Golden Bears Soccer ~ Season Preview 2008 - Green and Gold Soccer

At the end of last season, the Golden Bears soccer team pulled off a Canada West bronze medal despite starting the year with a somewhat-inexperienced lineup—little did they realize that they’d have to try and do it all over again the following year. When the team hits the pitch next weekend in BC, another new youth movement will be ushered in, with half of the players competing in their first conference match.

Ten new names will be present on the 20-man roster this year, including midfielder Cameron Schmidt and centre-back Derek de Groot—two players who could crack the starting lineup that head coach Len Vickery said “to certainly look out for.” Apart from the rookies, the remaining veterans on the team will be under pressure to both perform and help out the new guys.

“We’ve only got a small number of fourth- and fifth-year players, so the team is undoubtedly going to be led by John Konye, Danny Nielsen, Alex Campos—returning after he didn’t play last year—and Cam Black, a student from Red Deer who’s with us for his second year, but he’s been around the college program,” Vickery said. “Those are the senior players; that’s where the leadership is going to come from. But, we have an emerging group of second- and third-year players who are definitely Canada West seasoned.”

Potentially even more problematic this time around is the amount of experience and talent that’s being lost. Last year’s team captain and Canada West First-Team All-Star Quenton Zalazar, as well as fourth-year centre-back Eric Kuhn have since graduated; meanwhile, Ilya Zelinskiy has left the U of A to pursue work in trades. Most critical of all might be the departure of former Canada West MVP Junior Castrillon-Rendon, who is headed to Fort McMurray to work in the oil patch. Vickery, however, isn’t as afraid of the prospect of moving forward without said players as he might’ve once been.

“It definitely motivates me. We’ve kept around some players who possess a lot of speed, and at the higher-level game, it becomes of paramount importance,” Vickery said. “Athletically, I think we’re a little bit stronger than last year. You’ve got to be strong in the goalkeeping position and central defence has to be capable of dealing with an aerial attack, which tends to come from a good number of the Canada West opponents. Most things have been coming together and that’s why it looks promising.”

One thing that still worries Vickery slightly going into regular season play is that the team has yet to meet up with any competition at the CIS level. The sentiment in the Bears locker room, though, is that they will be prepared to equal their varsity competitors when the time comes.

“What we haven’t faced yet is any adversity,” Vickery admitted. “In our first four games, all of them are played on the road and we’re playing the current national champions in our second game. Then, there are two away games with Calgary and Lethbridge the following weekend. So, we’re going to face some adversity and we’re definitely going to be challenged, but if we just keep approaching the challenges as we’ve done up until now, there’s a lot to look forward to.”

Alberta’s first weekend set will see them take on the University of Victoria on the Saturday. The Vikes will be looking to exact some revenge, as this game will be a rematch of the Canada West bronze-medal game last year that the Bears won 1–0.

“Victoria is probably the most experienced team now; they’ve taken over from UBC and perhaps Trinity Western in terms of number of players going into their fourth and fifth years,” Vickery said. “They’ll play a very strong, powerful, direct game and that’s why we need to be strong to withstand an aerial attack—or bombardment, if you like—because they’re going to get the ball forward quickly.”

On the Sunday, the Bears will travel to Vancouver to take on the University of British Columbia. Last season, the Thunderbirds finished in a tie with Victoria for the second-best record in conference play (6-5-3) and are annually considered one of the teams to beat in Canada West.

“UBC lost a number of their fifth-year players, who returned last year to play in the national championship that they were hosting,” Vickery explained. “But Vancouver is a hotbed of soccer, and they’ve got a lot of players coming in with significant provincial and national team experience. It’s definitely going to be a challenge, but we might as well face it from the get-go to see what we’re made of. It’ll tell us a lot about our group of players and what we need to do—regardless of the results from that first weekend—to put us in the top-four and then be a contender in the playoffs.”

The Bears play Victoria on Saturday, 6 August at 2:15pm; then, on Sunday, 7 August, they travel to Thunderbird Stadium for a tilt with UBC also starting at 2:15pm.

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