As the 2024 boy’s soccer season comes to an end let’s take a recap of their successes, struggles o, and ideas. There were many new additions this year coach and player-wise.
Ms.Zuntag, the new coach took over the team after their playoff loss last season and looked to turn things around. She brought a more defensive style to the team as they played a 5-4-1 for most of the season. She encouraged the left-wing-back and right-wing-backs to come up and get involved in the attack.
“The team’s attack struggled in the midfield, they were way too far up or too far down. There wasn’t any chemistry involving the midfield. Luka and I prevailed on the defensive side and played up to the attack but our right wing-back and defense as a whole was nervous with the ball .” left wing-back Giorgi Kvezereli said.
The team fell right below 500 with a 4-1-5 record, allowing 32 goals and scoring 28.
The team came up short of the playoffs this year partially because of their loss of senior players one of which was Allan Pelcastre, arguably their best player last year. Without his talent in the midfield, the team struggled with moving the ball between the wingers, and strikers. The trouble was in the net as well for allowing 32 goals to be scored on them combined.
While they only allowed 3 goals to New Utrecht in their 3-1 loss in a playoff contender game to fall short of the playoffs, the team put up their best fight and left it all on the pitch.
The team’s “rebuild” period may have just started with more of their best graduating this year leaving it all on Voach Zuntag to put together a new squad of winners. One of these seniors, Giorgi Kvezereli expanded on this, saying “What we did near the end of the season, playing a 5 back to keep the defense strong also will open up the counterattack.”
Of course the room for improvement is vast, and the players will be eager to get back on the pitch to show the rest of the PSAL boys soccer what the dragons are capable of. Kvezereli’s final insight was “The team should be less afraid of the name or reputation of the school we’re playing and just play as hard as we can and leave it all on the pitch.”
As previously said, this was Coach Zuntags first season. With the help of Coach Destin, they had a good run of a season. When asked how was coaching the team overall this season, Zuntag said, “The boys made this season fantastic .I really enjoyed interacting with them, rooting them on, and supporting their dreams. It was an absolute honor to coach them”.
When asked about the successes and failures of this year, Zuntag replied, “One of our greatest successes was building camaraderie among the players on the team. The boys genuinely enjoyed practicing and playing together. We started off the season strong and this kept them motivated for the rest of the season. Some mistakes were made that cost us a few winnable games, but those mistakes will only help us grow bigger and better. We missed the playoffs by one game, which is disappointing, but also a motivator to come back stronger than ever next year. There is a lot of talent on this team, so next year we will capitalize on that”.
Hopefully, the team will continue to grow around their new coach and hopefully revamp that Dewey chemistry that made the Dewey dragons soccer team roar once again.
