Bisons soccer head coach Mark Colvin said he was not surprised by his team’s results, a 1-0 win and 1-1 draw against the University of Alberta Pandas, crediting the performance to the strength and depth of his squad.
“To me, it’s not a surprise that we went in and got points in both games against Alberta, because when we’re playing at our best, and when we’re playing as a team, then I think we’ve got a really formidable squad,” said Colvin. “We had certainly good performances on the weekend, but we’ve come out of many weekends being happy with a good performance.”
Colvin reflected on the buildup to the decisive goal that secured the victory, stressing on its relevance for the team. “But if you look at that game that we won, Lulu [Ordeaux] scored […] That is a really special goal to score. That helps drive our momentum to get the victory,” he said. “Certainly, we’re very happy coming out of the weekend. It gives us lots of positive energy and confidence heading to the end of the season. But certainly, it’s not a surprise result. I’ve seen our team in training, I’ve seen us perform really well in matches, and so it’s great that we could put everything together for the three points.”
He noted the sense of confidence and excitement that swept through the players following the win. “Even if you have a poor performance […] but you win, just by getting the points on the board, you get confidence from it,” Colvin noted. “We came into training this week [and] there is certainly confidence within the team, and then also lots of energy and excitement looking forward to our next set of games. We’re in an off week this week, but training has been sharp and we have our attention already until next weekend. We’re back at home and want to build off of the results against Alberta.”
Colvin explained how the results can drive the team’s momentum in subsequent games. “Results help drive confidence, but I think the most important thing to me as a coach is that we’re having good performances, that the team effectively implements our match strategy and that we do everything together — everyone’s connected, everyone’s taking care of their role within the team. And I think for the last couple of weekends, when we played against Calgary and when we got the results against Alberta, the team’s been playing together and really executing our match strategy effectively […] Whether we win, lose or draw, if everyone’s giving 100 per cent of their energy and focus to the team, everyone’s applying our match strategy, then what more can I really ask of our group?”
He shared his thoughts on potential strategies and approaches the team can adopt in the upcoming games. “We’re hosting Lethbridge next week […] They’re a team [that is] going to come to Winnipeg with lots of confidence and highly motivated. And so certainly I think the most important thing for us is to not take the opponent lightly, [to know] that every single team in our division has the quality to get a result on the day. And so for us, it’s about first and foremost focusing on ourselves. We are not going to adapt too much to the opponents — we’re going to focus on our way of playing […] In training this week, we’ve been focusing on our passing game and our ability to progress the ball up the field,” Colvin said. “Looking ahead to the game, we want to be more dominant with possession and with our passing game.”
The Bisons soccer team will host the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Saturday, Oct. 18, 11 a.m. CT, at the East Turf Field and Sunday, Oct. 19, 12 p.m. CT, at the Princess Auto Stadium.
