Alan Koch, head coach of SFU’s men’s soccer team, will be the first to tell you how little rankings and pre-game hype mean to any given game. His Clan worked hard to climb the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) rankings, from the third spot entering last season to first place late last week. But, after a dominant 8–0 start to the season, including a pair of victories at home last week over two South Dakota-based schools, the Clan finally suffered their first defeat.
Things were going fantastically for the Clan — they hadn’t just been winning games, but trouncing their opponents. In their conference home opener, SFU trumped the South Dakota School of Mines, a school in their first year of Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) play, 5–0 a score that, given the balance of play, could’ve been even more lopsided.
“The chemistry is really coming along,” said midfielder Adam Staschuk post-game, as five different players found the back of the net for the Clan. “Everyone is starting to buy into the system. We are all getting more comfortable with it and it showed tonight.”
That comfort showed in their second game of the week: SFU shut out the University of Mary Marauders 6–0 in the Clan’s second home game of the week.
“A lot of guys got to play tonight and it really showed our depth,” said Alexander Kleefeldt, a transfer from Germany in his first season with the Clan, after the match. He also tallied the second and sixth goals of the game for the Clan.
“In the first half we should have kept possession a little bit more. The result is good but I still think we can play better, keep possession more and keep our opposition down.
“It was good to score two goals but I think I could have done a better job on the defensive end. The next road trip is going to be difficult so we need to step it up and work hard to be prepared,” he finished.
Until the start of that road trip, the Clan had faced little adversity, save for a pair of come-from-behind victories on the road earlier in the season. But there was no doubt that the Clan were in for their biggest test of the season on the road against Seattle Pacific University — arguably SFU’s biggest rival since entering the GNAC.
Seattle Pacific opened the scoring early, before junior midfielder Chris Bargholz tied the game at one apiece in the 23rd minute. The score would stay the same until late in the second half when the Falcons would scrape ahead 2–1 in the 79th minute — a deficit the Clan could not overcome; the game would finish with a 2–1 score for SPU.
Call it an upset if you want, but Koch will tell you his squad beat themselves.
“Tonight we didn’t score on the chances that we created and this allowed SPU to grow more and more confident as the match progressed,” he said after the Thursday night game.
“Big games are won and lost by little things. We made some unnecessary mistakes tonight that really hurt us.”
Despite the loss, the Clan are still set up well to compete for a GNAC title. The loss drops the Clan’s record to 8–1, still very much good enough for first in the conference, while second-place SPU improves to 6–1–1. And the Clan still lead the conference in goals by a shockingly wide margin: 33 for SFU compared to 14 for Western Washington, second in that category. The Clan have all the tools to get back on track.
“We need to regroup and increase our collective focus ahead of our next match against Saint Martin’s,” said Koch. “This conference championship is going to be a dogfight to the end.”
