Jeff's Journal: We Still Have the Same Goal in Our Sights
A Diary by Jeff Kunze, Toros Soccer Player
October 23, 2002

It is confirmed, we have road tripito's. We cannot seem to come away with two victories when we are on the road. This past weekend, we played CSU Chico and UC Davis.

On Friday night, we played Chico and we defeated them with a great deal of passion, 6-0. The thing that was special about this game is that we had six different people who scored the goals.

However, we still had a game on Sunday. We played UC Davis and we lost, 2-0. Playing on the field, one can tell if the team is a good team or just an average team. UC Davis was good, but very beatable. I do not know if our heads were big because of our game on Friday or if we just did not play with emotion. A couple spectators approached me after the game and stated their opinions. They told me that our team's touches were just off and we did not have a good game. I agreed with what they had to say, yet their statements were not complete.

One lesson that my old club coach, Glen Strachan, taught me, is that if your team has a bad game (tactically), you have to make up the difference with passion and work rate. Watching the game, you could tell that many players on our team were being outworked and beat to the ball. There were many factors that contributed to this defeat including injuries and subpar officiating. However, in the end, it is the players that win or lose games. We need to be responsible and mature enough to step up and realize that we were outworked.

On the other hand, we did have a great practice today. Our work rate was definitely displayed in many of the running drills we had today. With our injured teammates cheering us on, we pushed ourselves to be better than the next. With all that has happened, we still have the same goal in our sights: to win a National Championship. However, we did make some alterations to this goal. We realize we have to take one day at a time and only look forward to the next game.

Till Next Time,
Jeff

PS- I want to give my deepest condolences to Chantel who lost her mother in a car accident last weekend. A request for anyone who reads this: say a prayer for her mother and her family.