There are 31 roster spots on Lev Kirshner’s men’s soccer team at San Diego State. 16 of those are freshmen. Another four are new to the program.
That’s right, almost a whole new team. This means no Jordan Onagro, the team’s leading scorer a season ago. The five players who played the most minutes on Kirshner’s squad last season? Graduated.
This year is sort of a fresh start and because of that, SDSU soccer fans should expect the unexpected.
“This is a season where we’re unable to project what the lineup will look like, or the system,” Kirshner said.
With so many new players, he hopes they will all mesh at some point. A group of them have already arrived on Montezuma Mesa to start training with each other before the team’s first practice on Aug. 13. But Kirshner is going to switch up a few things in training to get his team on the same page.
“Probably more 11 versus 11 in training,” he said.
Getting the team to function as a collective unit is Kirshner’s biggest challenge. But this season, Kirshner isn’t proclaiming “National Championship or bust.” In fact, he’s just excited to get out there.
“There’s no real expectation or pressure, just excitement,” he said.
The Aztecs are trying to rebound from a tough 2013 campaign, when they won six games and lost 11. With that in the rearview mirror, here are some storylines going into the season:
WHO’S BACK?
The decorated players like Onagro and Blake Wise have all graduated. Senior defender Evyn Hewett is the most experienced returner, playing more than 1,300 minutes last season.
The Aztecs as a team scored 33 goals last year in 19 matches. They have a job of replacing 30 of those goals this season.
WHO’S NEW?
Almost everyone. Kirshner said to keep an eye out for sophomore midfielder Pablo Vasquez, a junior college All-American last year. There are also local products to look out for: forward Bryce Flores, sophomore transfer midfielder Mark Revell and defenders Sergio Enriquez and Ernest Reyes.
Kirshner has high praise for the recruiting class this season.
“It’s a talented group, Top-40 class,” he said, “They have athleticism, speed and technique. It’s an excellent group.”
KEY DATES:
The first match of the season, dubbed by Kirshner as the “local El Clásico,” is on Aug. 21 against crosstown foes University of San Diego. The Aztecs throttled the Toreros 5-0 at the Sports Deck last year.
On Sept. 5, they host Clemson University, a rematch of the 1987 NCAA Championship game in which the Tigers won 2-0.
The conference is a tough one. Unlike the women, the men play in the Pac-12 and not the Mountain West. So opponents, like nationally ranked University of Washington, are played twice a year. The University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Oregon State University and the University of California, Los Angeles round out the conference schedule.
On Sept. 30 another crosstown foe comes to the Mesa in Division II Point Loma Nazarene University. The Aztecs have beaten the Crusaders 12 times in 14 matches all time, scoring 76 goals and conceding just 12.
