As the Muskie girls’ soccer team heads into their first action of the season this weekend in Winnipeg, head coach Struchan Gilson will use the exhibition games to gauge how good they are.
“We will get a really good look and find out what we got,” Gilson said yesterday morning. “Probably by the first game, I’ll have a pretty fair idea.”
The Muskies open play Friday at 5:30 p.m. when they face host St. John’s Ravenscourt.
Then they play the Kelvin Clippers at Kelvin High School on Saturday at 10 a.m. before wrapping up the three-game tourney with a 2 p.m. tilt versus the Oak Park Raiders back at Ravenscourt field.
While the Muskies have the usual questionable marks at the start of the season, with new players taking over from veterans who have since graduated, Gilson is confident they’ll do the job asked of them.
In fact, he feels this team may be just as good–if not better–than last year’s NorWOSSA champions.
“We might be more balanced depth-wise,” he noted. “We very well could be stronger.”
Whether or not they are likely will hinge on their ability to adapt to the new defensive system–geared specifically for the Muskies to compete against the top teams of the province when they host OFSAA in June.
“Now we’ll have to find out if it works,” Gilson noted.
But while Gilson has liked what he has seen so far in practice, now it’s showtime in a game situation.
“I’m hoping we’ll be strong in the middle and be able to push teams to the outside because you can’t score from the outside,” he remarked.
Second-year player Amy Shute will get the nod as the starting keeper, and Gilson is confident they’ll have strong goaltending this season.
They’ll have to be solid between the pipes if they wish to reach their goal of winning both NorWOSSA and NWOSSAA to earn a legitimate berth to the all-Ontarios.
“I’ve never won an NWOSSAA [title] without good goaltending so hopefully we have it,” said Gilson.
What the Muskies definitely will have is potent offensive weapons in Laureen Cousineau and Christine Thomson. In fact, Gilson said he doesn’t feel the team’s reliance on a more defensive system will hamper their scoring chances up front.
Still, he has to wonder if they get the ball in good scoring situations. And with the new system, they’ll have to work harder than in past seasons to create those chances.
But Gilson, who once again will use his full complement of players this weekend, said they have a lineup that’s capable of going full steam right to the final whistle.
“The one thing that I am dam sure of is that we’re in shape,” said Gilson. “I am going to use all 22 of my players–my 11 starters and my [bench players].”
The Muskies also head into this weekend relatively healthy. Sarah Vanderplaats is questionable, with only a few other players nursing minor injuries.
Obviously, the Muskies want to come away from this weekend’s tournament without being bitten by the injury bug.
“You are always just a couple of minutes away from losing key players,” reasoned Gilson. “Right now, Sarah is questionable, and to lose her would be a big loss.”