VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's soccer team started off their regular season on Friday night with a convincing 3-0 win over the University of Calgary Dinos.
Playing in front of a home crowd at Thunderbird Stadium, UBC showed off an exciting high speed, high pressure style of play that allowed them to attack the Calgary net with 22 shots on goal. Wearing the captain's armband for the first time in his UBC career, fifth-year midfielder
Marco Visintin (Vancouver, BC) scored the winning tally in the 24th minute, easily putting a penalty kick past the Calgary keeper after teammate Gagandeep Dosanjh (Abbotsford, BC) was tripped on a breakaway.
BOXSCORE
A key player in his third season with the Thunderbirds, Dosanjh set up
Navid Mashinchi (Port Moody, BC) with a through ball on a run to put UBC up 2-0 in the 65th minute. He then redirected a cross from
Milad Mehrabi (Coquitlam, BC) to add a goal of his own with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.
MSOC: T-Birds v. Calgary (Sept. 7, 2012) Gallery
Coach
Mike Mosher was pleased to start off his 17th season with a solid performance from his team.
“We carried a lot of the play in the first half, and it helped to get the first goal, but I think the big one was getting the second goal,” said Mosher. “We were hoping to try to get a second before the half was out, and then I think when we did get the second, that made life a lot easier for us.”
Thunderbirds goalie
Luke O'Shea (Richmond, BC) stopped eight shots to record the shutout. He had help thanks to a stand out performance from centreback
Paul Clerc (Coquitlam, BC), who was very vocal out on the field.
Mosher credits Clerc for his work saying, “You know, Gagan gets brought down for the penalty, has an assist, gets a goal, and still we're wondering who was our best player today. Was it Gagan, or was it Paul, because he was so good at the back, so dominant."
Mosher has chosen his three fifth-year players to share the captain's duties this season. They are all experienced leaders who he says have different personalities and each bring something a little different to the team.
He looked to tonight's captain Visintin to have a calming influence on his younger teammates. Mosher adds, “Marco will chip in offensively, but he's become quite a well-rounded player. He's so steady on the ball, he's always busy, and he always wants to get the ball.”
After tonight's win and a perfect five wins in preseason action, Visitin insists the key to continuing the team's win streak is starting off each game right.
“The first 30 minutes was really good tonight," he said. "Just keeping the high pressure and things will follow."
Up next for the Thunderbirds is a 7 p.m. match against the Lethbridge Pronghorns tomorrow night at Thunderbird Stadium.
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