2017 Men’s Soccer Season Preview

The 2017 season is finally upon us for the Lobo Men’s Soccer program, marking the 16th year of the Coach Fishbein Era. The Lobos are coming off a 12-7-3 season (4-3-1 in Conference USA play), which came with the conference tournament crown and a second round appearance in the NCAA Tournament before losing at Washington. The 2016 season was an interesting one, as aside from that loss at Washington, all of their losses were by a single goal. Where is gets even stranger is that three of the losses came with the other team scoring their goals on penalty kicks, and two other losses were they lost in 2OT. In other words, the 2016 Lobos were extremely close to being in the conversation as one of the all-time greatest Lobo teams, instead of “just” a very solid squad.

Here are some of the team highlights from the 2016 season:

The Lobos were unbeaten at home, going 8-0-2.
The Lobos won the Conference USA Tournament in Huntington, WV.
The Lobos outscored their opponents 31 to 21 (1.55 to .95 Goals Per Match)
The Lobos outshot their opponents 302 to 203 (13.7 to 9.2 Shots Per Match)
The Lobos scored 26 second half goals (only 8 first half goals)
The Lobos assisted on 24 of their 34 goals, while their opponents only assisted on 10 of their 21 goals.

Key Losses From 2016:

Niko Hansen finished his fourth and final season in a Lobo uniform with a bang, Hansen scored 13 goals (7 game winners) and had three assists to lead the Lobo attack from the forward position. Hansen was drafted by the Columbus Crew in the MLS Draft after the season, so we’ll still be lucky enough to see him play regularly. However, the Lobos will have to find a way to fill the huge void left by Hansen’s departure.
Chris Wehan was asked to do a lot of different things during his four year career at UNM, all of which he did well. Last season, Wehan played more central than previous years, which limited his scoring chances some. In the end, Wehan was second on the team with 8 goals and also had 3 assists. The leadership and willingness/ability to play different roles will be difficult to replace.
Chris Gurule played a key role in the Lobo defense during his career. After playing centerback most of his career, he moved to defensive center-mid, where he thrived.
Nick Rochowski found his role as a centerback and helped the Lobo defense be one of the best defenses in the country.
Patrick Khouri signed a professional contract after his sophomore season, which is great to see, but will leave yet another hole in the defense that needs to be filled. Khouri teamed with Gurule at the center-mid position, where they controlled the central part of the pitch.
Associate Head Coach Paul Souders, after a long run at UNM, took the Associate Head Coach position at Central Florida. He’ll join his former college assistant coach from his time at Clemson, who was named head coach at UCF this offseason.

Key Newcomers (Including Redshirt Freshman)

Junior midfielder Antoine Vial
Junior midfielder Wedner Delmonte
Sophomore midfielder Aaron Scott
Sophomore defender Ingi Jonsson
RS Freshman midfielder Noah Bushey
RS Freshman midfielder Grayson Dupont
RS Freshman midfielder Billy Jones
Freshman forward Alex Vedamanikam
Freshman forward/midfielder Nick Taylor

Note: I expect most, if not all, of the other freshmen to redshirt this season.

Finally, Kelly Altman returns home as an assistant coach, replacing the assistant position left by Souders. Altman spent the last few season at Valparaiso as an assistant coach.

Key Returning Players

Senior goalkeeper Jason Beaulieu
Senior forward Sam Gleadle
Senior forward Luke Lawrence
Junior defender Aaron Herrera
Junior midfielder Matt Dorsey
Sophomore defender Tom Smart
Sophomore defender Matt Constant
Sophomore midfielder Devin Boyce

Position Breakdown

Goalkeeper:

Starter: Senior Jason Beaulieu enters his fourth season as the starting keeper. In 51 career matches played (49 as keeper of record), the Lobos are 26-16-7 with 17 shutouts. Beaulieu has a very good career Goal Against Average of .88, which he is fully capable of improving on this season. Beaulieu provides great leadership and communication to the Lobo team and I expect for Beaulieu to have a his best season this year.

Backup- Sophomore Ford Parker was the hero of two post-season matches where he didn’t play a second of the match, but was a penalty kick stopper extraordinaire. Parker will see a similar role this season and could see minutes in blowouts, as he waits for his chance to start next season.

Center backs:

Starters: Sophomores Matt Constant and Ingi Jonsson. Constant returns to anchor the Lobo backline after a very productive freshman season. He reminds me a lot of Andrew Boyens and could also go down as one of the Lobo greats at center back. Jonsson is a strong defender from Iceland who should bring great physicality to the Lobos backline. In theory, he’s a great replacement for the strong center back Rochowski.

