Preseason Soccer is Underway

After a historic 2018 season, the Soccer team kicks off their 2019 season with their highest preseason ranking at #17 and two preseason games.

The Commodores won their first game at home against cross town opponent, Belmont University, 3-0 (that’s nil for all you uncultured fools out there).

Blue Ellis scored the first goal of the season at the 28’ mark. Haley Hopkins, the best player on this year’s team, scored the second goal for the Dores at the 57’ minute, and Raegan Kelley scored the final goal of the game in the waning minutes.

Preseason games allow for the team to mesh during competition and to get younger players onto the field pitch. However, some of the team’s better underclassmen, like Maya Antoine, will not participate in both of the preseason matches. Antoine was called up to the Canadian National U-20 Team for a six day camp.

It’s not abnormal for soccer clubs to lone out players to national teams for brief stints. Haley Hopkins went to work with the USWNT U-23 Team in the Spring. The more players that are called to teams, the more likely that your roster is full of elite footballers.

The next preseason tilt will be at Memphis on Saturday, August 17. The Tigers are preseason #20 and are coming off a NCAAT birth last year. It should be a good challenge for the ‘Dore with the added bonus that it doesn’t affect your regular season resume.

Memphis returns their two top scorers from a year ago. Samantha Murphy is a 5’5” JR who scored 11 goals and contributed two assists, while Clarissa Larisey, a 5’4” JR scored 12 goals and contributed four assists. They also return their goalkeeper who had a .750 save percentage and pitched 13 shut outs (can you say “pitched” in this context? Oh well, you can now!).

What’s fascinating about Memphis is 12 of their 25 roster spots are from Canadian born players. Gonna be honest, the summer heat in Memphis might be more than the Canadians bargained for. Also, what’s going on in Memphis that all these Canadians are moving down there? Is the secret to great Memphis style BBQ maple syrup? Is this a front for a Canadian take over of Memphis? Are the Canadians planning a long held revenge plot based on some latent British anger from the War of 1812?

Maybe the Memphis Maple Leafs will have many of their best players called up to the National Team? I have no idea how good they will actually be. I mean, Canadians are known for syrup, ham, and snow... and being America’s hat. If they were actually worth anything, we would’ve annexed the whole country when we picked up Alaska. You know whose flag is not on the moon? Canada’s.

Let’s put it this way. I once ran into a Canadian at the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom and she apologized to me.

So in conclusion. Vandy Soccer is good. Memphis soccer is a Canadian covert operation.