The Delta Men’s soccer team kicked off its season last month with a 3-2 away win at Merritt College, followed by a 2-0 loss to Cañada College and 3-2 loss to Ohlone college.
The team is 1-2 in the season as of Sept. 12.
The team has been working on various drills and tactics to improve its game. Mustangs center-back Anthony Tounou said the team has been working on defensive drills lately.
“We’ve been working on positioning and how to react defensively to what we see. How to pressure the ball and create space has been emphasized,” said Tounou.
Tounou said it’s a matter of time before results start showing.
“Unfortunately we haven’t applied it the best we can but as long as we stick to what our coach has been showing us, results will come,” he said.
A big change this year for fans is that Delta is offering free admission to games, which is receiving a positive response. Mustangs full-back Isaac Loza said he feels more motivated that people he knows, including his family, have more access to the home games now.
“But we are learning a lot of in every game together as a team so being able to see a lot of family and friends can come out and support us at home for free is a big advantage for us as a team because it means more support and it motivates us individually and together to perform for our supports who make time in their day to come watch us play,” said Loza.
The recent heat wave is also impacting the team, particularly as temperatures reached 115 during the second week of September.
The whole team took measures to make sure everyone was safe.
Mustangs Assistant Head Coach, Brandon Masai said the team switched up a lot of things to make sure everyone was safe.
“We’ve had to cancel some training sessions but we’ve also had to shorten training sessions and increase hydration breaks, including adding water breaks during the games. We had to change our Tuesday [Sept. 6] home game this week to an away game at Ohlone College…,” he said.
Tounou also talked about the changes they’ve made to endure the heat wave. “Well the last few games have had breaks in place for us to catch our wind and hydrate which has been very nice. During training we’ll travel with our waters and just kind of stop whenever needed and jog over to grab a drink,” he said.
The whole team has goals to achieve this season. Isaac Lazo has set goals for himself and for the team.
“Personal goals are to move on and play at a University at the end of the season, Team goals are to win everything with my team and have an amazing season together” said Lazo.
Brandon Masai also has goals for the team this season.
“We would like to win league as we are in a very competitive conference, however making it to the final 4 of the state and state championship is always the goal,” Masai said “The year before Covid we finished in the top 8 and hope to be there or higher this year.”
The team played against Napa Valley College on Sept. 13th at Napa. The game ended in a tie with a score of 1-1. The Mustangs will play again at home on Sept. 20 against Evergreen Valley College.
