Not the weekend the soccersaurs were hoping for

By Kevin Rothbauer

In a two-game weekend, a win and a loss isn’t really that bad. It’s not a record to aim for, but it’s usually not something to complain about.

Dinos women’s soccer coach Robin Slot would disagree.

Slot was not particularly excited about recounting his team’s recent homestand, even though the Dinos came away with a split.

"I don’t really want to talk about it too much," he said.

The Dinos hosted the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday, coming away with a 2-1 victory.

"It was a pretty good effort," conceded Slot. "[The Dinos] knew what they had to do to win. It was a better effort compared to the previous weekend."

Tammie Wilson scored both Dinos goals in the comeback victory.

"It was good to see that we fell back 1-0 and battled back to win," said Slot.

Obviously, the Dinos were hoping to build on the momentum of Saturday’s win when the University of Alberta Pandas rolled in on Sunday.

Rather than try for another come-from-behind win, the Dinos opened the scoring on a Hema Chengkalath marker. Soon after, Chengkalath nearly gave the Dinos an insurance goal, but the ball ricocheted off the post.

"If that goal had gone in, we very well could have won the game," noted Slot. From then on, it was all Pandas. The visitors scored two unanswered goals, one with only three minutes left in the game, to leave with the win.

As for trying to pinpoint the precise weakness in the squad, Slot has few leads. He won’t blame first-year goalkeeper Taryn Swiatek, though.

"I have no complaints [about Swiatek]," he said. "Taryn’s doing a great job. The goals scored on her this year–even the best goalkeepers would have had trouble with them. She’s doing a good job–for a first-year goalkeeper especially." That narrows it down to defence and offence.

"I can’t pinpoint it," said Slot. "It’s the overall play as a group. They’re having trouble linking passes and making good decisions. It’s the whole team in general." In each of the four games in which the Dinos have scored, they have had a different goalscorer.

The Dinos record at the halfway point in the season sits at 2-3, leaving them in fourth place. Fourth place is a playoff position, but the Dinos are in risk of slipping further back.

"We have to move up," said Slot. "We have to win a few games in the second half that we didn’t in the first half."

This weekend the Dinos have a break, but on Oct. 16-17, they will host the universities of Victoria and British Columbia in a pair of must-win games.