Thunderbirds aiming to turn back time
It has been a long, long time. It was so long ago, the Harlem Shake was still popular.
The year was 2013, and it was the last time the UBC men’s soccer team won the national title. While five years doesn’t seem like much to most, when your program has claimed 13 Canadian university banners — eight more than the next closest program — half a decade might as well be half a century.
“You know, I guess it is, but it doesn’t feel like a long time,” mused Thunderbirds head coach Mike Mosher. “2013 doesn’t seem that long time ago. We’ve had a few close runs since then … but hopefully we’ll get ‘er done this season.”
The Thunderbirds are hosting this year’s national championship, which starts today on the Point Grey campus, along with seven other programs, including the Trinity Western Spartans.
Also in action are the defending champion Cape Breton Capers, the No. 1-ranked York Lions, Montreal Carabins, UNB Reds, Carleton Ravens and UQAM Citadins.
UBC’s first game is tonight against Carleton at 6:30 p.m. at Thunderbird Stadium.
The T-Birds went 13-1-2 this season, having a 15-game unbeaten streak snapped in the final regular-season date in a game where they sat most of their starters. But they didn’t miss a beat in the Canada West playoffs, outscoring their opponents 12-0 while going 3-0 to lift their 19th conference title.
“Knowing that you’re hosting, sometimes it’s not an easy thing, because players can become complacent and take their feet of the pedal. In 2007, I think that was a little bit of the case,” said Mosher, who has a 23-7 record at the nationals, including banners in 2005, 2007, 2012 and 2013.
“So right from the beginning (this season) I challenged these guys. ‘Go and be dominant. Go and try to be the best team in the country.’
“I knew we had a pretty strong group this year, so Day 1, that was the challenge to them. To prove and be a top team. To go the whole season undefeated. That was the goal from the beginning, to have that kind of momentum and belief going into the playoffs, and thankfully the loss came in game No. 16 … we put that behind us and got on with it.”
The Birds led Canada West in goal differential, scoring 43 goals while conceding just 10 — only Alberta had given up fewer.
Midfielder Thomas Gardner was named a Canada West first-team all-star and was named rookie and player of the year — the first time in conference history a player has won both — while team captain Connor Guilherme was also a first-team all-star.
Forwards Caleb Clarke, Kristian Yli-Hietanen and Sean Einarsson made the second-team all-star squad, along with third-year defender Riley Pang and goalkeeper Jason Roberts.
Roberts, the fourth-year goalkeeper, was 12-0-2, his 12 wins setting a school record, while tying for the second-most shutouts in league history. But Mosher wasn’t about to let his team rest on his laurels.
“What’s done in the league, now it’s in the past. What are we going to do this week?” he said. “We’ve got a tough draw. Carleton has a good team. We saw them last year, and I thought they were very good. I was impressed with what I saw, and then they went on and had another good season this year. So the soccer gods weren’t exactly kind to us in terms of who we got in game No. 1, but that’s who we got, and we get on with it.”