Game over

Posted by admin on Nov 10, 2010 in Sports | 0 comments

In what can only be described as a major on-field disappointment, the men’s Spartans soccer team lost their final regular season matchup almost two weeks ago to end their hopes of a CIS National Championship. Actually, the Spartans loss to the Saskatchewan Huskies, which was a 2-0 defeat, failed to even allow the Spartans to make it into the top four places in the Canada West standings, eliminating them from complete playoff contention and starting numerous discussions about what exactly went wrong this season.

This is the first time since 2004 that the Spartans haven’t made the playoffs, and the Spartans finished their regular season with a mediocre record of just 5-5-4. The Spartans gave up two goals five minutes apart before the end of the first half with excellent finishes from U of S players Josh Northey and Myles Shedden that helped clinch the final playoff spot for the Huskies.

The Spartans tried everything they could to find offense in front of goaltender Andrew Fink. The Spartans used all five maximum substitutions at various points throughout the second half to help find the correct combination of chemistry on the field. However, even with many quality scoring chances throughout the game to find the back of the net, the Spartans could not make the best of the opportunities, sending numerous balls over the bar to help clinch their fate.

It will be a long off-season for the Spartans who had become accustomed to playing meaningful, high-spirited games deep in November. The normal routine of hosting Canada West playoff situations and controlling their destiny all but evaporated during the 2010-2011 season. Dating back to the season preview, men’s head coach Pat Rhola had noted that he believed the team was, “capable of challenging for a championship this year.” But with up and down finishes all year, the Spartans’ usual realities of beating teams when it mattered seemed to fade as the season progressed. Losing in a meaningful shootout near the end of the season and giving up the highest number of goals ever scored against, when on their home field against the Thunderbirds only begins the list of troubling occurrences that the team saw this season.

All in all, it will be interesting to see where the Spartans go from here. Recruiting will have to be a major focus this off season to help continue bringing in more needed skill while finding a more consistent effort on the pitch will have to be reviewed in order to quickly turn this lost season around. In total, the only thing that can be guaranteed was that this team did not have what it needed to make the CIS Nationals, much less Canada West playoffs.

Check back next issue for a 1-1 interview with head coach Pat Rhola to help breakdown and evaluate the season’s performance.