Horns women’s soccer kick off season today under Bastos

By Lethbridge Herald on August 25, 2023.

University of Lethbridge Pronghorns’ Hailey Slobodian hustles into the offensive zone to try and make a play during Canada West soccer action against the University of Alberta Pandas at Community Stadium in September 2022 file photo

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s soccer team  start a new season today,

The new season will also mark the beginning of a tenure for new head coach Thiago Bastos.

“Preparation for the team (has been) lots of field time,” said Bastos.

“We’ve been practicing a lot. We took only a few days off. Again it’s a short preseason right. Like in overall, (we’ve had) 20-23 days of preseason. So just being on the field. We decided  to not  travel this (pre) season, so we could focus on training and playing games and play about six games this preseason. So like it give us experience and to try different things (in) the games. So that was the plan for the preseason. So we stay at home and practice as much as we can.”

Bastos went with that preseason approach to see what the team needs to work on and tests things out.

“And overall so they can get to know me and I can get to know players in a deeper level as well,” said Bastos.

Bastos thinks the team’s success can be measured in different ways.

“I think success for us here is (to) be able to apply what we’ve been working on,” said Bastos.

“(With) soccer, it’s always like we might win, we might lose, there’s things that we can’t control. The result in the end matters but the process is always more important.”

With Bastos coming in, goalkeeper Bridie Harding thinks it’s a change for the better.

“I think he’s adjusted to the girls very like quickly and like he’s definitely a different character,” she said.

“ But it’s been good for us. It’s like positive and very much an atmosphere of enjoying ourselves first. I think we’re always going to play better if we’re actually having fun and enjoying it, rather than seeing it as something we have to do.”

“We’re feeling strong …  there’s a high morale on the team, like something that maybe has been missing,” said Harding.

“…  The rookies have come in really strong. So it’s good and some of them are definitely going to see the field. So it’s exciting. We’re excited to get started for sure.”

The Horns host the University of Winnipeg today  and University of Manitoba on Sunday

“There’s also a little bit of anxiety,” said Bastos.

“But I feel overall, we feel ready for this weekend. We been working on our plans. It’s not going to be easy games. Both of the games are going to be very  physical. But again, we’ve been playing a lot of games in preparing for this weekend and overall we feel prepared. The girls understand what we want defensively (and) offensively for the transitions.”

Both games start at noon.