Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The possession is there. The shot attempts are there.
Now it's just about fine-tuning the calibration for the MacEwan Griffins women's soccer team.
While dominant on their opening weekend of the Canada West season, the Griffins left two points on the table during a scoreless draw against Lethbridge last Sunday.
Although they outshot the Pronghorns 25-5 and 9-0 in shots on goal, nothing found the net.
Head coach Dean Cordeiro expects them to solve the issue this weekend as the Griffins (1-0-1) head out on their first road trip of the regular season, visiting Thompson Rivers University (0-1-1) in Kamloops, B.C. on Friday (6:30 p.m. MT) and UBC-Okanagan (0-2-0) in Kelowna, B.C. on Saturday (6:30 p.m., both games Canada West TV presented by Co-op).
"We have too much quality for it not to (get fixed)," he said. "It was just one of those games. That's why we love football and that's what makes us want more. I thought we did a tremendous job. It was one of our most dominant performances since I've been a part of this program, just how much of the game was in the opponent's half. We just couldn't find that goal that we wanted. That's part of sports sometimes.
"We've gone back to the drawing board this week and everything we've done is about putting the ball in the back of the net, more combination play in our attacking third entries and just making sure our attention to detail is on point a bit more. I think you'll see this weekend, when those opportunities present themselves, we'll look to execute a bit more."
TRU is heading into its home opener, so Cordeiro expects to encounter a team eager to impress their home fans. The WolfPack are coming off a 1-1 draw at Calgary last Saturday. Adding to the drama is the fact MacEwan eliminated TRU from the playoffs last season when they held the hungry WolfPack to a tie in the final game of the 2018 regular season.
"We're excited," said Cordeiro. "We took away the positives (from opening weekend), reviewed the film and really like the style that we're playing. That's going to bode well for us long term.
"Now, we're just prepping for two very good sides in Thompson Rivers and UBCO," he added. "TRU is coming off a very big result versus Calgary and this is their home opener. We always know that teams for their opening game of the season are really ramped up to show well in front of their home crowd. We're going to take it like any other game and just make sure we're looking to execute a little bit more from our Sunday performance."
UBCO lost 5-0 to Calgary and 3-0 at UNBC in their opening two games, but MacEwan only needs to look to last season for a lesson in how the Heat can play on their own field. One of the Griffins' three losses in 2018 came in Kelowna to UBCO.
MacEwan played six of eight preseason games on the road, though – including a three-game U.S. swing through Washington and Montana – in an effort to get ready for the challenges presented playing away from Edmonton.
"I think it gets them a little bit familiar with what the tendencies are when travelling, especially for first-year players," said Cordeiro. "We have some first-year players who've been very impactful for us. I think it's nice to get it done in preseason, so there's no surprises.
"Now it's balancing things with school starting last week. Their time management needs to be on point. We're looking forward to going into some nice weather and playing our game for 90 minutes. If we do that, we're going to like our chances."