Backup: Junior Matt Dorsey. As we saw in the last exhibition, Dorsey filled the void at the position when Constant didn’t play. I thought that Dorsey was great in the role and will be a great backup, maybe even seeing some meaningful minutes at the position.

Outside backs:

Starters: Junior Aaron Herrera and Sophomore Tom Smart team up to form what you could argue is the best duo at the position in the country. Enjoy watching Herrera this year, because it could be our last before he heads to the MLS. Coach Fishbein has put a lot of responsibility on both players, but both players are up to the task. Both players this year could provide more punch to the Lobo attack with their overlap runs with the midfielders.

Backup: The plan is to have Herrera and Smart to play every minute, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw one of the outside midfielders slotting back a spot to fill the void.

Defensive Center mid:

Starter: RS Freshman Billy Jones will fill the void left by Gurule and play a very important position in Coach Fishbein’s system. If you look back on Lobo history, whenever they have a great player in this position, they have a great team. Jones may go through some growing pains early in the year, but the main thing is not to make any thoughtless mistakes. I believe that Jones will thrive in this role, with his ability to defend and win 50/50 balls.

Backup: Junior Matt Dorsey will find himself as a backup at a few positions, and this is one where I think we will see Dorsey get minutes at early in the season. Dorsey is a great teammate and will fill any void needed.

Center mid:

Starter: Sophomore Devin Boyce will take the role left by Wehan last year, which means that he will be asked to do a lot on this team. His main role will be to distribute to the wingers and forwards, as well as controlling the midfield with Jones.

Outside mid:

This is a position that will see changes fairly often until a couple of players separate themselves. Names to watch at this position are Aaron Scott, Noah Bushey, Nick Taylor, Sam Gleadle (when not playing forward), Grayson Dupont, Wedner Delmonte and Antoine Vial. This is one position where Fishbein will move players around and will play the players that are producing.

Forwards:

Names to watch in the attacking position are Sam Gleadle, Nick Taylor, Luke Lawrence and Alex Vedamanikam. In my opinion, the two most talented scorers are the two freshman, but don’t count out the impact that both Gleadle and Lawrence can have this season. All four should see time on the field this season.

Mr. Versatility, Matt Dorsey:

I don’t know if Junior Matt Dorsey is the best player at any single position, but he is second or third at a lot of positions. Dorsey will have a key role on this team and could see time at defense, midfield, and forward, which will give Coach Fishbein a lot of flexibility and a great insurance if the injury bug happens to bite the Lobos. It takes a lot of unselfishness to be the sort of player who is willing to float around the field, and that’s the sort of teammate that Dorsey is. He is willing and able to fill any need this team needs and should be celebrated what he brings to the table. Keep an eye on him this year.

Points of Emphasis:

Players finding their roles on the team early in the season, and being the star in their role. If each player is able to do this, the Lobos will be very, very good this season.
Finding a couple of goal scorers will be very important, as the departure of Hansen and Wehan takes away a lot of scoring from last season. The good thing is that the Lobos will have one of the the best defenses in the country to take pressure of the offense, but a couple of guys will need to become the go-to guys.
Communication and leadership will be a huge factor for this team. This is a young Lobo team (only 4 seniors), but they have players like Beaulieu, Gleadle, Herrera, Constant, Smart, Boyce and a few others that have gone through battles and should be able to provide great leadership to this team.
Scoring in the first half was difficult for the Lobos last year, as they only scored 8 goals in the first 45 minutes of matches. While it isn’t the end of the world if the Lobos aren’t able to score in the first half all that often, it takes a lot of pressure off you and puts it on the other team.
How quickly will the newcomers take to adjust to Division I soccer is a question mark. If there is little to no adjustment, the Lobos could get off to a flying start. There is a lot of talent on this team, so the ceiling is pretty high.

Schedule Breakdown:

Another year, another great schedule for the Lobo soccer team. This season’s schedule will go down as one of the best ones ever, in my opinion, which is a credit to the coaching staff for not just being able to schedule these games, but being willing to take on a challenge. The Lobos will play two Pac 12 teams in Washington and UCLA, regional rival Denver, and the great Conference USA schedule. A nice thing for the Lobos is they get most of their toughest opponents at home, which could really help getting a national seed come NCAA Tournament time. The Lobos will have four home (Kentucky, FAU, UAB and Charlotte) and four road (South Carolina, Marshall, FIU and ODU) conference matches this season.

