VANCOUVER – Fresh off a fifth consecutive Canada West championship victory, the UBC Thunderbirds have now made the trek North the Tournament City of Kamloops for the 2022 U SPORTS Men's Soccer National Championship tournament which begins tomorrow. Up first for
Mike Mosher's crew – The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold a 1:30 pm PT.
The 'Birds enter the tournament ranked #3, and are looking to capture their first U SPORTS national championship since 2013. The caliber of competition coupled with the challenging weather conditions will pose a challenge to all teams.
"It's been a whirlwind couple of days since Sunday and punching our ticket here," claimed head coach
Mike Mosher. "But over the years our group has seen a lot and I'm hoping that nothing is going to phase us. The weather is the same for both teams. It makes it challenging but the field is in good shape, the hosts have done well to get things ready, so there are no excuses. We'll be ready for tomorrow."
The Thunderbirds arrived at Nationals 'the hard way.' With Thompson Rivers University hosting the National event, only one additional team from Canada West was able to advance. Last weekend on Sunday afternoon, the blue and gold cemented their berth at Nationals thanks to some gutsy penalty kick heroics from goaltender Peter Whyte and a timely goal in Round 7 from Markus Kaiser.
"A situation like Sunday is where experience and intelligence plays in," added
Mike Mosher. "We've talked many times about dealing with adversity and not letting things phase us: Not getting too high or too low, and keeping the task at hand at the forefront. We enjoyed the moment on Sunday and it was dramatic and nerve-wracking for everybody, but we were back at it on Monday making preparations for the next phase and the next steps.
The recipe for success does not change for the UBC Thunderbirds. Regardless of the opponent, the primary focus will be on controlling their own efforts and game plan. TMU finished their regular season with a 9-3-0 mark, and fell just short in the OUA final against #4 ranked McMaster.
"TMU is new to this stage, but everybody has earned their chance to be here. They have been knocking on the door to be here for awhile now, and have dealt with some disappointments along the way," finished Mosher. "We're expecting a competitive game and a solid effort from them. But on our end we're confident, we like what we've got, and we really do just want to focus on our own execution as much as we can."
Tickets for the event are on sale at
gowolfpack.ca/usportsmsoc.
All 11 games of the championship will be streamed on CBC Gem (English) and USPORTS.ca (French).
