An update to this blog is long overdue. It ended abruptly
last year, when UVU’s inaugural season came to an end in the WAC tournament.
There was no final post because the author was busy playing the role of
conference chair for an academic summit on digital media with participants that had come to
campus from all around the country. At any rate, the first men's soccer season has to be
considered satisfactory, even though the players and coaches may have been
disappointed momentarily by their exit from the tournament.
This year’s team was picked fourth in the conference.
Solidly an upgrade from the pre-season pick last year, when UVU was picked to
finish last (of course, there was no UVU track record it being the opening year
of the program). This year those picked to finish in front of the Wolverines are last year's conference winner UNLV, Seattle – An NCAA Tournament team in 2013, and Cal State Bakersfield, the team that knocked UVU out of the
2014 WAC post season tournament by a 0 – 1 score. Being chosen to finish above other programs that have been around a lot longer says something about this team and it's coaches.
The Wolverines looked good in their exhibition game against
Westminster, scoring 8 goals on 13 shots put on target for the game. They looked
good in their Green and White game too, but were, of course, playing against
themselves. One thing that stood out, regardless of opponent, the boys looked
like they could run all day. Asked about this, coach Greg Maas had a simple
comment, “yes, the guys are really fit.”
Since the two exhibition events in Orem, a couple of weeks
back, the UVU Wolverines have strung together four straight victories, two as
the away team, and two on a neutral field. It is difficult to write meaningful
commentary on their progress as a team when the only way to “see” the team in
actual play has been through the on-line Live Stats broadcast. It’s impossible
to observe the flow of the game via Live Stats.
Live Stats can’t tell you how well the team is doing. Are
they controlling possession? … bringing the ball out of their own defensive
third into the midfield and into scoring territory with crisp sharp passes or
are they playing a lot of long ball? How high is their creativity quotient? Do
they look really dangerous in and around the their opponent’s 18? Where are
they tentative? They have only been scored on once, and that with an accidental
assist by a UVU defender.
Soccer can be a funny game. It’s an understatement to say
that scoring is not easy – but it’s not. A team can dominate possession, have a
huge advantage in shots taken and shots on goal, they can look dangerous for 88
out of the 90 minutes on the clock and still walk away with a tie or even a
loss. Still, stats from the box scores and some very short video snippets
posted on YouTube are all we have. So what do they tell us?
At 4-0-0, UVU leads the WAC in non-conference wins, and have
outscored their opponents 8 – 1. The Wolverines dominate the stats sheets in
all but one game – they beat UMass Lowell by a score of 2 – 0, but were out
shot 9/3. The stat sheet cannot tell us the quality of the buildup that came
before a shot or about the near misses, but perhaps it is telling that having
only three shots, they put two of them into the back of the net.
To date the most impressive road victory has to have been in
Massachusetts against the UMass Minutemen. UMass has a new coach and is not picked to finish in the top half of their conference, but UVU beat them 5 - 1 in the Wolverine's first home game last season. That had to be in the forefront of the memories of the UMass side. They certainly would have put some energy into trying to get even this year. UVU dominated the stats sheet in the UMass game, but only scored once in overtime. It was the first UVU Wolverine overtime victory in the program's short history.
A few additional noteworthy observations:
Matt Gay, now serving an LDS mission will be missed, but that
gives opportunity to others.
UVU has already chalked up two overtime wins, two more than
they had all of last season.
Paul Hoffmeister has already scored 2 goals. The number 15
player was a playmaker last year, and looks to continue that role, but if he
adds some scoring punch at this pace in the 2015 season, UVU opponents will
have a lot to worry about.
Thomas Loomis looks to be in great form – he scored twice
against Westminster in the opening exhibition game, with goals that looked a
lot like the one that counted when he scored against Pacific, collecting the
ball, out maneuvering a handful of defenders and beating the keeper with a shot
just inside the left post.
Many key members form last year’s team look to have picked
up where they left off: Payton, Buxton, Milne, Cawley, Neff, Harguindeguy,
Barakat, to name a few. Connor Salmon who played sparingly last year is getting
significant playing time and may make a difference in the midfield –he looked
good in exhibition. The defense looks sound. Yes the only score against UVU
this season was assisted by the Wolverine defense, but it was a bit of a fluke.
Down 1 the University of Pacific Tigers had a corner kick with under 30 seconds
left in the game. The kick came into the 18 where in attempting to clear the
ball with a header, the defense redirected the ball towards a Pacific player
who drove it home with a header of his own past the keeper. It was a
misfortunate event on the field and forced overtime, but without it we would
not have had an amazing bicycle kick eight minutes later from Lucas Cawley, who
scored from eight yards out. (The bicycle kick even made the Talking Sports broadcast on KUTV,
Channel 2.)
Newcomer Aaron Meyer has replaced Matt Gay to take shots
from the Penalty Spot. Meyer, who was in the Dallas FC training system this
last season will strengthen UVU’s already significantly accomplished team.
Going into their second season, there is something else this
team seems to have – they look just a little bit unsatisfied with last year's finish. They seem hungry
to play, to prove themselves. This season is going to be a lot of fun.
____________________________________________________
Next Friday, September 11th, at 7:00 pm at Clyde
Field in Orem Utah, the Men’s soccer team plays in their home opener.
In the women’s home opener a week ago, UVU fans showed up
and set a new attendance record for the women’s game.
It’s time to pack the place and give our Wolverine Soccer
Team the support it sorely deserves. Time to push the stadium occupancy to the
500% mark. That number is achieved by getting 5,000 fans in the stands, in
front of the stands, sitting all along the South edge, standing all around the
scoreboard, sitting and standing around the Northeast corner, and wrapping
around to the Southwest corner too. Wouldn’t it be fun to pack it so tight we
start getting warnings from the Fire Marshal?
Get Your Green On and hit the field on Friday - 7:00 pm. See you
there.
No comments:
Post a Comment