Kevin Payne

SL Interview: Kevin Payne

President and CEO DC United

May 27, 2005

In 2004 DC United won MLS Cup. With almost all the same players, the team has gotten off to a luke warm start. We had the opportunity to get some feedback from Kevin Payne, President and CEO for the team. Here's how it went:

SoccerLoop: Kevin, thanks for taking the time to answer a few of our questions. After just eight games, how do you think the team has performed so far.

Kevin Payne: The first eight games of the season have been a little up and down for our team. By in large, we've played pretty well, we've let some games get away because we've made mental errors either in the defending third or the attacking third, games we probably should have gotten results in that we ended up not getting results in.
Certainly, the early season schedule hurt us a lot. We played a lot of games in a short period of time and the Columbus game, in particular, where we arrived back from Mexico City in Columbus at 1 a.m. and had to play Columbus at 7:30 the next night, was difficult for us. We never should have been asked to play that game, the League should have rescheduled it. It wasn't very fair to our players.

SL: Has the busy early season been an issue for the team now?

KP: It certainly was then. At that point in the season, your players certainly don't have the conditioning base that they have at this point in the season. To play that number of games in that short time period with all the travel made it a very difficult challenge. We don’t have huge rosters of first team players like some of the international teams have. It was a challenge for us.

SL: Looking back, what happened in the Champions Cup?

KP: Obviously, we needed to do a better job at home. We did enough to win that game, but we didn't finish some chances that we had. I thought that we out played the Pumas in that game. We had a little bit of a mental error that gave them a penalty kick, and we missed a few chances.
It would have been very important to go down to Mexico City with at least a one-goal advantage. In the first half of the game in Mexico City, we were the better team and we actually outplayed them pretty substantially in the first half. We had a number of good looks at the goal and one glorious opportunity that, unfortunately, Alecko Eskandarian hit the post when he essentially had an open goal that would have made the game 1-1. They were on their heels. We came out in the second half and made an errant pass that sent them away on a breakaway and scored, making it 2-0. At that point, it's always going to be a challenge to come back at altitude and then Mike Petke got a red card and we really had no chance after that. They are certainly not five goals better than us. We would love to play them again.

SL: Bobby Boswell has played very well in all competitions. How did you discover him?

KP: Peter Nowak went to look at a player from the Canadian National Team and they were playing in Ft. Lauderdale against a college team from south Florida and he saw Bobby in the game. He really liked him and invited him into training camp purely on a trial basis; he wasn't drafted by anybody including us. He's done quite well and he's won a position in our starting line-up. He's done a very good job defensively for us

SL: How would you assess Freddy Adu's development? Do you think he should be a regular starter?

KP: I think that, if Freddy continues to get better and better, when Freddy is ready to be a regular starter he will be one. Peter likes to say that he doesn't make the starting line-up, the players make the starting line-up by the way they perform in training. When Freddy deserves to start he'll start.

SL: You currently have a Senior International spot open on the roster. Do you have someone in mind?

KP: Yes, we have someone in mind. We are hoping to be able to acquire him in the next two weeks or so and then we will appeal to see when he will actually join our team.

SL: How has the relationship been so far with the Nationals?

KP: It's been pretty good. We get along fine. Each party recognizes that there will be challenges sharing a stadium. The stadium authorities have done a very good job to prepare the stadium for each sport and convert it from one to another. It hasn't been perfect, but it's been pretty good.

SL: The Eastern Conference looks very strong this year. Which team or teams do you see as the biggest threat(s) to take the Eastern Conference title from you?

KP: Well, obviously at this early juncture, New England has been very impressive, they haven't lost a game yet. The MetroStars have played well in recent games. Chicago has had its ups and downs, but they will end up being a very solid team. I think you can't count anybody out, we look at everybody in the east and we think that anyone is capable of winning.

SL: Peter Wilt was recently asked to take a lesser role at the Fire. He was a huge fan favorite for the organization. What are your thoughts on the situation?

KP: Well, on a personal level, Peter is certainly a friend and I was sorry to see that happen, but the company made a decision that it needed to go in a different direction and perhaps it needed a different skill set at the top. I'm also a big fan of John Guppy and I have great regard for him and I am sure he will carry on in the example that Peter set.

Interview by: Steven Patton