Building the Last Line: Inside Kevin Hitchcock’s Influence on the New England Revolution

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Long before the opening whistle on matchday, Kevin Hitchcock’s work with the New England Revolution goalkeepers is already well underway.

Each training week follows a carefully constructed rhythm. There are lighter sessions, physically demanding days, distribution work and, as matchday approaches, the repetition and routine Hitchcock believes are essential to preparing a goalkeeper.

Since arriving in New England in 2019, the longtime goalkeeper coach has helped develop some of the most recognizable names to come through the Revolution’s goalkeeping ranks, including Matt Turner and Đorđe Petrović. Now, with Turner back in Foxborough and another generation developing behind him, Hitchcock continues to apply lessons gathered across more than four decades as a player and coach.

“I plan each session for the day, but a lot of my work follows a routine—especially when we have a Saturday game.”

“If we begin the week on Tuesday, that will be a lighter session. Wednesday is a really physical, demanding session. On Thursday, I try to slow things down because the previous day’s work is very hard on their legs, but they feel the benefits later in the week.”

“The day before the match, we have a sharp session built around a routine I’ve used for years. The goalkeepers love it, and goalkeepers love their routines. It’s about repetition, repetition and more repetition. We also have meetings throughout the week.”

The routine provides structure, but Hitchcock’s approach to coaching has never been one-size-fits-all.

More than two decades of experience have taught Hitchcock when to push a goalkeeper, when to adjust and, perhaps most importantly, when to listen.

“A lot of it comes from using my experience. I got Alijaz Ivacic to work a little harder on the training ground than what he was used to and he enjoyed the work and felt he had improved as a goalkeeper by listening to me and understanding what I do.”

“If the goalkeepers don’t like something I’m doing, we’ll come to a compromise and incorporate work they would prefer. Over the past 20 years, I’ve been fortunate that they’ve all generally enjoyed what we’ve done throughout the week, so it’s been quite easy, really.”

That willingness to adapt is rooted in Hitchcock’s own experience between the posts.

He spent 20 years as a professional goalkeeper during an era when specialized coaching at the position was far less common. Those experiences—and the lessons he picked up along the way—have remained an important part of his coaching philosophy as the position itself has continued to evolve.

“That’s a good question because my playing experience is a major factor. I played for 20 years, and for most of that time, I never had a full-time goalkeeping coach. I didn’t have one at first, then I had a part-time coach and, probably during the final two or three years of my career, I finally had a full-time coach.”

“You learn as you go and remember the drills you did.”

Many of those lessons have followed Hitchcock into his coaching career, with exercises from his own playing days still influencing how he develops goalkeepers at the academy level.

“When I work with the academy goalkeepers, I use drills that I enjoyed when I was younger—exercises that taught me the techniques required for different types of handling. I try to pass those lessons on to the younger players.”

While Hitchcock has carried elements of his playing career into coaching, he has also adapted to the changing demands of the position.

The modern goalkeeper is increasingly expected to contribute in possession, read pressure and become another option during a team’s buildup—responsibilities that were not emphasized to the same extent during Hitchcock’s playing days.

“My work with the senior goalkeepers has changed and evolved over the years. We do much more passing now because it wasn’t something goalkeepers needed to work on as much when I played. Today, it’s a major part of the position.”

“You have to play like a defender or midfielder, recognize where the pressure is coming from and pick out passes to different players. Sometimes, you can play back through the pressure and create an overload on that side of the field.”

Those demands have become a regular part of New England’s training sessions, and few goalkeepers better illustrate that evolution under Hitchcock than Turner.

Hitchcock has watched Turner’s development from an undrafted goalkeeper fighting to establish himself in Major League Soccer into one of the most accomplished goalkeepers in Revolution history.

Their relationship has been built through thousands of repetitions on the training ground, with Hitchcock describing Turner as the “perfect pupil” for the standard he brings to each session.

“He helps lead the training because he arrives ready to work and gives 100 percent every day. He’s done that ever since I arrived here in 2019.”

