By Jamie Deng, Staff Editor
The Galileo girls soccer team has the difficult task of competing in division 1 this year after being moved up from division 2 after the 2019-20 season. After missing the entire 2020-21 season due to the pandemic, it’s understandable the team has struggled to compete against some of the top schools. However, despite these rough circumstances, the team continues to be hopeful about this season & the future.
“Although the team has faced quite a few defeats, the girls are filled with optimism and have a lot of fun playing soccer,” said head coach David Braund. He also believes the spirit of the team keeps strong in the face of defeat, and the players don’t let the defeats consume them, instead, they focus on doing what they like most and bring them the most fun: playing soccer.
Goalie Lourdes B adds, “One of the [good] things that I am doing is getting to make new friends and working together with my teammates. I feel that getting to know my teammates will help me play together with the team during matches.”
While the team maintains their positive outlook on the season, they also admit there are plenty of things they need to work on as well. Lourdes B. says, “One of the weaknesses of the team is probably communication. This is probably due to the fact that there are a lot of new players that don’t know each other.” Co-captain of the team, Nazareth Galvez also states, “We have to learn to not take the feedback personally. Although it is hard not to think otherwise, a team’s success does not ride solely on one person.”
Coach Braund believes that the team needs to go back to the fundamentals in order for them to really improve. He said, “We have gone back to practicing the basics and doing more cardio fitness to improve the team’s athleticism. This in turn has helped us work better as a team”.
Even with all these things the team continues to work on, they also have positive memories of the matches they’ve played. “The game against Mission was one of the most exciting yet disappointing matches I have played in. It was such a close game. There were a lot of players who were out for the count, but despite that, we almost managed to beat Mission. It was also a disappointing match because we were so close to winning,” said defender Samara D. Left forward Julieta Juarez also agreed, stating, “It was a very close match, and I was so disappointed we didn’t win. However, at the time we played, our communication and teamwork was not as good as it could have been. So I look forward to playing against Mission again to see how the match would end now”.
While the girls soccer team is going through a rough patch this year, they expect that the team will continue to improve over the next few seasons, as they continue to gain more experience, which will hopefully lead them to competing with schools like Lowell or Mission.
