Boston College Athletics
BC Weekly Diary With Adam Pfeifer
October 16, 2001 | Men's Soccer
October 9, 2001
This past week was hard, personally and for the team as a whole. We had a week and a day between games and staying focused was very difficult. Normally we have games every three or four days but we had a break in our schedule. The practices during the week were ok, but as the week went on practices got more and more chippy, and there were a few confrontations.
While these confrontations are a good sign that people are competing in practice, some of them were in bad nature and it created some tension. But, this kind of thing happens when you have no one to take you're frustrations out on.
Personally this past week was difficult for me because I haven't been playing well, and I haven't been playing as much as I'm used to in the games. I have been a starter my entire life and the last four games I've started out on the bench. It is testing me mentally and physically in two ways. First off, physically not starting is hard because when I warm up before a game, I warm up to be playing right away. When you sit on the bench for an hour before going in you're muscles obviously tighten up, so I have to stay moving almost all game even when I'm not on the field. The second physical problem that I am encountering is I am beginning to fall out of shape, I am used to playing 70 to 90 minutes in a game and now that I am only playing 20 to45 minutes in a game, I am not getting as much activity as I would like since playing in a soccer game is a great way to get in and stay in shape.
Mentally not playing as much is one of the most difficult challenges as a soccer player I have ever encountered. My confidence has suffered greatly, even though I know it should not. I have also begun to second guess a lot of the decisions that I make on the field, which is resulting in bad decisions. Soccer is my life, I have to have it, and when I'm not doing as well as I'm capable of, I'm unhappy. I can't help it. When I am not playing well it affects every facet of my life. I hold myself differently and my self-image changes with how I am playing. There is nothing in this world that I love more than contributing to a team effort. I love walking off the field and looking at my teammates and being able to say to myself that I did justice to every one of them on the field that day, it a beautiful thing. When that is not happening I miss it. It's like any addiction, I have to have it, and its not one that I would ever want to rid my self of, or forget what it feels like. This is what made this week of no games so difficult. I had to get that feeling back, and I was so anxious to get back on the field and earn my teammates' respect.
There are so many other feelings and emotions that are running through my head in this time, too many to list on paper. The one thing that I know has to happen though, is that I have to be a man, and come out of the experience stronger.
We played Villanova on Sunday, and came out on top 2-0. It was a tough game to focus on, because of the week off and also because of the opponent that we had waiting for us next: defending national champions Connecticut. We came out pretty flat and we didn't play particularly well, but we did play good team defense. With about three minutes left in the first half Kirt Dorsett played a ball down the line to big Neil Krause who played a ball into the box low and hard. Chris Cleary put an unbelievable diving header into the side net to put us up 1-0. Our second goal was a good team play that put us up 2-0 with about five minutes to play and sealed the victory. Even though the win wasn't pretty, it was a win and we improved to 6-2-0. The win propelled us to a 21st place ranking in the country.
Casey had his surgery this Friday, and we're all happy to say that it went very well. I was very nervous because Casey seemed to be nervous, and it was a huge relief to hear that all went well. Casey called me Friday night to tell me that the surgery went fine, it was so great to hear the happiness in his voice back again. He may, however, have to get a second surgery. After describing what might need to be done, he said that it was a very "gnarly" thing and his sense of humor, while odd and twisted, was quite funny. He seems to be on his way to a full recovery and we hope to have him back soon, even if that doesn't involve playing. His presence is something that our team misses right now, and we are all looking forward to just having him around again.
Many players on our team have stepped up their play in the past two weeks, namely Danny Caruso, Bill Arnault, Chris and Neil. Players need to step up when you lose a star and that's happening right now. We are in the midst of a four-game winning streak that we're looking to extend Wednesday night at UConn.
The women's team is also on a three-game winning streak of their own, with its last two wins coming against nationally-ranked opponents. The women's team works as hard as any team in the school and they more than deserve three wins. The soccer programs at BC are headed in the right direction!
