UNO men’s soccer team embarks on Costa Rican trip
By Brandon McDermott, KVNO News
July 2nd, 2015
The University of Nebraska at Omaha men’s soccer team is traveling to Costa Rica today for a ten day trip. The Mavericks will face-off against four professional Costa Rica teams. KVNO’s Brandon McDermott has more on the Central American trip for the Mavs.
Omaha, NE – The UNO men’s soccer team is fresh off a 2014 season where they shared a Summit League regular season title for the first time in its short four year history.
[audio:https://kvnonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/costa-rica-final.mp3]Now the Mavericks are taking an overseas trip to Costa Rica and head coach Jason Mims says his team will benefit greatly from it.
“Four games in about ten days. Three top division Coast Rican professional teams and one second division team. The level of play in Costa Rica is pretty high, I think they are currently ranked 7th in the World in soccer. They are coming off a quarter final finish in the World Cup. The country is booming with soccer right now, we’re going at a great time.â€
Now that the Mavs will be in a different country with many distractions, Mims says opportunities like this early in the season often provides chances for teammates to bond.
“Anytime you put guys in a foreign country together, you instantly become closer,†Mims said. “Now, you have to rely on each other for everything from the language, to food, to hanging out and to the facilities. It will be a neat experience off the field for these guys to gel a little bit. I think the team is a close team already. This will just make it that much better.â€
Mims isn’t worried about wins and losses, he says, with this Costa Rican trip. He said this will give the team a boost a month before the annual Black-White scrimmage kicks-off the 2015 season.
“I think we are in a good spot – that is the advantage of having a good spring season. We’re not like most teams were we only play local colleges. We play professional teams and we play top college teams. I think the spring gives us a good chance to evaluate heading to the fall and we had a good spring.â€
UNO was 10-5-2 overall in 2014 and 3-2-1 in the Summit League. The Mavs play Belén and CS Cartagines of the Costa Rican Primera División, but first UNO takes on Juventud Escazucena Friday. All the games are exhibitions. The team will also take part in rafting and zip lining as well as visiting a National Museum and help out in a local community service project.
Comments are closed.