UAB soccer begins new era with home match against #6 north carolina
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 21, 2024
David Lilly’s first regular season game as the head coach of the UAB men’s soccer program is a doozy. The opponent in Thursday night’s opener at PNC Field is No. 6 ranked North Carolina. Obviously, easing into the season is not part of Lilly’s plan.
“I think it's a great game for us,” Lilly said. “They're obviously very, very talented. They were excellent last year. We’re just ready to apply the lessons and then proceed to this game. UNC is one of the most disciplined defensive programs in the country. They don't give you a lot of space to exploit. They're very well drilled defensively, but they're also one of the most dynamic teams going forward as well. We understand we've got our hands full. We're trying to create a great performance. As you know, we're on a journey right now. The preseason is all about trying to get information. We're trying to be better day by day, week by week.”
For the record, Lilly didn’t inherit this season opening obstacle, which begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday. He not only chose to play the Tar Heels this season but will take his team to Chapel Hill next season.
“I think if you want to have that route to getting better and that route to trying to be the best version of yourself, you've got to play against the best,” Lilly said. “And I think that's a message from day one. We got Chapel Hill on the schedule and we're just going to make the absolute most of the opportunity. We wanted to test ourselves right off the bat and see where we stand.”
North Carolina is coming off a season where it finished 11-4-7 overall, advanced to the ACC Tournament Final and won a pair of NCAA Tournament games before dropping a 1-0 decision to Oregon State in the NCAA Quarterfinals. UAB, on the other hand, failed to win a game last season, finishing 0-11-4.
Lilly, a Coatbridge, Scotland native, comes to UAB after two successful seasons at East Tennessee State. His task to rebuild a program. His first step was to restructure the roster.
“It's tough but this is something we're not new to, myself and the staff,” Lilly said. “We come in and it's just about evaluating what the strengths of the group is and where the room for improvement is and we've just done our best to try and surround the strengths of the group and the positive things that have happened with even more positives. We've got a core group of guys that did really well in the spring and they're desperate to improve, desperate to get better and they want to give the community something to be proud of.”
The roster includes some local players but also includes players from Denmark, Spain, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Brazil, South Korea, France, Ghana, Tanzania, Norway and Cayman Islands. Lilly and his staff had to get the ground running in not only recruiting but also turning a roster filled with newcomers into a cohesive group.
“We just arrived in the spring semester, so getting to know the guys last semester for the first time and we've brought in a number of recruits this preseason,” Lilly said. “There’s a lot of fact finding this preseason, a lot of getting to know the guys and trying to build relationships with each other.”
The Blazers played three exhibition games in a span of seven days and finished with a win, loss and draw. Tony Kim, a sophomore from South Korea in his second season at UAB, scored a goal in each of the exhibition contests. Lilly also praised the play of forwards Humphrey Doh (Ghana) and Lucas Rizzo (Montgomery), midfielders Ivan Jolivet (France) and Alan Melendez (Spain Park) and defenders Chris McKenna (ETSU transfer), Mathis Rictor (Germany) and Ole Jessen (Denmark). He also stressed that he’s more comfortable talking about the team as a whole than he is pointing out individual play.
“Right now, we're very team oriented,” Lilly said. “We're trying to make sure the sums of the part are very good. And our group understands that the strength is the team. But we have had a couple of guys that have had a great preseason.”
Obviously, like with any rebuilding situation, early improvement is far from guaranteed. But Lilly has a clear view of a standard he wants his players to pursue.
“I think the core principles, we want to be a very, very hard working group,” Lilly said. “We want to outwork each team we play against, we want to be very disciplined, we want to make teams feel uncomfortable when they play us. I think that stems from the way we want to press the game and bring a lot of energy and intensity to it. But we also want to match that and balance that with being very effective going forward and being dangerous going forward and offering teams a threat on the other end. One area of improvement that we've tried to reinforce with the guys is just being mentally strong. Things can go wrong in the game and you're going to go down in games. There's going to be things happen and it's all about how we respond to those moments.”