15/30 Interview: Peter Vagenas

15/30 INTERVIEW – PETER VAGENAS

Peter Vagenas arrived in Seattle from Los Angeles Galaxy in the 2008 Expansion Draft of November 26, 2008, after eight years and 183 regular season appearances with the California club, where he captained the side to a Double (MLS Cup and US Open Cup). Since his arrival however, injury has been the cause of much frustration for him. He was undergoing knee surgery when the season began in March. He made his first MLS start in Colorado on May 23rd, and did enough to be selected in the starting line up the next week against Columbus, both times being withdrawn for Pat Ianni.

Then the injury curse struck again. He was due to start the game on June 6 against Chivas USA but sprained his ankle during the warm up and had to be withdrawn. Relegated back to the subs’ bench on his return, he made some MLS cameos before starring on the Open Cup win in Portland. However, the first full 90 in MLS finally came on Saturday when he started and finished the hard earned win over table topping Houston; his experience playing a vital role in those last few minutes when Sounders FC have occasionally crumbled.

That ordeal over, it was time for his first encounter with Prost Amerika.

PROST AMERIKA: How does it feel to play your first full 90 for the Sounders in MLS?

PETER VAGENAS: I think the coach was telling me my first 90 minutes since September of last year. It’s probably been the longest most frustrating however months of my career. Coming off my knee injury was not fun and then going right from my knee injury I hurt my ankle a couple of weeks ago but starting to round into form. I don’t think I’m yet 90 minutes sharp but I do what I can until then.

PROST AMERIKA: This was a historic first for two reasons. Not only your first full game, but a first ever come from behind win for the side.

PETER VAGENAS: Really? Oh yeah that’s right DC was a tie. Right. Most importantly I’ve been around the league long enough and that team for me – that’s a quality team. And this is not to disrespect other teams in the league, but there are certain wins that mean more and when you play a team like this (Houston Dynamo) , this is a win that certainly means something and we can sort of hang our hat on and know that we don’t need to be afraid of anyone.

PROST AMERIKA: How does it help the morale of the side?

PETER VAGENAS: Up until now people say our schedule’s been favorable , we’ve had a lot of home games, we haven’t necessarily played the strongest teams yet but this is– in my opinion over the course of the last two or three years the class of the league is this team–so I think it’s a good shot of adrenaline for our team, for the organization, for our fans, because I think it goes to show that there’s no one we can’t go head to head with.

PROST AMERIKA: Now have you any idea whose door you’re going to go knocking on demanding to be in the starting line-up next time?

PETER VAGENAS: I don’t knock on doors, man. I just burst through them, hopefully.

PROST AMERIKA: Is that how you keep getting injured?

PETER VAGENAS: (laughs) Exactly. But no, we have a quality, quality group of players, one through however many there are, and I’ve been around long enough to know that it’s a long season and anything can happen. The most important thing for me personally is for me physically to be fit and hopefully I can take care of the rest past that.

PROST AMERIKA: One last Question. You were pretty unknown to a lot of Sounders fans. Did you feel you won over a lot of the crowd today?

PETER VAGENAS: I don’t know, I guess that’s up to them. The fans that I do see, seem to be great. Like I said, I’ve played a long time and the fans here are right up there with the best of them, so they sort of see you and recognize you wherever you go which is kind of nice and as in anything, whether you’re a journalist or a player, you want to be recognized and applauded for what you do and that’s always a good thing, and when we play badly we should hear that as well.