Nov. 15, 2005
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Men's Soccer
Pre-NCAA Tournament Press Conference Quotes
Nov. 15, 2005
Head Coach Lev Kirshner
On being selected to the NCAA tournament:
"It feels absolutely fantastic. It's taken 16 years to get this program back into the NCAA tournament and it's a great honor. It's something that our players really deserved. There were a couple of other teams here in the West that deserved to get in the tournament as well, but for us to get a bid is just a great honor. We're so excited."
On facing UC Santa Barbara in the opening round:
"We played (UC) Santa Barbara in the opening contest last year and actually outshot them here at home and lost on an own-goal. Hopefully that experience will bode well for us this year. They've been a very similar team over the last two or three seasons. We're actually pretty close to a spitting image of their program, but obviously they have a bit more experience having played in the national championship final last year. I think similar systems are going to be played and I think the athleticism and the talent on the field is going to be very similar. There's no doubt that it's going to be a battle out there."
On the keys to the team's success this season:
"The character of this squad can't be surpassed. They came back after last season, which was decimated by injuries, very focused. They came into camp fit and ready to go. The leadership of Matt Couch, Heath Creager and Raul Bautista--our three captains--has just been remarkable and that's really carried us through. We just seem to have been possessed by keeping the ball out of the back of the net and at the end of the season, we've also had some good fortune. There were some shots for the other team that would hit the post and go out."
On the team's emotional state heading into the tournament:
"Last Sunday against UCLA, we came out very emotional and very reckless on some tackles and things like that, but that's by no means the style of play that we impress upon our team. With this being the first (tournament) experience for just about everyone on the team, there are some concerns for that. But once the game settles down, and with the experience that we had on Sunday, because we talked about it at halftime, I think we'll be just fine."