The Pasadena City College Lancers beat out the Pierce College Brahmas 3-0 in their Sept. 17 game, scoring twice in the first half and once in the second.
Pierce Head Coach Julio Castillo said the men’s soccer team is dealing with a situation that arose recently, but they are working to mentally prepare themselves in a stronger way.
“How to get the best out of them, how to get them to believe in each other,” he said. “Things are going to happen, some positives, some negatives. We have to learn how to compete through adversity. That’s the biggest challenge for us. Soccer-wise, we can compete, win games and then one mental mistake and all of a sudden we go down.”
One path to improvement involves getting the members of the team together, explained Castillo.
“Last Friday, they got together, the whole team went to one of the player’s houses and they hung out, they had a great time,” he said. “More things like that that can bring the team together is probably what we need the most.”
Assistant Coach Julian Lopez said the coaches have work to do as well, and they will go back to the drawing board.
“It started well, and after those first two goals on them, mistakes on our part, not going up for a ball, that’s where it all turned around,” Lopez said. “It’s hard to play from that, it’s hard to keep your momentum up when you have those types of goals.”
Brahma Carlos Ruano (#10) joined the team this year as a forward, and said the team did well in the beginning before mistakes cost them.
“I feel like we all need to get together, focus,” Ruano said. “We all got to start coming to training.”
Continuing into the season, one challenge for the team is to not dwell on a mistake, but to move on from it, explained Castillo.
“The biggest thing for us is to start believing in ourselves,” Castillo said.
