Want to hear from some of the notable names around the league? MLSsoccer.com contributing editor Alicia Rodriguez spends 10 minutes talking to some of the big names in North American soccer.
Chris Rolfe is a veteran attacker for D.C. United, gearing up not only for the upcoming MLS season, but also the Champions League quarterfinal series against Costa Rican side Alajuelense, which begins Feb. 26 (8 pm ET, FS2). Rolfe joined D.C. in April 2014 following a trade from the Chicago Fire, and helped United undertake the best one-season turnaround in MLS history.
Rolfe discussed the fallout from an injury he suffered late last season, his passion for eating locally and organically, and plenty more. Then he promptly went on to score a golazo to win the ATX Pro Challenge for DC United.
Rodriguez: How is the preseason going so far for you and DC?
Rolfe: It’s going well. It’s a much different preseason for us, or at least for me, from the last few years, that we have to prepare for a very important game in a month’s time. So we’ve kind of ramped things up, but everyone seems to be doing just fine with that.
Rodriguez: You missed the final eight games of the regular season after breaking your arm, though you did play in the postseason. Was it hard for you to get back in game shape for the playoffs with the layoff?
Rolfe: Yeah, it was very difficult. With this broken arm, I wasn’t really able to train anything. I wasn’t able to do much lifting with my legs, or with my upper body at all, obviously. So it was quite a challenge to come back, and also to try and adjust to playing really only with one arm.
Rodriguez: I can only imagine. Soccer’s primarily played with the legs and feet, but you need your arms for balance and jumping and that kind of thing.
Rolfe: Right, exactly. You don’t realize how much you use your arm until you’re not allowed to use it anymore. So that was definitely a learning experience for me.
Rodriguez: Prior to your move to DC you had always been with Chicago in MLS. Was it tough at first to change teams, or was it a change you embraced?
Rolfe: It’s always tough to leave a place where you’ve spent a lot of time like that. Chicago was good to me, it’s where I started my career but I was very excited to get a fresh start and to experience a new city. I’d never lived on the East Coast, so I was pretty excited about that and I knew going into it that DC United had a very talented team at that time, and everything that [D.C. United head coach] Ben [Olsen] had talked to me about seemed very appealing. I was very excited for it.
Rodriguez: And you joined DC United at the perfect time last season, right as they were taking off.
Rolfe: Yeah. When I came, I don’t think we lost for a month. I feel like when we got there, we didn’t lose for a long time and I had not been part of a winning streak like that for a long time.
Rodriguez: Last year you were profiled for your interest in eating organic food, shopping at farmer’s markets, and volunteering on local farms. Can you explain why eating organic and local food is important to you, and if you had a chance to get more involved in the offseason?
Rolfe: So this offseason was a pretty tough one for me. I had a second procedure on my arm, so I was doing a lot of rehab and therapy on that. So I didn’t really get to do much. But I kind of got into eating cleaner and locally through actually starting [with] my concern for the environment. That led me to understanding the impact of big agricultural farms and concentrated animal facilities that create too much pollution and really deteriorate the soil that they use and the natural resources around them. So that’s kind of how I got into it.
But it’s just more important to me, the more I read about it and the more I find out, it’s just a lot of the system that we use is unsustainable. It seems like smaller farms, and preferably doing those farms in an organic way, seems more sustainable and also better for everyone involved. Along the same lines, as an athlete you want to take care of your body as best you can and again, the more I read about different types of farming, and different sources for getting your food, the more important it seems to pay attention to buying local and organically.
Rodriguez: Have you been able to convince DC United to offer more local and organic food to players?
Rolfe: Yeah, our team administrator has done his best to make things easier for me when we’re eating on the road or at lunch after training. But I think it’s a little tough…for us to get the kind of food I would prefer. So a lot of the time I tend to bring my own food to go on the road.
Rodriguez: What’s the outlook for DC this season? What are the team’s goals? And what are your personal goals?
Rolfe: We have a team that’s coming back that’s now very familiar with each other. We’ve added a couple pieces that are adjusting nicely already. So by no means should we put the bar any lower than Eastern Conference champions again, and I think we let ourselves down in the playoffs last year, so our goal has to be better in that regard and we want to bring a championship back to DC in some form.
And for me personally, it’s just continue to improve and help the team as best I can, wherever I’m needed this year.
