Berson pleased with team despite lack of wins
The South Carolina men’s soccer team will try and improve the team’s record by going up against Presbyterian tonight at home at 7 p.m.
After starting off the year winning three of their first four games, the Gamecocks slipped up, losing three of their next five games, with two ties, before snagging a victory against Charlotte last Friday, putting their record at 3-4-2.
Despite the team’s recent struggles, head coach Mark Berson has been very pleased with the effort his team has shown during the winless spell.
“The main thing is focusing on each game and looking at each match and see what we need to improve on for the next one, and results will take care of themselves,” Berson said. “We had a few really tough matches that didn’t go our way, but that hasn’t affected the guys in terms of focus. I was very proud of our big conference win on the road in Charlotte on Friday. That wouldn’t have happened if the guys weren’t focused.”
Senior midfielder/defender J.P. Rafferty said he was particularly frustrated in the games he felt the Gamecocks could have won.
“The toughest part was (especially during the last two) we felt like we should have won because we outplayed them and had chances, but never finished them off,” Rafferty said.
Rafferty also said that the team has been working on “finishing” in preparation for the upcoming game against Presbyterian.
“We’ve been doing a lot of finishing, getting the ball from wide spaces into the box and finishing our chances,” Rafferty said. “It’s really important for us to score more goals as the season progresses and just cleaning up a few things.”
Although Presbyterian (2-5-0) might not be one of the stronger teams on the Gamecocks’ schedule, Berson said he knows that his team can’t look past them.
“Year in and year out, our guys have been staying focused on the next opponent, looking at our previous performance and improving from the last match. By being better than we were at Charlotte, that has to do with us getting better,” Berson said.
As for their game tonight, Berson said capitalizing on opportunities will be a big factor in getting a victory.
“The biggest factor is execution — relating everything back to the game, studying the game and going out and executing,” Berson said. “The results from last week’s game were two very good teams playing themselves to a standstill, and we made the big plays that we’re going to need to do against Presbyterian.”
Rafferty said he hopes to use the win over Charlotte and the game against Presbyterian to prepare for conference play.
“It was the first win of hopefully a long win streak, we felt we deserved to get a win,” Rafferty said. “We’re going into Presbyterian with a lot of confidence. It’s our last nonconference game and it’s important for us to get a win to give us momentum going into our upcoming conference schedule.”