by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
After an exhibition win against the seventh-ranked team in the country, the UNM men's soccer team is ready for the upcoming season.
The Lobos beat the Southern Methodist Mustangs 4-3 Saturday in Houston.
Ranked 28th nationally by CollegeSoccerNews.com, the Lobos are looking to improve on a 2003 season in which they went 8-9-3.
Head coach Jeremy Fishbein knows his Lobos have something to prove after last season's campaign, even though it was the toughest schedule UNM men's soccer has ever played.
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"We have some guys on the team that have played in some big games," Fishbein said. "We have guys that have something to prove, and we have worked really hard in the off season. We expect good results this year."
The Lobos return nine starters this year and boast the 15th-best recruiting class in the nation. This season's recruiting class contains names from not only all over the country, but all over the world as well. Two of these top newcomers are Hans Bevers from Belgium and Andrew Boyens from New Zealand.
Boyens, the 2003 New Zealand Player of the Year, was called up to New Zealand's national team. He was also a member of the U-23 New Zealand team that barely missed out on qualifying for the 2004 Olympics after losing to Australia.
Bevers has extensive club experience playing for teams in both the Belgium and the Netherlands First Divisions.
"(Bevers and Boyens) are going to have an immediate impact," Fishbein said. "They are both a little older and have a little more experience."
Incoming freshmen David Gualdarama from Hawaii and Blake Danaher from Texas will also play integral roles in the 2004 season. Gualdarama led his club team, the Honolulu Bulls, to a U-19 U.S. Youth Soccer Association national championship. Danaher was the Texas Gatorade Player of the Year.
"Gualdarama is going to help us out in the midfield and Blake Danaher, if he's healthy, is going to help us out up top," Fishbein said. "But it's our returning players' positions to lose."
With a schedule that includes a home game against the defending national champion Indiana University, the Lobos won't go into this season overconfident. Junior Jeff Rowland is quick to point out the Lobos are going into this season with more caution than last year. Rowland led the team in scoring last year with seven goals and three assists and was an All-Central Conference team member for the Indiana Invaders of the Professional Development League this summer.
"After last season, we are going into this one a bit more cautious," Rowland said. "Last year was a nightmare because we came in too confident. But we have been working our butts off to make sure that doesn't happen again."
The Lobos are the preseason pick to win the conference for the second consecutive year. Rowland said his team is capable of achieving this goal if they put in the effort.
"I think we can win the conference," he said. "It all depends on how hard we work, because we have a team that is good enough to play with anybody."
The Lobos definitely have the talent and personnel this season to go further than any UNM men's soccer team ever has.
"We have extremely good players," Fishbein said. "On any given day, we can beat any team in the country."
