After months of training the CSUN men’s soccer team is ready for its regular season home debut under the lights against the University of San Diego tonight at 7 p.m.
With the Matadors tuneup game against San Diego State under their belt, they are focused on starting the year on the right note against the Toreros.
“Now that we had the exhibition game and saw the few things that we need to work on, everyone’s looking forward to getting a victory in the San Diego game,” said team captain Rafael Garcia. “We left the exhibition game with a little sour taste in our mouths. We definitely felt we could have done a lot better.”
Last Fridays exhibition game against San Diego Sate ended in tie, however the Matador offense created plenty of scoring opportunities.
“For whatever reason the ball didn’t go in the net but were looking forward to keeping up the hard work hopefully if we stick to our game plan we will get a victory,” Garcia said.
Although the Toreros are a relatively young team they have the firepower on offense to score against anybody. Led by Patrick Wallen and Marcelo Carminatti, it will be a challenge for the Matadors defensive to keep San Diego off the scoreboard.
With the surprise play of Gustavo Villalobos to go along with the steady play of forward Camilo Rojas, the Matadors also look strong upfront.
“Knowing how I played against San Diego State I’m still looking to improve against San Diego,” Villalobos said.
The game against the Aztecs was CSUN’s first game under the newly added lights, which will add to their home field advantage through out the season.
“It definitely met everybody’s expectations as far as change in environment,” Garcia said. “You can definitely tell more people showed up to the game but we still want more people to come out and support us.”
The Matadors will begin the 2010 season with two straight games against Western Coast Conference (WCC) opponents, including a road matchup against Loyola Marymount on Sunday. The WCC produced four NCAA Tournament teams last year: University of Loyola Marymount, Portland, Saint Mary’s and San Diego.
The Toreros are coming off of last year’s season in which they were projected to finish first in the tough WCC by the preseason coaches poll. San Diego had an overall record of 12-5-2 and an outstanding conference record of 8-2-2 during the 2009 season in which they were ranked as high as No. 14 in the nation.
The Toreros 2009 season ultimately came to a close in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 1-0 loss to UC Santa Barbara.
San Diego is projected to finish third in conference during the 2010 season behind Loyola Marymount and Portland.
