July 15, 2008
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - After a stellar 11-8-1 season in 2007, and on the bubble of a return to the NCAA post season, head coach Seamus McFadden announces the 2008 Torero men's soccer schedule. San Diego will face tough competition this season, including seven opponents that made post season appearances in 2007, three of which are West Coast Conference teams.
"The coaching staff all agrees that the key to entering the post season is by the strength of schedule," commented McFadden. "We are playing teams that made it to post season with high expectations on our guys in order to move on to the College Cup."
After a rousing alumni match in mid-August, San Diego takes off for Los Angeles where they will face Saint Louis in the LMU Tournament followed by New Mexico. Saint Louis made a first round appearance only to lose in penalty kicks against Illinois-Chicago.
The Toreros return home to new grass laid in Torero Stadium down over the summer for the San Diego Classic co-hosted by USD and San Diego State. The Toreros take on Albany first and the University of Michigan. One week after that, USD will travel to Los Angeles to take on Indiana, a team that finished 14th overall in 2007 and was bounced out in the second round.
San Diego comes home for three matches to take on the UC schools starting with UC Davis, another 2007 post season team that lost in the first round to California Berkeley. Next will be UC Irvine to wrap up the weekend followed by the final non-conference opponent in a mid-week match-up against UCLA, another College Cup team who left the post season early in a second round loss to Santa Clara.
"Conference is going to be tough this year," said McFadden. "We finish a difficult non-conference schedule and turn around to face a challenging conference schedule, but our men will be ready."
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USD begins WCC play on the road with a single match against Saint Mary's. They return home to face Portland and Gonzaga the following weekend, both of whom made it to post season play. The Toreros take off for three road matches starting with San Francisco, then Santa Clara, and finally Loyola Marymount. USD will then return to Torero Stadium to face LMU and Saint Mary's. The team then travels for the Northwest swing to take on Gonzaga and Portland and end the season at home against USF and Santa Clara.
