Last season's challenges -- his own and the New England Revolution's -- haven't diminished Kei Kamara's fun-first approach to the game as he enters his first full season at Gillette Stadium.
“I’m definitely looking to inject some of my energy and some of my veteranship into most of these guys and this team,” Kamara said. “That’s what I do everywhere I’ve been. It’s not only about the work, work, work. You’ve got to let these guys enjoy it, because when you enjoy it then everything kind of just plays itself out. That’s what I’m here to do.”
Enjoying 2016 wasn't always easy for the 32-year-old Sierra Leone international, a veteran of 10 MLS campaigns with six different teams who also has played in England.
First, there was the swift trade away from Columbus Crew SC, the club he helped to the 2015 MLS Cup Final, after a penalty kick dispute with then-teammate Federico Higuain and Kamara's assertion that Higuain wasn't giving him the service he needed to contend for a Golden Boot.
His season production fell off -- a total of 12 goals between the two clubs, down from 22 a year earlier -- and the Revolution missed out on the postseason.
But with Kamara on three goals in three preseason matches, coach Jay Heaps expects good things to come out of a full preseason with the Revolution.
“It’s really good to have guys here for as long as you can because we base a lot of how we play on fluidity and chemistry and interchange,” Heaps said. “That’s a lot of time spent together, so it’s really good to have him here. I thought at the end of last year he started to really pick up and now we have a full season to build in what we expect from not just Kei, but all our attacking players.”
Developing relationships with New England's other attackers -- Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury (with whom he played in Kansas City) and Lee Nguyen -- has been a key for Kamara as he continues to adjust to New England's new 4-4-2 diamond formation.
“[Preseason] is where the team starts, that’s where the team starts,” Kamara said. “New players, everybody comes into the team at that time and you get to figure out the team’s system, formation, learn your teammates, too. It’s not just about coming into the locker room during the season every day and leaving, but now we get to go away and be with each other.”
The biggest goal for Kamara, however, is returning to the postseason. He's never won MLS Cup, and he wants to make New England, also looking for their first league title, winners come December.
“Last season is last season, but this is a club that’s been in the playoffs multiple years and for us working in this preseason, it’s about getting ready for the season to make the playoffs,” he said. “Everybody can talk about winning championships, but if you don’t make the playoffs you don’t get a shot at that.”
