UConn men’s soccer has gotten off to a rough start to the season sitting at just 3-5 halfway through the season. Their next matchup is set for Tuesday against Dartmouth. Photo by Kevin Lindstorm / The Daily Campus.
The UConn men’s soccer team is headed to Hanover, New Hampshire to take on the Big Green Tuesday. Both teams are hungry for a win in hopes of keeping their respective seasons afloat as the second half of the season approaches.
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“They’ve been very resilient. We’ve been going through some tough times with injuries and some results not going our way that maybe should’ve, so I’m very proud of these guys. They’re working hard and they’re staying focused.”
For the Huskies (3-5-0, 0-1-0 The American), it has been a rough first half of the year. After starting 3-0, UConn has dropped five of their last six games and sit in sixth in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) after their most recent loss against rival USF. Despite this rocky start, head coach Ray Reid is still proud of how hard his team has fought and expects them to turn it around sooner rather than later.
“They’ve been very resilient,” Reid said. “We’ve been going through some tough times with injuries and some results not going our way that maybe should’ve, so I’m very proud of these guys. They’re working hard and they’re staying focused.”
The Huskies have lost their last two games in heartbreaking fashion. The team worked incredibly hard to find the equalizer, only to give up goals within the final 10 minutes in both. Regardless of the results, Reid said he was happy with how the team has been performing but acknowledged that they need to start competing for the full 90 minutes if they want to start seeing better results.
Dartmouth (3-3-0) hasn’t gotten off to a much better start and are coming into this game fresh off a 4-2 loss against Albany. While both teams have struggled, the main difference between Dartmouth and UConn has come from their goal scorers.
Gianluca Catalano and the rest of the Huskies’ defensive line will need to be on their game against the Big Green and their well-rounded attack. Photo by Kevin Lindstorm / The Daily Campus.
Eleven different people have scored for the Big Green this season, many coming during their 7-1 route against Niagara. They are led by junior Dawson McCartney, who leads the team in both goals (3) and assists (3) so far. Compare this to the Huskies’ offense, which runs mainly through senior phenom Jordan Hall, who has racked up eight of UConn’s 11 goals on the season, and you can see the different styles of play. Reid didn’t seem phased by the overall offensive attack Dartmouth has and would rather focus on his own team to get back in the win column.
“We just wanna worry about ourselves,” Reid said. “We’ve gotta do what we do right and concentrate on what we’re doing.”
With the team’s recent struggles, they appear to be under some pressure to start getting results, but Reid remains unaffected and holds true to the mindset of taking it one game at a time.
“Obviously we wanna get back on track,” Reid said. “But the first match and the only match that matters right now is Dartmouth.”
The matchup between the Huskies and Big Green will kick off from Dartmouth’s Burnham Field at 7 p.m. and can be streamed with ESPN+.
Conner Gilson is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at conner.gilson@uconn.edu. He tweets @connergilson03.
