The New England Revolution will begin the defense of their SuperLiga title on June 21 and Shalrie Joseph is confident that the Major League Soccer side can retain the title.

“Yeah, I think we definitely can repeat as title holders,” the midfielder said in an MLS interview. “We have a bunch of guys that know what it takes to win. We have some new rookies that have been huge for us, being very influential in the way we play our game and they’ve been great for us so far this season.”

The Revolution face Santos Laguna in the opening match and Joseph knows that despite being the pre-season the Mexican League side will be ready and a formidable challenge.

“It’s a huge game for us. It doesn’t matter if its SuperLiga or MLS, but we definitely want to retain our title and be the best  MLS team playing the SuperLiga, and the only way you can do that is come out ready to play.”

“Even though they are in preseason and they haven’t been in a lot of games, they will come ready to play. They know the importance of the tournament; this is a money tournament. It’s a huge game for both clubs.”

One of the technical challenges facing the Revolution is the technical ability of the Mexican side and their tendency to develop attacks from the back unlike the more direct style of many MLS teams. 

And the opportunity to face differing opponents help improve the overall dynamic of the team and add to their chances of winning more titles.

“That (Mexican teams we face in SuperLiga) give us such a difference in the way we approach the games; that it makes us a better team than when (only) playing MLS teams, because it helps so much to meet different teams with a little bit of style like the Mexican teams.”