The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boswell says he’s ready to contribute
Enthusiastic MLS veteran welcomes trade from D.C. United.
Bobby Boswell was so excited to start the next chapter in his professional soccer career, he started driving his Chevy Silverado from Washington, where he played for D.C. United, to Atlanta and his new team, Atlanta United, before the trade was officially announced.
”I always say when you start over, you get a chance to energize yourself, get reinvigorated. That’s what I am,” he said Wednesday in his first interview since joining the Five Stripes last week. “I’m excited. My family is excited. We are happy to be here in Atlanta and looking forward to working together on the games.
”I’m hoping to reward the team for rewarding me with a new opportunity.”
Boswell was at Atlanta United’s training ground the next day and a week later, he already had found a place to live. He has explored parts of the city with his wife, a Louisiana native who he said loves the South and the hospitality.
A self-proclaimed optimist by nature, Boswell avoided any opportunity to compare his former team with his new team.
D.C. United, where Boswell
played from 2005-07 and then again from 2014 until last week, is one of the league’s storied franchises. This season, it is one of its bigger disappointments.
The team has the fewest points (19) in MLS because it has just five wins, two against Atlanta United. Though it will move into a new stadium next season, it is counting down the days in historic RFK Stadium, which more resembles Pompeii with layers of dust that cover items stashed away in the lower levels.
Atlanta United, meanwhile, moves from its older, temporary home of Bobby Dodd Stadium into one of the more exciting venues in MLS. The team for the first time Saturday will train in its new home, the $1.5 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which still had that new paint smell during a tour Tuesday.
”This is incredible,” Boswell said of the team’s practice facility in Marietta. “I tell these young guys, they don’t know how lucky they are. They wouldn’t want to transition the opposite way I came, to go from here to somewhere else.”
Atlanta United’s interest in Boswell goes back well before the close of last week’s trade deadline. Left on the unprotected list by D.C. United in last year’s expansion draft, Boswell
sensed Atlanta United was interested in him then. But the team instead traded for Michael Parkhurst, another MLS veteran.
Boswell understood the decision and continued on with D.C. United, where he started 10 games this season, increasing his career total to 360.
As D.C. United’s season began to stall, it became evident changes were coming. Boswell was one of many veterans shipped out by the team during the trade window. He will qualify for MLS free agency at the end of the season.
“It was time for (the trade),” he said. “I don’t think anyone wants to get traded. It says that the team you are at is done with you.
At the same time, it opens a door at a new place.
“I don’t think I could end up at a better organization. And from what I can tell, I don’t think I could have ended up with a better group of guys, including the staff and the players.”
But Boswell wasn’t acquired in exchange for a third-round draft pick to contrast MLS facilities. He was brought in to challenge the starting centerbacks, Parkhurst and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, to provide depth during September (when the team will play eight games in 24 days that will likely determine if it makes the postseason) and to be a leader in the locker room.
Boswell, 34, recognizes the team is curious to see how his skills will work within manager Gerardo Martino’s playit-out-of-the-back system, which requires the defenders to be comfortable with the ball.
Parkhurst said it’s not the easiest to learn.
”It just takes time knowing when he wants us to play out, what passes, when do we skip lines and look longer,” Parkhurst said. “Those are things that Leandro and I are still working on as well. Bobby needs to pick it up quickly, but he’s been around a long time, so I’m sure he will.”
The team hasn’t done a lot of work with the ball since Boswell arrived, but he said he has been studying film to learn the concepts and that the coaches and players have been helping him.
As for the rest, he was confident he will contribute.
”I know how to win games in this league,” he said. “My biggest attribute is I bring it every day. At this point in my career, I feel I have a lot of juice left, but I also know I need to give something back to the young guys and help them out.
”I go into games expecting to win, and that’s because of the work I put in. I can tell you right now, I’ve been around a lot of teams and there aren’t teams working as hard as this group has worked since I’ve gotten here. You work that hard during the week and you are going to get rewarded on the weekend more times than not.”