Posted Sep 6, 2012, 3:01 pm
The University of Arizona Wildcats soccer team passed a milestone of sorts on Sunday when they beat Creighton University. The team now has more victories than they did all of last season.
The team only won one game all season in 2011. This year after four games, their record is 2-1-1.
"I felt very confident that we were going to win more games, it's just the laws of probability," said coach Lisa Oyen. "The fact that we are scoring more goals is exciting."
So far, the team has scored five goals, and has only been shut out once. After the first game when so much offense was going through forward Jazmin Ponce, the team has already evolved to bring more players into the attack. Seven players recorded shots on goal for the Wildcats against Creighton, including defender Kirstyn Magyar and bench player Emily Lai.
"We have a deeper base of attacking personalities than we have in the past," she says. "One thing we are trying to emphasize with our players is instead of trying to be the player that you aren't, be the best player that you are."
She also empasized better finishing off of set pieces. Columbian international Ana Maria Montoya's two goals against Northern Arizona came from set pieces.
"We're not so predictable that we can just be shut down in one aspect," she said. "It's been exciting. We are not limited to attacking one way."
The Wildcats travel to Tempe to play against Pepperdine and Houston in the Sun Devil Desert Classic this weekend. They return home for the Arizona Cats Classic next week.
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It's Tucson v. Tucson
It was bound to happen: FC Tucson players were on both sides of a college soccer game this weekend.
A Sacramento State squad featuring Tucsonenses Matt Linenberger and Max Alvarez faced off against San Diego's Eli Galbraith-Knapp, James Cohn and Michael D'Arrigo on Friday.
The two FC Tucson players for Sacramento, Alvarez and Linenberger, combined for an extra time goal that gave their team the victory, 2 - 1.
Other FC Tucson players to score this weekend included Carlos Montes (US Santa Clara) and Aaron Long (UC Riverside).
Deuce
The U.S. men's team is getting ready to face off against the Reggaeboyz of Jamaica on Friday night, followed by another game against them next week. Both games are World Cup qualifiers. Already, head coach Jürgen Klinsmann has had a bit of trouble putting together the roster after Joshua Gatt was forced to take his name off the roster after sustaining a hamstring injury in a game for his Norwegian club team, Molde.
The other question for Klinsmann is about Clint Dempsey. Normally, there would be no questions about putting in someone who is arguably the star player of the side. But the last couple of weeks, Dempsey was in a contentious dispute with his club team, Fulham, over a possible transfer to legendary team Liverpool FC. That dispute seems to have been resolved now that "Deuce," Dempsey's long time nickname, is on his way to London club Tottenham. Still, it left Dempsey off the training field for a few weeks, and he hasn't played a competitive game since June.
"It's really important that Clint can put this behind him. It was not always pretty what happened in the last few weeks, with different comments from different people," Klinnsman said after announcing the roster earlier this week. "We're happy a decision has been made and a move has happened."
"Now he comes in and we will evaluate him," he continued. "Based on all that information we gather over the next two or three days we can see how we play him in these two very, very important World Cup Qualifiers."
"We are absolutely open to throw him in right away in Jamaica If he's really in a good physical condition and he's feeling fine."
That should make the fans happy.
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