When reflecting on Turner’s development, Hitchcock pointed to his improvement with the ball at his feet as one of the most significant areas of growth.

“He’s so much better now. He went away and improved his passing ability with both his left and right foot. When I first arrived, he couldn’t even kick the ball with his right foot. We worked on it tirelessly throughout COVID, and he put in a tremendous number of hours. I can’t praise him highly enough.”

“He is the perfect pupil. From day one, he understood what I was about and wanted to impress me. He quickly recognized that the drills we worked on in training would be replicated in matches.”

But Turner’s development under Hitchcock has extended beyond his ability in possession. Some of the most important improvements have come from the finer details of goalkeeping, particularly his positioning.

“You can look back at some of the saves he made early in my time here, and much of it was about getting into the correct position in goal. We call it ‘the spot.’ We tell the goalkeepers to find the correct spot because it makes the goal appear smaller.”

Physical development is equally important to Hitchcock’s approach, with his training placing an emphasis on building the power and explosiveness required at the position. Many of those principles trace back to his time at Chelsea and have since become part of his weekly work with the Revolution’s goalkeepers.

While Turner was already a technically strong goalkeeper who responded well to that work, the arrival of Đorđe Petrović presented Hitchcock with a different developmental challenge.

Petrović possessed tremendous explosiveness and shot-stopping ability, but Hitchcock saw an opportunity to refine his fundamentals, particularly when it came to handling the ball rather than simply keeping it out of the net.

“Đorđe Petrović was the complete opposite. His plyometric ability was as good as Matt’s, if not better, and he responded well to the power training. He enjoyed it, even though it was demanding and made the rest of the session difficult.”

“With Đorđe, it was more about helping him execute the fundamentals more comfortably. He had been taught to parry almost everything instead of catching the ball.”

Changing that instinct became a collective effort involving Hitchcock, Turner and Brad Knighton, with the emphasis shifting from simply making the initial save to eliminating opportunities for a second.

“Matt [Turner], Brad Knighton and I worked together to change his mentality and encourage him to catch more shots in and around his body instead of being what I call a ‘shot blocker.’”

“He had the ability to make those saves, but the focus was on holding onto the ball so the opposition couldn’t score from a rebound. He worked incredibly hard.”

Turner’s role in that process extended beyond simply being Petrović’s teammate. Having already spent years working under Hitchcock, he understood the standards being demanded and was able to reinforce those lessons alongside Petrović on the training ground.

“Instead of it always being me telling Đorđe, ‘Come on, you have to hold it—you have to catch it,’ Matt reinforced that message.”

“The two of them worked unbelievably well together for four months. It was brilliant to watch.”

That relationship demonstrated an important element of the environment Hitchcock has built within New England’s goalkeeping group: lessons are not solely passed from coach to player, but from one goalkeeper to the next.

It is an environment Hitchcock has spent years developing, although his own future with the Revolution was uncertain before his work in New England had truly begun.

Originally brought to the club under former head coach Brad Friedel, Hitchcock arrived shortly before Friedel was dismissed in 2019, leaving the goalkeeper coach unsure how long his opportunity in Foxborough would last.

“I came in under Brad Friedel, but I never had the opportunity to work with him because he was dismissed before I arrived. I didn’t know whether I would be here for two weeks and then have to return home.”

The arrival of Bruce Arena ultimately gave Hitchcock the opportunity to establish himself in New England.

“Then Bruce Arena came in, saw the work I was doing with the goalkeepers and placed his complete trust in me. I’ll never forget what he did for me. He completely changed my life here.”

“I wanted to prove to everyone that I was good enough to be here, and I believe I’ve done that.”

Seven years later, Hitchcock’s influence can be found throughout the Revolution organization. He has worked with goalkeepers from the academy through the first team, watching some establish themselves in New England and others continue their careers elsewhere.

“I’ve worked with goalkeepers at every level, including the younger players. Some have since moved on, but I’d like to think every goalkeeper who has worked with me has improved. I certainly hope they have.”

