Men’s Soccer 2007 Season Review:  Unmet Expectations
11/27/07

August 20^th.  The Cal State San Marcos men’s soccer team steps onto Mangrum Field for their first game of the 2007 season.  It’s the beginning of the program’s second season; and coming off a wildly successful 2006 campaign which ended with a 12-3-1 record, expectations were through the roof. 

And why wouldn’t they be?  Ten of the team’s eleven starters from the previous season were back, all with a year of experience under their belts, and were joined by some talented new recruits.

Their opponent on the day was Fresno Pacific, one of the toughest schools in the NAIA, ranked 26^th nationally at the time.  But the Cougars appeared up to the challenge, as the two teams battled for 90 minutes in front of the large home crowd.  CSUSM’s Michael Nuovo gave the CSUSM a 1-0 lead in the 63^rd minute, only to see Fresno Pacific tie the game back up 45 seconds later.

Eventually the contest went to overtime, tied at 1-1.  Despite numerous opportunities, including a one-on-one with the keeper, the Cougars failed time and time again to knock home the game winner.  Finally, fourteen minutes into overtime, Fresno Pacific’s Amaury Nunes tapped a rebound into the open net, sending the Cougars home losers.

It would be the story of the season for CSUSM.

In retrospect, the Fresno Pacific game was a “good loss,” if such a thing exists.  It turns out the Bulldogs were better than anyone anticipated, finishing the season ranked fifth nationally with a 15-2-1 record.  But at the time, the loss was a major blow to the young team’s confidence.

“We never really recovered,” commented Head Coach Ron Pulvers.

Coach Pulvers’ men’s soccer team would finish the year with a 6-10 record, a far cry from last year’s lofty mark.  Given the high expectations entering the season, the questions on everyone’s mind are simple:  What went wrong, and how can it be fixed?

To the first question, there’s no single large cause, but a variety of smaller ones - some of which were identified prior to the season.  Though the team returned nearly all of its players, it lost its senior captain from the 2006 season, Ben Crouse.  A “coach on the field,” Crouse kept everyone in line, and ensured all the players bought in to the coaches’ game plan. 

Entering the 2007 season, Pulvers and his staff knew replacing Crouse would be impossible, but were hopeful that a player (or players) would step into the vacated leadership role.  It didn’t happen.  With nobody able to galvanize the players together on or off the field, they never developed into a real “team,” according to Coach Pulvers.

“It was not a winning culture; losing became acceptable,” he noted.  “The team’s personality would not characterize ‘winning’.”

This lack of chemistry contributed significantly to the team not living up to expectations; but the expectations themselves were the root cause of many of their problems as well.  While last season’s record was outstanding, it did not come against particularly difficult competition.  Indeed, the soft schedule was to blame for CSUSM being left out of last year’s regional playoffs. 

Not only was 2007’s schedule more stout, but it was imbalanced such that the Cougars would have 12 games under their belt at a time when their opponents had only played 8.  This led to CSUSM consistently playing on more tired legs than their opponents.  So when the high expectations and pressure to win from the coaching staff met with the reality of the more difficult and demanding schedule, the results were predictable.

“One of my biggest regrets is the unbalanced schedule,” noted Coach Pulvers.  “In many ways it set us up for disappointment.”

Given that the team played 10 games in the month between August 24^th and September 24^th (one game every three days!), the season became very much a sprint as opposed to a marathon, according to Pulvers.  When the team started losing, the lack of a strong commitment to winning became apparent; and with nobody carrying enough weight to shift the team’s culture, the situation simply perpetuated itself throughout the season.

So going forward, what can be done to bring success back to CSUSM men’s soccer?  For starters, despite all the problems the players and coaches encountered this season, there were still bright spots.  With two games left to play in the season, the team had a chance to get to .500.  They tallied wins at UCSD and at home against Santa Cruz, and played #1 Azusa pacific very tough.  Furthermore, by all counts this is an excellent group of guys, and all are “very nice kids,” according to Pulvers.

With the lessons of 2007 learned, Coach Pulvers and his staff are not going to sit idly by and hope for the best.  They’re getting consistently good turnouts for voluntary workouts, which they’re continuing until the very last day they can.  They’ve been aggressively recruiting, and fans can expect to see a much different lineup when the team takes the field in ’08.  Pulvers also plans to heavily emphasize team-building and developing a  winning culture throughout this off-season, in an effort to re-establish the winning culture that existed in 2006.

“I’m real excited about our future,” concluded Pulvers.  “I’m confident we can build an environment that leads to success, and it starts with building the ‘team’ concept.”

For inspiration, the men’s team needn’t look further than their female counterparts.  Last season, the Cougar women’s soccer team experienced strikingly similar problems, specifically the team chemistry issues and lack of leadership.  This season they made their first every playoff appearance, got their first playoff win, and took the best team in the West to the brink of elimination.

 This coaching staff, then, is intimately familiar with how quickly a team can turn around – and they fully expect CSUSM men’s soccer to be competitive sooner rather than later.