Cal State LA Men’s Soccer Looks to Improve Despite Early Season Success
Photo by Robert Huskey courtesy of the Cal State LA Athletic Department
Cal State LA forward Cyrille Njomo (center) fights to keep possession of the ball against the Concordia Irvine eagles.
The men’s soccer team is off to a blazing start. However, there are some within the team who feel they haven’t scratched the surface of where they can be thus far.
The squad is coming off of back-to-back shutout victories, including their most recent 2-0 win against Concordia Irvine on Monday, which saw the Golden Eagles score as early as seven minutes into the game. In addition, they were recently ranked as the tenth best team in the country for NCAA division 2 men’s soccer according to the United Soccer Coaches national poll.
These results are positive, but assistant coach Michael Erush feels they can be much better. He thinks the team didn’t play that well during their recent 2-0 win over Concordia Irvine.
“Unfortunately, we thought the performance [last game] was on the lower side because the expectations are so high with this group … The last two games, yes the scores are great, but as a team, [the] cohesiveness wasn’t successful in our opinion as a staff.”
Some players echoed those sentiments and hope for better play in future games.
“We got two goals in the first twenty minutes; I think after that we maybe got a little overconfident … I think overall, it wasn’t our best performance. We for sure need to play better than that,” said midfielder David Elizaga.
Defender Arvine Esteva felt the team was headed in the right direction, but still had some things they could work on. Some of those things were making sure the midfielders drop in when the opposing team sends their attacking players forward; making sure the team continues to defend together.
Assistant coach Erush said that communication and leadership are points of emphasis for the team.
“Communication has improved, but can always get better, [and] we’re challenging our kids to show more leadership on and off the field and were progressing in the right areas for that. With those two things, we’re hoping more success comes our way.”
The men’s soccer team will look to continue their hot start on their first road trip of the season, which starts at Fresno Pacific on September 14.
