Marquette University Athletics
Markus Roeders' Coaching Diary
10/14/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Once a week for the remainder of the season, Marquette head women's soccer coach Markus Roeders will share his thoughts on his Golden Eagles squad.
October 14, 1999
Q: Talk about the game last Sunday against the nation's No. 1 team, Santa Clara.
A: It was a good trip from the standpoint of playing the game. We were pleased with our effort. I think the longer the game went on, the more comfortable we became. We absorbed some pressure at times. Santa Clara is a great team with some great players. Aly Wagner was one of the last players cut from the World Cup Team. Then they have four of five National Youth Team players as well. They have a number of players who are quite special and I can see them going quite far.
Santa Clara scored early on and I wondered how we were going to respond to that. But as the game wore on, I sensed that the team felt that they could play with them. As a team, we did a fine job all over the field. The forwards did their part, the midfield held them in check and our defense was solid. Mo (Bothwell) had a nice game in goal. She never had to make any spectacular saves, but she organized the defense and read the game well. Overall, we were pleased at the end because we got a result that perhaps opened some eyes. I think what we did quite well was to eliminate some of the things that Santa Clara does well and I think that is something to build on. Although we were disappointed that we lost, we were also realistic in that we went in as the underdog.
Q: Other than the game, what else was your team able to do out in California?
A: We arrived later on in the evening on Friday and just settled into the hotel. On Saturday morning we trained for a while on their field. In the afternoon, we went to San Francisco and Fisherman's Wharf. It was Fleet Week and there were all sorts of boats there. The Blue Angels were there as well as some huge crowds. We let the team go out on their own for a time, do some shopping and check out the sights and sounds. Then we loaded them back up and went to the Golden Gate Bridge. IOn Sunday we played the game and after it was over we had some time, so we drove down to Santa Cruz. There's a boardwalk there and we let the team have some free time to do their own thing. Then we flew back home on a red-eye. Overall, I think that it was a fun weekend considering we had never been out there before.
Q: You start a stretch of five straight Conference USA games this weekend with games at UNC Charlotte and South Florida.
A: We're back to the grind and this is a big weekend. We're still trying to play catch-up in the conference right now, we're 4-1-1 but still in position where we could finish high and maybe win the whole thing. These are two of the top teams in the conference. Charlotte is 6-0 in the league and they have a very good team, and then we're catching South Florida who is 5-1 in the conference. If we get good results against those teams that would help us, if for nothing else, in tie-breaker situations that may arise down the road.
I think that we are playing sharp right now. I hope that we can keep building on what we've been doing the past five or six games and come away with a couple of wins this weekend.
A: Does either team pose any special problems or style of play that concerns you?
Q: Charlotte lost a lot of seniors last season but they brought in some good new players. They also had a coaching change, so we are not that familiar with them. They have had some good results and are now 9-3 overall. They lost in the middle of the week to Wake Forest, who is ranked among the top 15 teams in the country, but gave them a battle. It will be a challenging game. They beat us in the conference tournament final last year and I hope that we will be up for the game.
We'll go to South Florida where most likely it will be warm. We haven't really seen hot weather in a number of weeks so that could be a factor. Last year we were the only team that beat them -- I think they went 16-1-3 -- so I know that they'll be ready for us. We'll have to be ready for them as well if want to continue our climb up the conference ladder.
