Goalkeeper Dan Kennedy looked to be Brad Guzan’s worthy successor for Chivas USA between the posts before going down in the 2009 preseason with a serious right knee injury that kept him sidelined until now.
With last season’s starter Zach Thornton seeing limited minutes in preseason it appears Kennedy, a Southern California native, will get the start Friday in Chivas USA’s season opener at Home Depot Center.
I spoke with Kennedy this week about his injury and his return to competitive soccer:
Question: How is the team shaping up for the season under new Coach Martin Vasquez?
Answer: We’ve had plenty of time and plenty of preseason games to adapt to Martin and the coaching staff. At this point we’re as prepared as we’re going to get. We have a long preseason here and I think the guys are jelling well. Even though there’s been a lot of change there’s still a great core of guys we’ve had over the last two to three seasons and that should be a group we look to to show some experience and leadership.
Q: How did you handle the lonely task of rehabbing that injury month after month?
A: Sometimes when you take a step back away from the game and you go through a serious injury, coming back you have lot of time to reflect. My main goal was to be fully fit by preseason and I was.
With that time off you realize what you have here and the job of being a professional soccer player in a town that you grew up in is pretty special. So for me it was a little bit eye-opening and hopefully I come back more disciplined and more professional than I was before. I don’t take this for granted. At some points you felt like you’d never play again, that’s the reality of it. Now I feel great. If you were to walk on this field and tell someone I had a serious injury you wouldn’t be able to pick which knee it was, that’s how strong I feel.”
Q: How will Chivas USA play differently under Vasquez than Preki?
A: Martin is emphasizing possession as our strength. This team is forever known as a stingy team on defense. Bob Bradley started it, Preki ran with it so hopefully we can continue to hold that reputation, but hopefully score more goals going forward and we’re hoping that would put us in a place to win something.
Q: What’s the biggest change this team needs to make to win a trophy?
A: I don’t think it’s any secret in big games we haven’t put goals on the board and that makes it tough. With some of the personnel changes here I think we’re going to be a much better attacking team and hopefully with the style of play that we have we commit some more numbers forward and that will create some more goalscoring opportunities.
Q: What was your goal coming into the 2010 season?
A: The goal coming into this season was to win back my job and prove to myself and the coaching staff and my teammates that I can (still) play at a very high level. I want to play an important role on this team. My goal is to compete for that starting job to the best of my ability.
Q: The projected back line of Ante Jazic and Mariano Trujillo as the full backs, with Jonny Bornstein moving into the center of defense to partner new signing Michael Umana looks one of the league’s strongest.
A: The biggest thing is that three of the four – Mariano, Jonny and Jazic – have been at Chivas for some time so they have immediate chemistry. And everyone knows in soccer defensive chemistry is a very, very important factor in a team being successful. Umana has been here since day one of preseason, he’s adapted very well, he’s shown that he’s a very, very good player and can play with us. So we’re confident in that group of defenders getting us some good defensive results.