“It has been a wonderful experience. I’ve enjoyed every day on the training ground because that’s where I love to be. It has been fantastic and a great job for me.”

As Hitchcock looks toward the next generation, the lessons developed throughout those years are now being passed along to New England’s younger goalkeepers.

Among them is Donovan Parisian, whose path to the position began considerably later than Hitchcock’s own.

“Donny is still quite raw, but the improvement he has made over the past year has been phenomenal. He’s a late developer. I started playing in goal when I was eight or nine years old, whereas Donny didn’t start until he was around 15, so he still has a long way to go.”

Parisian’s shot-stopping ability has impressed Hitchcock, but his development now centers around some of the less visible aspects of the position: decision-making, communication and organizing those in front of him.

“My one criticism is that I don’t think he watches enough football, which can limit his opportunities to learn. When he plays, his decision-making isn’t always as sharp as it should be, but he’s improving.”

“However, he can make unbelievable saves. If we can balance that ability with a better understanding of decision-making, communication and his responsibility to organize the defenders, then he can have an unbelievable career.”

Parisian also possesses a developmental resource Turner never had during his own emergence in New England: the opportunity to watch an established Turner set the standard every day.

“Matt didn’t have another Matt Turner to watch and learn from, but Donny has JD [Gunn] and a goalkeeper in Matt, who sets the standard every day.”

“When you’re a young goalkeeper, you should be looking at him and thinking, ‘I want to be as good as him. I want to be better than him.’ That drives the intensity of my training sessions to the maximum every day.”

That cycle of development extends beyond Parisian and the first-team group.

Hitchcock has recently begun working with Ryker [Fauth], another young goalkeeper whose early progress has already caught his attention.

“Ryker is going to be another one. He’s growing and learning every day. He’s only been with me for a few weeks, but the improvement he has shown has been tremendous. It’s great to see.”

For all the emphasis Hitchcock places on positioning, handling, distribution, decision-making and physical development, his relationship with the goalkeepers he coaches extends far beyond what happens on the training field.

After years spent working alongside them through successes, setbacks and different stages of their careers, Hitchcock views those relationships in much more personal terms.

“I’m like a proud parent. They’re like sons to me. I treat them like family, and they treat me the same way. That’s the greatest compliment I could receive.”

For everything Hitchcock has helped build during his time in New England, there remains something he would still like to accomplish.

Having twice come close to reaching the ultimate goal, Hitchcock hopes the Revolution can take the final step and capture an MLS Cup. He believes the environment established under head coach Marko Mitrović has given the group a shared belief in what it can accomplish.

“We all want the same thing. We want to make the playoffs and win the MLS Cup. I’ve come close twice, so finally getting one over the line would be the icing on the cake.”

“Working with him has been like a breath of fresh air. It’s not just him, either. He brought Michael and Sean onto his staff, and they’ve settled into our structure very easily. The dynamic within the group is really, really good.”

Yet Hitchcock’s impact in New England extends beyond results, trophies or the individual goalkeepers he has helped develop.

Turner once arrived as an undrafted goalkeeper looking to establish himself. Years later, he has returned as the standard Hitchcock wants the next generation to watch, learn from and eventually challenge.

It is a progression Hitchcock has seen before. Turner helped reinforce his teachings with Petrović, and now goalkeepers like Parisian have the opportunity to absorb those same lessons from Turner.

For a coach who has spent his career passing along knowledge gathered from his own playing days, there may be no more fitting reflection of his work than seeing those lessons continue from one generation of goalkeepers to the next.

And when the time eventually comes for Hitchcock to step away, he already knows what he hopes that progression will look like.

“That’ll be my swan song… Donny to Matt.”.

(Editor’s Note: For more of Adrian Heinsohn-Roe’s photos, click on the link)

Follow me on Twitter

Follow me on BlueSky

Follow PROST on Bluesky

Follow PROST on Twitter