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by Matt Gutsch
(Sep 5, 2007) - New soccer Bears have a tough road ahead
Matt Gutsch
(September 5, 2007) Life in the Canada West men’s soccer conference is never easy, but the battle rages on even further up hill when you are the defending CIS champions (see last seasons Alberta Golden Bears) and when you’ve lost eight players from the championship team, seven of which were starters on your 11-man side (see this seasons Alberta Golden Bears).
Gone or graduated from Len Vickery’s program are: starting goalkeeper Daniel Gusberti (medical school), former starting goalie Devon Fraser (graduation), starting defenders Eddy Sidra (2006 GBS Rookie of the Year who signed a pro-contract in Germany), Michael Kennedy (graduation) as well as impact midfielders Jarin Myskiw, Mark Korthuis and Hilaire Kamdem, who scored the game winning goal in the championship final, to graduation while striker Alex Campos, like Gusberti, has decided to focus on his education.
All that remain of the starters from the 2006 season are striker John Konye, creative midfielder and Canada West Player of the Year Junior Castrillon-Rendon as well as midfielder Danny Nielsen and defender Quenton Zalazar.
“Quenton Zalazar (the team’s only 5th year), Junior Castrillon, Danny Nielsen, John Konye and Erik Kuhn will be the core of the team and will be looked to for inspiration and leadership” said 2006 CIS Coach of the Year Len Vickery. “In order to fill the void left behind, Golden Bears’ soccer has brought in the strongest recruiting class in many years in order to make us competitive now and in the future.”
Among the new recruits to the defending CIS champs are Jas Gill (goaltender), Giovanni Bruno (defender), Martin Fenger-Andersen (defender) and Manav Deol (midfield), who all played with Sidra for the Edmonton Juventus soccer club, a team that was recently honoured as the U-18 Provincial Champions in 2007.
Vickery also dipped into the college transfer market snapping up Grant MacEwan transfers David (Bagel) van den Bijgaart and Ammon Hoeffs as well as Red Deer college transfers Vicente Bustamante, Cam Black and Bryan Klaus.
Coming in from the Calgary Foothills U-18 Provincial Champions and National Silver Medalists in 2006 are Ilya Zelinskiy (midfield), Matthew (Motzy) Strelow (defender) and Brett Colvin (striker).
The Bears start the 2007 season with four straight games on the road before playing the next eight in a row at home and then close out the season. Alberta will open up against the University College of the Fraser Valley Cascades in Abbotsford, B.C. before travelling to Langley and a date with the defending Canada West champions and new rival, the Trinity Western Spartans.
“The goal is to begin as strongly as possible and improve over the course of the season” said Vickery of his team’s season opener. ““We need to find all possible avenues for scoring goals whilst giving nothing away defensively and after that, it’s about keeping consistent so we can make the play-offs and be in a position to challenge early season favourites TWU, UBC and Victoria for a top four placing and the lone CW berth into Nationals,” continued Vickery.
With so many new faces in the line-up, getting off to a fast start and then continuing that play at home for eight straight will be imperative for the Bears, who close out the regular season on the west coast against UBC Thunderbirds and the Victoria Vikings.
“Playing on the road will give the team some bonding opportunities and allow the team to come to grips with the CW schedule and opponents early. A great deal of work has been done during the late August selection and training camp to prepare the squad for the demands of the early part of the schedule. The eight home games will allow the squad opportunities for putting together a string of strong performances together with the hope of picking-up valuable points,” added Vickery.
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