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Men’s Soccer 2007 Season Wrap-Up The “Unfinished Season,” that is what University of the Cumberlands Patriot men’s soccer coach Paulo Neto is calling the 2007 season. The Patriots came into the season with what he felt was one of the toughest schedules in the nation. They faced off against 10 teams who were at one point or another ranked in the top 25, five of which made it to at least the second round of the national tournament, and one team that would become the national champions. Neto states, “We finished playing our best,” but he feels that if it had not been for the controversial two-game suspension of three players after an altercation in their conference final, the season would have had a very different finish. As it was, the Patriots’ season came to an end when the game was called for lightning, seconds after Mid-Continent scored the go-ahead goal. Coach Neto made up the tough schedule in hopes of being able to qualify for the National Tournament based off of regular season play. While these hopes were not realized, the tough regular season schedule left the Patriots well prepared for post season play. Cumberlands finished second in the Mid-South Conference Tournament, qualified for Nationals after winning a play-in game against Martin Methodist 3-2 in overtime, and were eliminated in the first round of the National Tournament in an 83 minute game against Mid-Continent. Neto said he had mixed feelings about the season. He was very proud of the guys, but he just felt like the uncontrollable circumstances at the end caused there to be “a lot left in the tank.” The Patriots finished the season with an overall record of 12-8-1 and a conference record of 4-1. They were 4-5-1 against top 25 teams they faced, with almost all of the losses being within one goal. For the first time in the history of the program, the Patriots had three of their members named to the NAIA All-Region XI team. These men were also given NAIA All-American Honorable Mention honors. Coach Neto feels that overall, their record was not a bad one, and that while not ending the season the way they would have liked, the team gained a lot of respect from other schools. They have already received many more invitations to tournaments than in previous years. Although the Patriots will be losing a large number of seniors this year, Neto feels that he still has a strong core of returning players that were able to gain some experience and learn a lot from their predecessors. While it will be a challenging recruiting class trying to fill the big voids left by the seniors, Neto says he believes they will be a stronger team next year, thanks to the hard work of the returning players and the legacies left by the exiting seniors. The Patriots are looking at playing some spring scrimmages to give the core players an extra opportunity to play together with a new lineup and see what they need to work on for next year.
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