Youth Movement Ready to Spark BC Soccer Drive

Thursday, August 29

Newton, Mass.

2:30 P.M.

Boston College

Quinnipiac University

Photo by: John Quackenbos

Youth Movement Ready to Spark BC Soccer Drive

August 27, 2019 | Men's Soccer, #ForBoston Files

LIVE STREAM LIVE STATS

There's already good chemistry among a group of ultra-talented youngsters.

By: Dan Rubin, BCEagles.com contributor

The 2019 preseason provided a quick lesson for Boston College men's soccer coach Ed Kelly. He had a roster in transition but was excited to see some of his younger players in their first collegiate competition. He felt there was a good chemistry, but he needed to see it in action against a quality opponent. Providence College won 10 games and advanced to the Big East semifinals last season, so it was a good exhibition litmus test for different combinations of players.

But even Kelly found himself pleasantly surprised. The players gelled almost immediately and displayed a workmanlike demeanor in a 3-1 victory. The attack scored twice in the second half, and the Friars' only goal came as the result of a penalty kick. Four days later, a similar story unfolded against New Hampshire, with a goal conceded only through a penalty.

So as the regular season drew nearer to its August 29 start date, Kelly let himself exude optimism about a roster ready to begin steering BC back towards its ultimate goal.

"We have a great group," he said. "We could play five freshmen. We may not start all five, but we have good depth when you think about the returning guys who are sophomores. It's a young (team), but it has good chemistry. It's a good group and very interesting."

The team will blend a group of ultra-talented freshmen and sophomores with older returnees who were in uniform when BC last appeared on the national stage. Senior captain Heidar Aegisson is back at full strength after missing time last year, one of three Icelandic players who have experience at the national team level. He will combine with midfielders Callum Johnson and Lasse Lehmann and forward Adam French to form part of a foundational core for the team's culture.

That culture is already adapting a younger group to the rigors of college soccer. The bright freshman class is headlined by midfielder Amos Shapiro-Thompson, a Massachusetts native who moved to Croatia and Poland to train for Dinamo Zagreb and Legia Warsaw after training within the New England Revolution academy within Major League Soccer. He already played for the United States national team at the U-14 and U-15 levels and will likely make an immediate impact on BC's all-around game.

"Amos has club experience after training with professionals," Kelly said. "He's very professional in how he carries himself. Steffan (Sigurdarson) was the same thing (in Iceland). They all grew up around professional soccer, and they come from an environment where they have good character and good energy.

Sigurdarson will provide a unique force on the attack, where his tall, firm build will anchor BC's ability to get to an opponent's net. It's a system in which he will join with players like Kristofer Konradsson, an attacking style midfielder who led the team in assists last season.

"Mike Suski is an All-American who scored 44 goals in his junior season in (high school)," Kelly said. "And Steffan is a very good center forward. He's very tall and very tough, and he's good with his feet."

It's a system that already drew a showcase in the first two exhibitions. The Eagles discovered depth at every position against both the Friars and Wildcats, and it sets the table for the prospect that players will continue to improve by simply pushing each other.

"If you look overall, we've (been very good)," Kelly said. "Our goalkeeping is playing very well. We have four goalkeepers, and there's good competition in there. We're very hard working, and we have the quality with our players. We're deep at just about every position.

"There are staples that we always focus on," he continued. "We look at our shape and how to outwork an opponent. The shape of the team is very good. We play a 4-4-2, and we play a compact (formation). People are buying in. That's going to make us very tough to play against. In the first two exhibitions, both (goals allowed) were on penalty kicks. Not that it matters but neither foul (resulting in penalty kicks) felt like something that required more discipline. They were just two unfortunate plays."

That's a cause for optimism in a wide-open ACC schedule. Nine of the conference's 12 teams went to the national tournament, including Syracuse, a team that finished with a 1-4-3 record in league play. Wake Forest remained a top-ranked team throughout the season but lost in the conference semifinals to Louisville, the No. 4 seed.

BC finished the season as the No. 9 overall seed in the conference tournament after going 2-5-1, but the record was snakebitten by a number of one-goal losses. A four-game span resulted entirely in one-goal games, including three straight losses to nationally-ranked teams. After dropping a 1-0 loss to No. 7 Louisville, the Eagles scored two goals at No. 9 Duke, only to lose, 3-2. A 1-0 loss to No. 20 Notre Dame then preceded a 1-0 win over No. 17 NC State.

The story played itself out in three other road games, all resulting in losses to No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 20 UConn and a Rhode Island team that received votes. That URI team later took UConn to the limit in the national tournament, an indication that the Eagles can compete and produce better results, which in turn would yield a national tournament appearance for the first time since 2016.

"We expect to do something pretty good," Kelly said. "(Soccer) is not like other sports where there's a massive difference (between teams). Our local teams are competitive. URI won 15 games last year. They beat us during a game where weather was suspended. So we know they're going to be hard. The same goes for Quinnipiac.

"Those non-conference games are tough," he explained. "You can't take your eye off the prize by looking to ACC games. You have to know the math that you have to do in order to (become a tournament team). If you win five games or go 6-2 (in non-league games), you're very good."

That creates a scenario where a series of one-goal exchanges could rocket the Eagles right back into the bracket picture. Less than one game separated third place from fifth in the Atlantic Division, and seven points separated BC from a First Round bye in the ACC Tournament. That's the difference in two or three better results on the Eagle side as much as it is a change in how teams finish, even in the crossover to the Coastal Division where two wins separated second place Duke from fifth place Virginia Tech.

"We only play eight games in the ACC," Kelly said. "So every loss can become a bad loss (internally). But it's so competitive. Wake Forest was a (top-ranked) team in the country, and we had them last season. We were on top of that game, but then one ball comes off the line. Every game is like that. The crossover teams are against teams like North Carolina, Duke and Notre Dame, and two of them might be away. That's what you want. It's tough. It's good. It's fun."

BC opens the 2019 regular season against Quinnipiac on Thursday, August 29 at 2:30 p.m. The game can be seen online via the ACC Network Extra, which is available through ESPN online and mobile apps. After a game against Boston University on Sunday, the Eagles return home on September 6 to play Rhode Island at 7 p.m. - also on ACC Network Extra.

To learn more about the ACC Network and its availability, visit www.getaccn.com to learn more or contact your cable provider.