The WSU men’s club soccer team dropped both its matches Saturday in a doubleheader against Cal State Fullerton and the University of California, San Diego, eliminating the club from West Coast Soccer Association Regional tournament.
WSU won its first game of the tournament Friday against the University of California, Santa Cruz, but failed to build on its momentum Saturday.
“We felt good but I felt like we needed to pick up our confidence going into the double header,” WSU club president and right-back Won-Jun Kim said. “I still felt like the team could have had a more decisive win for the first game.”
In the first game against CSU Fullerton, the Cougars started out strong with midfielder Isaiah Reano scoring the first goal for WSU to gain a 1-0 lead.
A series of fouls and challenges led to multiple foul calls against WSU, disrupting their rhythm and giving Fullerton opportunities to regroup after Reano’s goal. A foul in the box resulted in a penalty kick for CSU Fullerton. Taking full advantage of the chance, Fullerton converted the penalty past WSU’s keeper, evening the score.
Kim expressed frustration with foul calls and how they affected the team’s play.
“I hate to blame external factors that affected the game, but the main referee was very biased and had a very bad call on a few decisive plays that could be favorable for us,” Kim said.
The game continued with both teams giving their all. Ryan Johnson would get a through ball to set him up for a shot, but the referees called a foul on CSU Fullerton without awarding WSU advantage, bringing the ball back and removing a chance for WSU to score.
Fullerton proceeded to net the game-winner in the final minutes to end the game in devestating fashion.
“Another thing that we could have done better was to have more composure on the chances we had,” Won-Jun Kim said. “There were a few chances that could have changed the game. Lastly, our lack of focus till the end of the game got us. We shouldn’t have let that last goal in.”
Heading into the second game against UC San Diego, the Cougs needed to reset and change the game mindset.
“It was a bit demoralizing from the result of the CSU game, but we knew we still had chance depending on the UCSD game,” Kim explained. “So the team tried to forget what happened and full focus on the last one. We were mentally ready going into the last game.”
UCSD had a strong showing winning both of their previous games and presented a tough challenge for Wazzu. Regardless of the challenge, Kim was motivated to show out for his former? captain, Kento Ichimura.
“We’re playing for Kento (Ichimura), our captain that played for all four years of his undergraduate years on the tea,” Kim said. “We didn’t want to make that his last game for the club. That drove me to run the extra yard.”
While the game remained tightly contested throughout, UCSD managed to score with time running out, leading to a 1-0 win for the Tritons and ending the Cougs’ run in the tournament.
Won-Jun Kim pointed toReano as the standout player of the tournament for finding the net when the team needed and praised the team’s improvement.
“Whether the team realizes it or not, I feel like we have improved a lot as a team in the past few semesters,” Kim said. “I just feel like we need more experiences in playing teams of tiers alike to those in the regional championship tournaments. I truly believe we have all the potential to become as good or better than all the teams we have faced.”
The team hopes to retain all of its players for next year Kim said, and he is looking forward to winning the regional tournament next year and qualifying for the national tournament.
