Aug. 16, 2011
Albuquerque, N.M. — With the second full week of training under way and two exhibition matches scheduled for the end of the week, the New Mexico men’s soccer season has fully settled into its 2011 preseason routine.
Part of that routine included hosting their media day on Tuesday. The event invited members of the local media to UNM to partake in interview sessions with head coach Jeremy Fishbein and select members of the 2011 squad.
Fishbein and his staff are excited about the season and the roster that he and his staff has put together, which includes two returning seniors and two international players.
“I think we’re going to have a great team, this is as excited as I’ve been about any team,” Fishbein said. “We’re a week into preseason and team unity is coming together, it’s really clicking; we’ve got our first test Thursday night so we’ll see how that goes, but I’m pretty confident in this group.”
Thursday marks New Mexico’s first exhibition contest of the year. The Lobos will play host to Grand Canyon at the UNM Soccer Complex at 7 p.m. The Antelopes, a DII team out of the Pacific West Conference, closed out the 2010 season with a 15-3-2 record, 12-1-1 in conference play.
On Saturday the team will host Tulsa, a notoriously competitive Conference USA team that finished 12-7-2 overall, 3-3-2 in their conference and advanced to the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament.
A member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, the Lobos sit tied in second place with Denver in the preseason coaches poll, having received two first place votes. But New Mexico is, as per usual, focused on their own goals rather than their preseason ranking.
“We’ve been a successful program for a long time, we’ve had a target on our jerseys for quite a while, and in my mind we’re the best team in the conference,” Fishbein said. “We go into every season with that attitude, and I feel like we’re one of the best teams in the country. Now it’s just time for the coaches and players to go out and prove it.”
Fishbein says that something about his squad this year is more balanced than in previous years. He describes the team as having a “good vibe,” and as being well balanced on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. He also says that the group is balanced as far as experience is concerned, with a good mix of maturity and youth.
Some of the youth of the team includes two international newcomers in Adrian Mora Delgado and Mathew Gibbons. Both members of their respective U-17 national teams, Gibbons and Delgado went faced off against one another in the first round of the 2009 Nigerian World Cup in Nigeria. They’ll bring youth to the roster definitely, but also experience in that they’ve competed internationally.
The players are all also in agreement about the outlook of the season. Also present for media day were seniors Michael Green and Lance Rozeboom, as well as junior Blake Smith, redshirt sophomore Kyle Venter and junior goalkeeper Victor Rodriguez. Each of them also had individual opportunities to share their thoughts on the upcoming season, most of which were similar in nature.
“We all have that collective goal this year, we all want to be winners, we all want to win a national championship,” Smith said. “I could go through all 24 guys on this team and talk about how each of them has an important role and something to contribute.
“I feel like the difference this year will be our ability to play a full game,” he continued. “Last year I feel like we couldn’t put together the full 90 minutes. This year, we need to come out and be ready to play a complete game, 90 minutes, 110 minutes, whatever it may be.”
Rozeboom specifically mentioned the team unity that he’s noticed in the short time that the squad has been together, and talked about how the team emulates a “flock of geese.”
“Team first is our foundation,” he said. “We always have each other’s backs and we’re always watching out for one another through the good times and the bad times. “Geese are always looking out for one another, you know, when one goes down or is sick or going through adversity, two will fall back to help it out. I think that’s what we try to emulate as a team,” he finished.
The Lobos finished off media day with a 2:30 p.m. training session that was open to the public, and will have one more morning session on Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s exhibition match. Tickets for the match are available on golobos.com or by phone at (505) 925-LOBO.