U of L men’s soccer expected to be much improved as season opens

By Lethbridge Herald on August 24, 2023.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward University of Lethbridge Pronghorns' Adam Turner tries to take the ball away from a teammate during a rondo game ahead of practice on Wednesday at U of L Community Sports Stadium

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s soccer team are kicking into a new season today with a better sense of what second year head coach Davin Haigh is trying to implement.

“I think the nice thing this year is that it’s not so much new ideas,” said Haigh.

“I think the players now have an understanding and expectation of themselves. So that motivation is coming from them. I don’t have to kind of create an environment where I have to be using all the energy to get them to want to come and play. I think they already do that naturally which is nice and the fact that it’s a second year (with me) , I think they want to test themselves. That’s the biggest thing is they want to see what they can do.”

The Horns have five seniors mixed in with a lot of youth.

“It’s an older team in some aspects but we do have a lot of youth coming in and they’ve all shown like great strides to like the direction we want this program to go,” said Haigh.

“So I’m excited. I can’t wait for it start and I think that’s where everyone’s at is we just can’t wait for Friday when we have to play MacEwan.”

Haigh believes it will come down to the Horns implementing their style in order to get the wins.

“I think last year we had some good results and it’s just being able to be consistent now,” said Haigh.

“Having a new philosophy is stressful because the guys don’t know it and then they also don’t know what their capacity is. I think now we have an idea of what our capacity is. So we can start to implement it more frequently.”

What Haigh considered to be the biggest thing he saw last year was the team’s learning curve.

“We started not so great,” said Haigh.

“But as it went on, we got stronger and stronger. And I could only imagine now that this season, we’re  going hopefully come out flying and then we’ll just get better as the season goes on … I think the character of this team is what really is to me the difference.”

If there was anything to take from the preseason that will make the Horns competitive, it’s the improvement in maturity and game management.

“I think last year, again going back to consistency, we had moments in games where we played fantastic but it didn’t win us the game because we only maybe played well for 25 minutes,” said Haigh.

“I’m starting to see now them being able to manage 90 minutes and that’s huge. That’s going to be a really big factor because of how we play, and how we want to control tempo and what that does to the opposition. I think that’s going to be our biggest factor is just our management.”

Alasdair Coyle feels the team is coming in with a better understanding of Haigh in his second year.

“You know he came in last year and before that we didn’t really have anything set in place,” said Coyle.

“He came in last year; he kind of introduced us to a whole new philosophy. And I feel like this year we’re just taking to it more and we’re definitely like adapting and also like giving our own little spin to it. But I feel from this year to last year, it’s just definitely a better understanding and we feel like we’re more comfortable playing in the style that we want to now.”

Coyle wants to leave the program in a better spot than when he first arrived five years ago.

“I feel like anything’s possible with this group of guys and I feel like I just want to leave it in a better spot,” said Coyle.

“I don’t want to say too much regarding result or anything. You know, I don’t really believe in all that type of stuff but just leave it in a better place.”

U of L missed the playoffs last season with a 2-10-2 record.

The Horns open up the season today at MacEwan (2:30 p.m.) and tomorrow at the University of Alberta at 2:15 p.m.

Their home opener is on Sept. 1 versus Mount Royal at 4:30 p.m.