on Saturday night.

After missing the MLS playoffs for the first time in 2024, Nashville head coach B.J. Callaghan led the club to a 16-12-6 mark (54 points) last season and a return to postseason play. Early this week, Nashville rewarded Callaghan with an extension through the 2028-29 season.

Entering his second full season as the team's leader, Callaghan is eager to guide Nashville to another winning season.

"We're an ambitious club and we have ambitious ownership," Callaghan said. "I don't think there's any limit on where I want this group to go. In professional sports, the ultimate (goal) is to win as many times as you can, win as many trophies as you can. I think we're building something here that I think can be a long-term sustainable model in the league. That's why I'm really proud to be able to continue with Nashville."

Striker Sam Surridge, 27, returns off a 24-goal season which ranked him tied with Los Angeles FC's Denis Bouanga for second most in the league behind Lionel Messi's 29. Hany Mukhtar, who added 16 goals, enters his seventh year with Nashville.

New England, meanwhile, is out to remove the bad taste that consecutive losing seasons has left. A second consecutive failure to qualify for the postseason last year led to head coach Caleb Porter's firing before the end of his third season in charge. The Revolution finished with a 9-16-9 mark (36 points) in 2025, naming Marko Mitrovic as Porter's replacement in November.

Saturday marks the start of a new era for New England and Mitrovic, who was previously the United States Under-20 team's head coach.

"This is a working group that is ready and open to receiving new things and trying to implement that immediately on the field," said Mitrovic. " ... Nashville is a team that is very well-coached. I appreciate B.J. Callaghan. He's a friend of mine and I really appreciate him as a coach. He's a person that has a high knowledge about the game and he's shown that in the last 18 months in how he's transformed Nashville into one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference."

New England signed longtime midfielder Carles Gil to a contract extension in early February, keeping the club's all-time leader in assists (87) and goal contributions (136) with the team through June 2028. Gil, the team captain, was the lone Revolution player to reach double-digit goals last season with 10.

--Field Level Media