Men's Soccer 2009-2010
Week 1
Defense Is Key In Cardinals Home Opener
From the very beginning one could feel the intensity of the game. Before the game even started Holy Cross coach was given a yellow card during a verbal exchange with the referees, and that was not the end of the yellow card parades. Before the game ended four Cardinal players would get yellow carded for various fouls committed mostly during slide tackles. Those were the product of aggressive and gutsy plays on both sides of the ball by both teams. This game would also have ended in the loss column for the Cardinals if not for great defensive effort by Andrew Helm, Levensky Toussaint, and Msizi Cele and goalkeeper Bobby Brown. Brown thwarted many shots on goals with great effort. "Msizi is a rock back there on defense for us," Coach Felix Bangkuai said. The Cardinals had few chances to score because Holy Cross played great defense also. The closest opportunity came when forward Augustus Sampah's shot ricocheted off the side of the goal. The game also ended in a 0-0 tie in double overtime, giving the Cardinals a 0-1-1 record for the season.
When asked about how he felt about his team, junior Andrew Thompson said, "We need a little more work but overall we have a decent team, in the future I don't see any reason why we should lose to any team in our conference." On the topic of team chemistry Thompson said, " There definitely is room for improvement, we should be getting some new additions to the team that should help out with the chemistry. All players get along really well, we just need a little more practice time to improve, that's all." Echoing the sentiment is Andrew Helm a senior defnder who said, "If everyone showed up to practice and worked together we could have a really good team. I would like to thank all the fans for coming out to support the Cardinal team. I'm sorry for not giving you all a win but I promise we will win our next game on September fifteenth against Southerwestern Michigan College. Please bring all your friends to watch us play again. "Thanks again," Andrew Thompson said.
By: Dowin Coffy