Experience should benefit men’s soccer team this season

The Pitt men’s soccer team finished last season with a 4-13-1 (2-7 Big East) record and failed to make the postseason for the third consecutive year. But that doesn’t mean the team is pessimistic about this coming season. The Pitt men’s soccer team finished last season with a 4-13-1 (2-7 Big East) record and failed to make the postseason for the third consecutive year.

But that doesn’t mean the team is pessimistic about this coming season.

“Last year was bad record-wise, but we had nine one-goal games and lost to the No. 1 team in the country by one away from home,” head coach Joe Luxbacher said. “We’re still very young ­— we only have one senior this season and started seven freshmen last year, so we’re looking to be significantly better.”

The Panthers, who play their home games at the Petersen Sports Complex, closed out the season on a six-game losing streak after struggling to find their scoring touch all year. They only put 14 balls in the net all season and conceded 33 goals. Pitt was shut out six times.

Luxbacher hopes that more experience will lead to more goals from his team.

“[Lack of scoring] comes with the inexperience,” he said. “We need to improve at the midfield position, and we hope a strong recruiting class can help with that.”

He also added that he is confident in his young goalkeeper’s future.

“Our goalkeeping was solid last season, and it kept us in a lot of games. Lee Johnston did a great job for us last season in goal as a freshman,” Luxbacher said. “He is talented and has the right mentality — always working hard. He has a lot of upsides.”

Luxbacher also brought attention to defender Alex Harrison’s leadership ability, naming the junior a captain.

“We are lucky really, as we have a bunch of leaders in our locker room,” Harrison said. “But to be named captain of the soccer team at a big-time school like Pitt is a great feeling.”

Luxbacher agreed and believes that having vocal players like Harrison on the field will only help the Panthers.

“In soccer, you need to have a lot of leaders out there on the field,” he said. “The coaches can only do so much from the sideline, and we can’t call a timeout to get things settled or situated like in other sports, so you need to have dependable guys out there who know what their responsibilities are.”

Luxbacher also spoke on the importance of the spring season.

“We’ve had a good spring season. This is when we evaluate the returners,” he said. “Unfortunately, we always have more guys than roster spots. We only get 25 spots, so this is when we need to decide who is going to be invited back to make the final roster in the fall. All the guys are working and competing hard and doing everything that we ask. At the end of it, [the coaches] are going to have to sit down and make some tough decisions.”

Harrison said the Panthers have been using spring exhibition games to change their style of play heading into next season.

“During the spring, we have been working mainly on possession, since we struggled to keep the ball last year,” he said. “The games in which we lost by one goal were frustrating, as we had chances to win but didn’t take them. That can be blamed on inexperience.”

He also believes the playing time given to younger players last season is beginning to pay off.

“The 10 freshmen that came in last fall can now be considered experienced players with the amount of playing time they saw in the fall, and it was evident this spring.”

The Panthers have already made improvements during the spring, posting a 4-0 victory over Canadian club team Vaughan Azzurri in their first spring game. This is a change from when they scored two goals in a game only twice last fall.

Luxbacher, who has been at Pitt for nearly 30 years, believes the program is heading in the right direction.

“We’re not there yet, but we’re a step ahead of where we were,” he said.