A 2021 season full of growth and learning allowed the Linfield men's soccer team to develop some much-needed chemistry. With third-year head coach Andrew Duvall gearing up for his second full season at the helm, the Wildcats believe they have the tools to go head-to-head with any opponent that stands in front of them.
 
The first match of the season is just days away and the players have had less than two weeks of preseason camp to get on the same page and put together a competitor in Duvall's system. What may seem like a quick turnaround has actually given the team an opportunity to work even harder.
 
"There's a lot you can do in the 10 to 12 days that we've had," Duvall said. "We've had really packed days from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m."
 
The team has dedicated a lot of time and effort in video analysis, team meetings and training sessions. Hitting the weight room consistently has also opened doors for improvement as the season approaches.
 
"It's helped us in our preparation for our upcoming early matches," Duvall said. "We have 17 new players, so it's given those guys a taste of what college athletics is like compared to what they're used to in the youth and high school game. The guys are excited about what we've accomplished so far."
 
REMEMBERING THE PROCESS
The growth continues in 2022 for the Wildcats, who went 1-15-2 (0-12-2 NWC) a season ago. Since the beginning of that 2021 season, Duvall and his staff have preached the importance of staying patient and results will come.
 
"It's a long process to turn yourself from a program that wasn't as competitive as you wanted it to be into a program that's competitive with everyone on our schedule," Duvall said.
 
Win or lose, the goal heading into the 2022 slate is to come together as a group and stay within striking distance of a victory in every match. The 'Cats are now a year closer to accomplishing those goals. They continue to prepare during camp. Now, the final piece is to run onto the field with a uniform and go to battle against another team the way they know they're capable of.
 
"That's the goal this year, to have every match go down to the wire and be as close as it can possibly be. We have the athletes to do it," Duvall said. "We're making sure we're competing in every match, keeping it close and winning the ones we know we're capable of winning."
 
ON THE ATTACK
Most of the attacking players on the team in 2021 were seniors. Duvall said the attacking phase will include multiple new pieces as returners and newcomers will all have a fair shot at debuting their skills on the opposing team's side of the pitch.
 
The team does, however, return its leading scorer in junior Seamus Miller, an Honorable Mention All-Northwest Conference selection last season.
 
Despite appearing in 11 of Linfield's 18 matches as a sophomore, Miller led the team with five goals on 37 shots, 16 on goal. Fellow juniors Sid Kosaris and Max Testa are the other returning goal scorers for the 'Cats while sophomore Cameron Gaines finished tied for third on the team with five shots on goal.
 
"That's a pretty good turnaround for a kid that was playing in his first competitive college season because his first year was the COVID year," Duvall said about Miller. "Seamus, we expect a lot of good things from, but we expect a lot of good things from a lot of our guys because the bar is being raised."
 
THE THREE PHASES OF SOCCER
There are three areas of the game of soccer: Defense, transition and attack. All three areas need to be emphasized because without one, the other two won't be efficient. Duvall discussed just how important an organized defensive scheme is to the success of his program. 
 
"It [defense] has to be a focus. I mean, it's a third of the game, right?" he said. "We have to be strong defensively in order to be able to be productive transitioning into our attack play."
 
Junior Patrick Moes (1,506), senior Logan Clizer (1,323) and sophomore Keegan Brooks (1,189) anchored the Linfield defense, leading the 'Cats in minutes played. The trio also combined for 16 shots, eight being fired off the foot of Brooks.
 
With experienced defenders available to hold down the backline, the 'Cats will have an opportunity to emphasize defense and transition well to the attacking side of the field.
 
IT'S ALL UP FOR GRABS
If there's one thing this year's team has learned during the first couple weeks of practice, it's that no one's job is safe.
 
The roster is wide open and the players, both returning and incoming, know that. Everyone is fighting to be in the starting 11, and the coaching staff is excited to see how well the attack can develop this season to build off the success the 'Cats had defensively in the home stretch of last fall.
 
"It's always the best man gets the job type of environment and that's a week in and week out endeavor," Duvall said. "You don't have players that you know are going to be immediately on the team sheet just because of who they are. We've always presented this program as having to earn your spot each week. That hopefully keeps the guys competing."
 
There are 17 freshman who joined the team. Duvall thinks more than half of that recruiting class can make an impact at the varsity level, and he told them that when they were still recruits.
 
"They were told they were expected to come in and immediately perform at a level that got them minutes on the field," he said. "Our first team will include freshmen, absolutely, and that was the intention."
 
Those 17 freshmen are fired up for the chance to compete with the returners, and the returners have taken them under their wings, which has made for some friendly competition that will benefit the overall goals of the team. The returners understand that the coaches' jobs are to bring in players that will make the team better so the program doesn't become stagnant.
 
NEXT UP
The first three matches of the season feature three opponents from the NAIA's Cascade Collegiate Conference.
 
The 'Cats will open the season playing host to Multnomah at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 1, at the Linfield Soccer and Lacrosse Complex. They will wrap up the Labor Day weekend at Eastern Oregon on Sept. 3 and at The College of Idaho on Sept. 5.
 
"We expect them to give us our best game," Duvall said. "If we can best them on the day and come back with the result, it won't necessarily be because of what they didn't do but because of what we do."
 
Northwest Conference play begins at home with the 'Cats hosting the defending champion Pacific Lutheran Lutes right off the bat on Sept. 17, which also marks Homecoming on the Linfield campus.