Berson says Bulls will be toughest competition for Gamecocks thus far 
South Carolina men's soccer will take its regular season on the road for the first time as it competes in the University of South Florida Tournament in Tampa this weekend.
The Gamecocks will be competing in a four-team field, playing No. 4 USF on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles Saturday at 5 p.m.
South Carolina is coming off the toughest part of its nonconference schedule with back-to-back games against ranked teams at the Gamecock Classic. No. 15 St. John's handed the Gamecocks their first loss of the season with two second-half goals to shut out South Carolina, 2-0. Better results came later in the tournament when the Gamecocks took No. 25 Northwestern to a double-overtime draw.
"They were both very good teams — teams that I think will be in the NCAAs at the end of the year," said head coach Mark Berson. "It was a great opportunity for us to adjust to two very different styles of play, and that will benefit us at South Florida."
South Florida comes into the tournament fresh off defender Ben Sweat's national Player of the Week performance that led his team to wins over SMU and Tulsa at the Hurricane Classic.
"The challenges here are that South Florida will by far be the best team we've played so far, and we're on the road," Berson said. "They beat two of the top teams in our league, so there are no illusions on how good South Florida is. We just have to focus on us and capitalize on our opportunities."
On the other hand, Florida Gulf Coast comes into the tournament with a 1-2 record. The Eagles went on the road earlier this season to face No. 7 Akron and No. 21 Georgetown in back-to-back contests, losing both. The defending Atlantic Sun conference champions were shut out in both of their ranked contests, and their one win came in double overtime against Bucknell.
"They have been nationally ranked before, and they're a very good team," Berson said. "Our goal right now is to play the very best teams we can early on so we can know who we are before conference play starts."
Through an early three games, South Carolina's only goal was a 35-yard heave from Stephen Anderson to beat College of Charleston. Regular goal scorers like Bradlee Baladez, Mike Mangotic and Braeden Troyer have only 11 shots among them. As a team, the Gamecocks are only placing 32 percent of their shots on goal compared to opponents' 41 percent.
"I think right now we just need to capitalize on all of our chances," Berson said. "There's one thing that those statistics don't measure, and that's the quality of chances that we get. We can create good opportunities; we just need to finish them."