On Wednesday, the boys’ soccer team gained victory over Trinity Academy 6-0 in the first round of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs. Coach Andreas Wedderien believes that the boys’ soccer team won because they “took advantage” of the opportunities available to them.
Goalkeeper Kevin Waechter ‘17 finished the game with no goals scored against him. He felt that he himself played “alright” but that the team played well and had little weaknesses when looking at the game as a whole.
He believes that the team capitalized on shooting opportunities and that players took shots from multiple different angles. He felt that their entire team’s improvement was due to their amount of effort that was put into each game throughout the season.
“We were determined to win and determined to just put our heads in the game,” Waechter said.
Wedderien believes that the team has showed an improvement in their ability to receive and distribute the ball. However, he believes that the team can continue to make improvements in that area of play.
According to Wedderien, the mistakes that the team made throughout the game were not fatal due to their competition’s weaknesses, such as their lack of pressuring the ball. He believes that the team was able to take advantage of their opponents inabilities by holding the ball longer until they could find an open man to pass to.
“The opponent let us make mistakes and didn’t punish us for it,” Wedderien said. “They gave us too much space and we took advantage of it.”
Wedderien feels that qualifying to compete in CIF has become the “norm” and that competing in CIF playoffs in their league is “a must.” However, he believes that the team was able to make it to CIF playoffs because they “stepped up to the [challenges]” when they arose throughout the season.
Wedderien thinks that despite certain players only wanting to do what’s best for themselves throughout the season, “several players put the team goals ahead of their personal goals and schedules.” These are the players he is “proud of.”
The team will continue to practice and work hard to prepare for their next CIF playoff game that is scheduled on Monday at St. Paul’s High School.
