Press Release

Thursday, October 13, 2016

U de M soccer teams play last home games

The Université de Moncton soccer teams will play their last home games of the season, this weekend, in Atlantic University Sport action.

The Aigles Bleues and Aigles Bleus both have four games left in the regular schedule. This weekend, they host University of Prince Edward Island Panthers, Saturday, and Cape Breton University Capers, Sunday, women games at 1 p.m. and the men at 3:15 p.m. both days, at the Stade Moncton Stadium.

In the women standings, the Panthers are 2-4-1=7pts, in 6th position and the Aigles Bleues, 2-6-0=6pts, in 7th position. The Capers have not lost a game and are 7-0-0=21pts, in 1st place. Teams are still battling it out for the last qualifying positions in the final standings, fifth and sixth place. The AUS championship will be held at the beginning of November.

‘’We have two important games this weekend that will determine if we can still qualify for the AUS,’’ stated women coach, Mehyar Zekaroui. ‘’We took advantage of our two weeks off to practice hard and focus on our physical conditioning for this weekend. We want the players to be more aggressive on the field. We will focus on the first game to get three points and keep us alive.’’

Yvette Tougouri and team captain Vicky Savoie should return in the line-up following injuries. The coach would also enjoy a first victory at home this season. ‘’We owe a win to our spectators, these are our last home games this season,’’ Zekaroui added. ‘’We need to win for our spectators and the players in their last season.’’

In the men’s division, the Panthers are 2-4-1=7pts, for 6th position and the Aigles Bleus are 1-6-1=4pts, in 8th place. The Capers are 5-1-1=16pts, in third spot.

Aigles coach Florian Ntima Nsiemi is looking forward to see his troops in action following a two-week pause in games. ‘’We focused on the physical conditioning, the players who can play full out for 90 minutes will get the nod,’’ Nsiemi said. ‘’We know we can play with the Panthers and a victory is possible. As for the Capers, we will be able to give them a much better match than we did when we played in Sydney. I am looking for players eager to play and win. A number of our losses came following a letdown by players who did not play a full 90 minutes. We need to battle the whole game.’’

In brief… a number of players will be recognized at the Saturday games for having played 4 or 5 years with the Aigles at the annual Homecoming weekend 2016. Vicky Savoie, Marie-Ève McLaughlin and Catherine Poirier have played five seasons and Alexandra Maltais, four with the women’s team. Miguel Bryar, Christian Yapi and Samuele Acca have played four years with the Aigles Bleus.


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