M. Soccer heads to Calif. for St. Mary's Tournament

The Penn men's soccer team will face St Mary's and San Francisco while out West. Fresh off of his second shutout of the '98 season, Penn junior goalkeeper Michael O'Connor and the Penn men's soccer team head west this weekend to the eighth annual St. Mary's College Fall Soccer Classic in Moraga, Calif. The Quakers (1-7-1), who put up a strong showing in a scoreless draw with Columbia last Saturday, face the University of San Francisco (1-10) today at 7 p.m. before playing St. Mary's (4-7) Sunday at 3 p.m. This is the Quakers' first meeting with both the Dons and the Gaels. "I set up this game to basically get some East Coast soccer on the West Coast," St. Mary's coach Mark Talan said. "I know Penn has a large alumni base out here, and it would be good for them to see their team play." Though the team has already traveled to New Hampshire and Virginia for two-game tournaments this season, this excursion is the one that the Quakers have been especially looking forward to. "We're all really excited about the trip," O'Connor said. "Everybody's been talking about it. We just want to go out there to do our game." In its first game on the West Coast in a number of years, Penn has the dubious distinction of facing San Francisco coach Stephen Negoesco -- the winningest coach in college soccer history with 522 victories and four NCAA titles to his name. Things aren't as bad as they may seem, though, as the Dons are having their worst year in Negoesco's 37-year tenure at their helm. "Right now, the main thing we're working on is winning," Negoesco said. "I really don't know what to think anymore. I thought I had a very good team, but it turns out to be my worst." San Francisco has been hampered by both a tough schedule and recent injuries to its front line. Dons leading scorer Fabio Pires, a senior striker with four of the team's 10 goals, will be watching from the sideline. But junior midfielder Alex Akerjordet, who has tallied two goals, two assists and a team-leading 31 shots, is still a dangerous player to watch in the middle. Despite this competition, the Quakers have gained confidence from their past week's practice and do not seem intimidated. "We've been feeling good and we've been having some very good practices this week," Penn junior defenseman Ted Lehman said. "They've been intense, which is what we need because that's how our games are played." Lehman, who along with junior defender Tom Hughes earned All-Tournament honors at the Stihl Soccer Classic at Old Dominion, Va., four weeks ago, echoed team-wide sentiments that "this should be a good all-around weekend" for the Quakers. Defending champion St. Mary's -- a host-team with high expectations -- is young, has lost 13 seniors from a year ago and is likely to start five freshmen. They do, however, return experienced leaders in the middle of the field with senior co-captains Ali-John Utush at sweeper and Seth Alberico at center midfield. St. Mary's, like Penn, is having trouble converting offensively. The Gaels have scored two or more goals in all four of their wins, but have been shut out in each of their seven losses. The Quakers put up 66 shots in their four-game homestand, including 13 apiece by juniors David Bonder and Reggie Brown, but only came away with one goal. "I think both teams are having difficulty scoring," Talan said. "But [on the other hand] our defense is playing fairly solidly, even though they're young and are still getting to know one another." The Gaels have limited their opponents to one or zero goals in eight-of-11 games and to two goals in two of them. This could spell trouble for Quakers offense, which has not netted one in the past 381 minutes of play. "We're playing two tough teams out in California, but hopefully we can get the ball rolling, get a few behind the net, have a little break out in San Francisco and see the sights," Brown said after the Columbia game. "Hopefully we can come back with two wins and be ready to go back into the league and some East Coast competition." Perhaps the Quakers should take a lesson from the legendary Negoesco, who holds a Ph.D. in psychobiology in addition to having a stadium named after him. "The placebo effect applies even in soccer games," Negoesco said. "If you believe in yourself, you'll do well. Who knows, either of us may turn it around."

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