The CSUN men’s soccer team will travel to south this weekend to play their first two games away from Matador Soccer Field. They will face CSU Bakersfield and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) as part of the Cal State Fullerton Tournament.
Away games are hard, but they demonstrate a team’s toughness. Success away from home can only bring positive results for the Matadors in the future.
‘It’s always a little more difficult playing on another team’s field,’ said Kevin Guppy, CSUN’s senior goalkeeper. ‘But I personally welcome the challenge of playing away from home.
The first game will be tomorrow against CSU Bakersfield, who finished last season with 4-10-4 record overall. Two days later, the Matadors will meet UNLV, a team picked to finish third in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s preseason coaches’ poll. Both games will be held at CSU Fullerton.
Northridge head coach Terry Davila will be looking for his team’s offense, to improve and capitalize on their scoring opportunities.
‘We got to get equivalency. We got to get the instinct to get the ball into the back of the net,’ said Davila. ‘We’re penetrating the defense. We got to penetrate the box a little bit more and penetrate the goal, which is the ultimate goal of soccer.’
The Matadors hosted the Cal State Northridge Tournament last weekend and dropped their first game to Georgetown University 1-0 loss. They did, however, get a 2-0 victory against Alabama A’amp;M on Sunday. The results were not the best nor the worst of the weekend. The worst was actually the loss of midfielder Rafael Garcia, a great player who had two goals and two assists last season. Garcia went down with a right knee injury and will miss some time.
The CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners were such a young team last season and with many freshmen as 2007 marked their debut in soccer’s Division I. This season, they return with 18 letterwinners, including 10 starters. They lost their season-opener as well as their second game, so they are hungry for wins.
Roadrunner senior goalkeeper Steve Trojanowski, who also competes in track ‘amp; field, is currently ranked No.1 in school history for saves per game (4.53). Junior midfielder Joe Polifroni, the team’s assist leader with three, is another key player for the CSUB.
On the other hand, UNLV, who finished last season with 7-10-1 record overall, is off to its best start in six years, having won its first two games of the season heading into the weekend. The result boosted the Rebels’ confidence and they now look to be champions in their conference.
The Rebels’ MVP is sophomore forward Daniel Cruz, a current member of the U.S. Under-20 men’s national team. He also was part of the Under-18 team that went to that category’s FIFA World Cup in August of 2007. Needless to say, the Matadors need to control him in order to have a chance at a second win.
The Matadors aren’t satisfied with the result of last year’s Fullerton Tournament, a tie and a loss. CSUN will be looking for some payback, but will not face the tournament’s host, the Titans.
‘We’re going to try to get both games,’ said Northridge junior defender Chad Borak. ‘It’s a long season, so we’re just going to try to improve every game and start a winning streak right now.’
Friday’s game against the Roadrunners will kick off at 2:30 p.m. while Sunday’s game against UNLV is set to start at 4:30 p.m. days later.