2017 Schedule (With Opponent’s 2016 Record):

(Asterisk indicates conference game)

@ Washington 14-7-0
@ Seattle 11-6-2
UNLV 10-12-2
@ Marquette 5-7-4
CSU Northridge 9-7-5
UC Irvine 5-13-1
*Kentucky 11-5-3
*@ South Carolina 11-8-1
*@ Marshall 6-11-1
@ LMU 10-8-0
*FAU 4-10-1
*UAB 6-9-3
UCLA 10-8-2
*@ FIU 10-7-2
Denver 20-1-3
*Charlotte 12-4-2
*@ ODU 6-9-2

Games To Watch:

10/28 vs. Charlotte: This match could very well decide the regular season champion of Conference USA and could also lock in a national seed. Emotions should be high on this one, with it being the last regular season home game for Beaulieu, Gleadle, Lawrence and Lucas Seligman.
9/16 vs. Kentucky: The first conference match of the season for the Lobos, which could go a long way in deciding the pecking order in the conference. A win in this match sets the Lobos up well going into the important away match against South Carolina, while a loss could see the Lobos starting conference play 0-2-0.
9/22 at South Carolina: Probably the toughest road match in conference play, but it could give the Lobos a leg up in the conference if they are able to get a win here. South Carolina may only lose one home match in conference and you want to be the team to get that win.
8/25 at Washington: The season opener is a chance for payback (2016 Tournament) of the payback from 2013 (Lobos make the Final Four). In other words, there’s a lot of good history here already. The two schools are starting to form a great rivalry, with a former Lobo assistant as the head coach, Jamie Clark, and Lobo Great Jeff Rowland as the associate head coach. There could be a lot of fireworks and emotions in this match.
Tie 10/25 vs. Denver: The Lobos will look for a win over a Denver side that was great last year. Time will tell how good this Denver team is, but they are ranked top 10 in the preseason.

Tie 10/18 vs. UCLA: Anytime you can get a program like UCLA to play you at home in the regular season is a huge deal. This match is one any Lobo fan should make plans to attend.

Result or Loss:

Here are my predictions on how the season will play out. As usual, a result means that they either got the win or a draw. Again, an asterisk denotes a conference game.

@ Washington Result
@ Seattle Result
UNLV Result
@ Marquette Result
CSU Northridge Result
UC Irvine 5-13-1 Result
*Kentucky 11-5-3 Result
*@ South Carolina 11-8-1 Loss
*@ Marshall 6-11-1 Results
@ LMU 10-8-0 Result
*FAU 4-10-1 Result
*UAB 6-9-3 Result
UCLA 10-8-2 Result
*@ FIU 10-7-2 Loss
Denver 20-1-3 Result
*Charlotte 12-4-2 Result
*@ ODU 6-9-2 Result

The Lobos should be in every match and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something like the 2004,2005, 2011 or 2012, where there are very few matches the Lobos don’t get a result.

Bold Predictions:

The Lobos will win at least 11 matches during the regular season.
The Lobos will get a result in at least 14 matches during the regular season.
The Lobos will have a Goals Allowed Average less than .75
The Lobos will score at least 1.75 goals per match.
The Lobos will have 9 shutouts during the regular season.
The Lobos will win either the Conference Regular Season Title or Conference Tournament Title.
The Lobos will have two people win major conference awards (Player of the Year Offense or Defense, Freshman of the Year, Newcomer of the Year or Coach of the Year).
The Lobos will spend time in the Top 10.
The Lobos will be a Top 8 seed and will host games leading to the Final Four.
The Lobos will at least make the Elite Eight.
Jason Beaulieu will have a GAA below .75
At least one defender will be named All-American.
The Lobos will have a National Player of the Week.
Alex Vedamanikam will lead the Lobos in scoring and will be named Freshman All-American.
Sam Gleadle will combine for 12 goals or assists.
Vedamanikam, Gleadle, Luke Lawrence and Nick Taylor will combine for at least 22 goals.

Season Expectations:

As always, the expectations for the Lobo Men’s Soccer Program will be extremely high. And that’s how it should be at this point. While this team is on the younger side, there’s tons of talent on this year’s team, so anything less than a trip to the NCAA Tournament is a disappointing season However,anything more than a trip to the second round is a huge success. I believe this is a team that could do very special things, but that doesn’t mean that the team couldn’t experience bumps and bruises this year. It will be a journey, but it could end up having a great destination.

Final Thoughts:

We need to make a point to get out to the Soccer Complex to support this team. They are going to be a blast to watch and Lobo Soccer matches have brought many of my favorite sports memories. I think it is reasonable for the Lobo fans to average 3,000 fans a match and in my opinion, there are four matches that we should approach a sell out. I am excited for what this season has in store for us, and don’t worry, we will have you covered with every game. The stories and memories will be numerous and I hope you are part of the ride.