Press Release
Thursday, September 08, 2022
Soccer season begins: The Aigles to play 4 games this weekend at Stade Croix-Bleue Medavie Stadium
The Université de Moncton soccer teams will kick off the 2022-2023 Atlantic University Sport season this weekend on the Moncton campus.
The Aigles Bleues and Aigles Bleus will play two games on Saturday and Sunday against the Memorial University Sea Hawks and the University of New Brunswick Reds, respectively. Saturday, the games begin at 1 p.m. with the women’s team and the masculine team will play at 3:15 p.m. On Sunday, the women's team will play at 3 p.m. and the men's team at 5:15 p.m.
“It's a new season that promises to be interesting,” said Aigles Bleues head coach, Mehyar Zekaroui. “Our group has given a good impression since the beginning of the training. They work hard, show the required commitment and discipline. Those values mark the group well.”
Zekaroui hopes these values will translate well on the field with points in the standings. He says he has a young team with 12 veterans, including several second year, and 11 rookies. “People will notice us on the field,” he added. “Our team wants to defend and play the ball. However, the team needs to get used to defending with an even balance between defencemen, midfielder, and forwards.”
All three strikers are new to this position, and it will be a good challenge. The players will have to get comfortable and work together to be successful. “They have demonstrated good qualities to perform. We didn't win a game last year, so we're aiming to gain points in the standings and it's going to start this weekend. We hope to surprise the Sea-Hawks, who have lost key players, and UNB, which has a similar club. We will have to go for it.” Last year, the Blue and Gold finished 10th in the final standings with no wins in 12 games.
On the men's side, the Aigles Bleus narrowly missed the playoffs by finishing in 7th place with a record of 4 wins, 5 losses and 3 draws.
“We are aiming for participation in the playoffs,” said head coach Younes Bouida. “We will have a young team with several first- and second-year players. We gained maturity with a good year of experience. We want to get the precious point to qualify for the playoffs.”
The thirty or so candidates for the 11 starting positions are hard-working and very competitive. Our strength should be on the offensive.
“We will have to learn to defend better at the key moments of the game in order to avoid any surprises,” Bouida added. “We have 20 players back and 10 rookies this year. It all begins on Saturday and Sunday against two strong teams. We're ready, these games are already like the playoffs. We defeated UNB, 2-0 last year and we want to confirm this win on Sunday.”
A season launch ceremony will be held prior to the start of the regular schedule on Saturday. Players from both local teams will be introduced to the public. All are invited to support the Aigles on Saturday and Sunday.
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