Typically, Webster’s athletic teams do not usually have many students from outside the United States on their roster. However, the men’s soccer team features a crop of international talent.
“Our goal is to recruit the best possible fit for our program in terms of ability and personality and our needs from everywhere in the world,” coach Nenad Curic said. “We recruit the entire St. Louis region, nationwide and globally through different agencies and recruiting online platforms and contacts I’ve had for years.”
On the team, there is a large cultural community. On the 27-man roster, five students are from outside of the United States. Four of the five are freshmen, including Aiden Sopov from Toronto, Canada; Baris Astigarraga from Curitiba, Brazil; Scott Price from Llandovery, Wales; and Bosco Gonzalez from Alcorcon, Madrid, Spain. Sriram Chidambaram is the lone non-freshman, a senior from Bangalore, India.
The style of play in the United States is much different than it is in other countries, as freshman Astigarraga stated.
“Coming from Brazil, one thing I’ve noticed is that guys are a lot more physical. You need to have a bigger build and a lot more physical strength than in Brazil,” Astigarraga said. “In Brazil, it’s more technical. Here, if you can run a lot, and run for 90 minutes, you’ll play.”
Price has noticed a pattern similar to the one that Astigarraga spoke about.
“I think the intensity is faster here than in the UK,” he said.
While the other freshmen mainly spoke about the soccer side of adjusting to the States, Gonzalez noted the difficulty of learning how to communicate well on the pitch.
“Personally, the hardest thing was to adapt to the culture and the new language,” Gonzalez said. “Also, we have players from other countries, so adapting to their way of playing is very important.”
While coming to a new country can come with its struggles, the freshmen noted that it was helpful to have the group of them together to help make the jump.
“I would say it made it easier. We’ve been able to bond over the fact that we all came from different countries and all of us have different stories and different backgrounds,” Sopov said.
The new international freshman have helped the team reach success this season. Players like Price lead the team with 19 points and nine goals, which is also good enough for second in the SLIAC respectively.
The team finished up the regular season with a record of 7-4-4 and a 4-1-4 record in conference play. They are currently fourth in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Conference (SLIAC) behind Greenville, Principia and Lyon. However, the team has tied all three of these teams respectively, giving them lots of confidence going into the SLIAC tournament. Lyon, being new to the Division III level is ineligible to participate in the SLIAC tournament, making the Gorloks the #3 seed going into the tournament.
The team defeated Westminster University in the first round of the SLIAC tournament on Nov. 2. Their next game will be against Principia University on Wednesday, Nov 6.
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