Soccer men not as bad as their record

By Josh Truba

The Dinos men’s soccer team came through with a solid performance a few weeks ago in the People’s Republic of British Columbia playing two close games against two of the country’s finest soccer teams. With this in mind I was expecting an excellent showing by the Dinos last weekend at home. They had the University of Saskatchewan in town Saturday and the University of Alberta in on Sunday–each for a one game tilt.

When I rolled into the Scurfield Hall computer labs on Monday morning I immediately brought up www.ciau.ca on my computer screen. As I searched for the results on the website I began making predictions to myself. I forecasted a close game with the Golden Bears; maybe the Dinos losing by a goal (the Golden Bears are the second ranked team in Canada), but I thought for certain the Dinos would handle Saskatchewan without too much trouble.

As is often the case, I was wrong. As I began scrolling down the screen to find last weekend’s results I was stunned to discover that the Dinos had lost both games. They took a 3-1 loss on Saturday to Saskatchewan, and were handed their asses on Sunday by our friends from the industrial city by a final score of 5-0.

I called up head coach Andy Gibbs earlier this week for some answers, and as usual he was very open about the weekend’s results. "It was a disastrous weekend, and even worse, it was a missed opportunity for the Dinos," said Gibbs. "We came up against a U of S team that is the best I have seen them produce in years. We also didn’t get any help from the referee who got involved with the game and really did us a disservice. It was a poorly reffed match, one of the worst I have seen," explained Gibbs.

The coach then turned his thoughts to the game against the U of A.

"As for the game on Sunday, well, we got behind early. We let them get two goals in the first 20 minutes of the match, and then things began to snowball on us. They are the number two ranked team in the country, and they most definitely deserve to be the number two team in the
country."

With the calamities of the weekend behind the team coach Gibbs is still very positive about the rest of the season, and the chances of achieving team goals.

"We just need to regroup as a team," assessed Gibbs. "There are a number of games left in the season, including another matchup with both Saskatchewan and Lethbridge. We still have a very good shot at making the playoffs."