By Oscar Benitez (@OscarB006) – Spear Reporter l Midfielder Cameron Cook got booked after an altercation with USF’s player on Thursday, September 4. (Photo by Max Garcia – The Spear)
San Jose State (3-1-0) men’s soccer team endured a bruising night at home in a 3-0 loss to the University of San Francisco (4-1-0).
From the opening whistle, both sides set the tone with aggressive challenges and a lot of contact.
The Spartans struggled to establish rhythm, the Dons press forced quick turnovers which led to lots of contact in the middle of the field.
“It’s a local rival and we struggle against them, so there’s always a personal thing when we come to this match,” Senior defender Niklas Dossmann said, “Nothing different but a lot of guys take it personally and like to get physical in the game.”
The match contained a total of 21 fouls and got more intense as the game developed. Players were going down left and right with strong challenges. Despite trailing for most of the game, the Spartans battled until the final whistle.
When goalkeeper and redshirt senior Edgar Guerra was asked about the physicality of the match he answered “Both of us wanted to win, as the game went on the game got very physical, it’s good for us good for them because no game is going to be easy, might as well get tested now.”
When head coach Simon Tobin was asked he said “Both teams respect each other, they go into it, you saw it at the end, a lot of these kids have played with each other for a long time and it has become a little bit of a rivalry.”
Coach Simon Tobin later also added “You probably don’t want to say this, but a loss is hopefully a good thing, cause now they know that they need to come out with just a bit more intensity,”
The Spartans look to bring this intensity into their next match against Sacramento State, 3 p.m. Sunday at Sacramento, Cali.
