Editor@insideuab.com
UAB midfielder, David Valverde, makes a run down the field on Saturday. (Photo by Casey Marley)On Saturday, Aug 22, the UAB Men’s Soccer Team welcomed South Carolina’s Clemson Tigers to the West Campus Field for their first home exhibition game. During the first half, the game was postponed because of an evening thunderstorm to Sunday afternoon where the Blazers lost 5-1 to the Tigers, ranked 11 in the nation.
Kscope interviewed Head Coach Mike Getman at practice on Thursday, Aug. 20 to discuss the upcoming game and season:
Kscope: Do you feel like the team is prepared for Saturday’s exhibition game against Clemson?
You never feel quite prepared in pre-season, but I thought we had a good performance in Louisville. I’m happy where we are so far. We still have a lot of work to do, but hopefully we will be ready for Saturday.
Kscope: I know that we had freshman playing at the Louisville game; how do you think everyone on the team will do for the new season?
I was really pleased. At Louisville, we got to play a lot of different guys; 23 different players were in the game, and I thought they all performed well. Obviously we made some mistakes, gave up a few goals, but I think the guys have really worked and worked hard this summer to be physically prepared to come into pre-season. So I’m excited. I think everyone is ready to go.
Kscope: How did the team prepare/train in the summer pre-season?
We’ve done a lot. [Laughs] We’ve done a lot of physical work and the guys are feeling some fatigue in their legs right now. We’ve spent a lot of time in the last couple of days figuring out how we want to play as a team, and now we are figuring out the details that will make our team unique. So right now we are figuring out those details.
Kscope: Soccer is expected to be this year’s big fall sport, are you ready to welcome in new fans to the game?
Every year we’ve drawn pretty good crowds. In particular we have a lot of students that come out to support us and that makes it fun for us. I think this year there is a unique opportunity to have an even bigger impact on campus. We hope that students will come out and enjoy what they will see. I think we play an exciting style of soccer, and we certainly hope that there will be some new folks out there to watch us play.
Kscope: Anything else?
This is going to be a great weekend. Clemson is ranked 11th in the nation right now and a lot of people think they can win it all, and we think that we could win it all. I think it will be a great game between two really great teams, two attacking style teams, so I think it will be a great way to start off the school year.
Game Stats:
Goals per period: 1: Clemson-2; UAB-0. 2: Clemson-3; UAB-1
UAB Players that scored: Chandler Stroupe, No. 21, 45:16
Total Shots: Clemson-19; UAB-6
Final Verdict: UAB loss. 5-1.
