Coach optimistic first win coming soon

Although the Virginia Peninsula Community College men's club soccer team is winless, coach Al Cousineau is confident the first win will come soon. More importantly, the players sense it, also.

"They see how close they are," Cousineau said after a narrow loss Sept. 2 to Reign Elite, a top travel team from Williamsburg.

In fact, the Gators trailed just 3-2 at halftime of that match.

"We played our best game overall as a team," said Cousineau, who is in his first season as the Gators' coach. "We made drastic improvement."

Cousineau said the Gators gave up one penalty kick and committed defensive errors that led to other goals.

"Even the goals that they scored were kind of preventable," he said. "I think the team felt like they should have won."

Considering how little time the VPCC players have worked out together, their results are more impressive. Cousineau noted the core players on the Reign team have been together six or seven years. In addition, they are nationally ranked.

His players still are getting to know one another.

"They have (little) knowledge of each other," he said, yet they created chances and produced good plays.

"I told them, 'You were able to connect passes. You can't connect passes unless you're all thinking the same," Cousineau said.

In an 8-0 loss at Wake Technical Community College (N.C.), the Gators fell behind 3-0 in the first eight minutes, then held their opponents scoreless for more than 50 minutes. And Friday, Sept. 5 at the College of Southern Maryland, VPCC trailed just 2-1 late in the first half before falling 7-1.

"A vast improvement over previous games," Cousineau said. "But we definitely still ran out of gas in the second half."

The Gators' goal against the Hawks came on a volley from Cody Cole (Bruton High School/Williamsburg) off a feed by Dieumerci Anania (Hampton).

"Goal of the year nomination," Cousineau said.

Cousineau was hired just before the season. In addition, many of his players have family and work obligations and getting everyone together for practices and games is challenging.

"There's never been the consistent starting lineup," he said. "I tell the kids, it's quality time. The quality goes up as we play longer together.' We're going to be playing our best soccer halfway through the season. We're not there yet, but we're getting better."

And it's not always about skill or physical toughness.

"You don't always have to be the most skilled, but you better be smart," he said.

The Gators have two games this week: Tuesday, Sept. 9, a rematch against Wake Tech at Kiln Creek Park in Yorktown at 6 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 14 against Central Carolina Community College (N.C.) at Wanner Stadium in Williamsburg at 2 p.m.