Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Season Begins

Aaron Gibbons, a senior on the 2011 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his second entry of the year.

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The mood throughout the locker room was quiet and full of disappointment Friday night after our season-opening loss. Shock and confusion would pretty much sum up my feelings post game Friday.

Anyone who would have seen the first half and even 25-30 minutes of the second half, despite the goals, would have put their money on the Panthers coming away from the game with a comfortable victory.

We owned possession throughout the whole game, so despite only scoring one goal throughout our numerous chances, this was one positive that came from the match.

Another pleasing aspect that came from Friday's game were the fans, despite the 4:30 start, and not having many students on campus yet, the crowd definitely showed up for the Panthers.

A much welcome army of former UWM players and students did an excellent job of agitating the IPFW keeper from the bleachers behind the goal net, hopefully this group will prove to be regulars this season in accommodating our team throughout the 2011 season.

Though the first match of the season wasn’t the ideal, the season is long, with many games to come. Our next match lands on Friday, September 2nd, facing Western Michigan.

This week’s practice will surely stress the aspects of the game that were absent from our previous match such as finishing our chances, and eliminating silly defensive mistakes. This will surely prepare us for the upcoming game.

Hope to see you all there as we look to take our first victory on Engelmann Field this season!

-Aaron