By Patrick Klein

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Redemption is the goal of the Arizona men's soccer club this weekend.

After winning the first two Arizona Soccer Spring Tournaments, the Wildcats fell in last year's title game to Texas A&M.

"We don't like making trophies and giving them away," said Ron Parsons, club vice-president and team member. "We're looking to get the title back."

To do so, Arizona will have to go through an eight-team field that includes Arizona State, Scottsdale Community College, Cal Tech, UA's "B" team and three Tucson men's teams.

The tournament, which runs today through Sunday at Wildcat Field, consists of two four-team brackets. The teams play round-robin within the brackets, with the top two teams from each bracket advancing to the semifinals. physical defense and a no-nonsense offense. first," Parsons said. "We make it really hard to score. We have good goalies, but they don't have to do much because we play a real tight man-to-man."

Earlier in the season, the Wildcats used their defense to plow through the LSU Tigers/Mardi Gras Tournament, racking up a 5-0 record and the tournament championship while holding their opponents to one goal combined.

"We play physical, you can't be shy when you play us," Parsons said. "We like to hit people pretty hard."

Besides the pounding defense, Arizona employs a conservative, pass-oriented offense that utilizes team speed.

"We have a couple guys with really good dribbling skills, like midfielder Dave Mills and halfback Kevin Cotter, and we like good, short passes," Parsons said. "Once in a while, we'll send it deep because our guys can run, they are usually faster than the defense."

(MISSING TEXT....) tournament Friday at 6 p.m. against the Sting, a local team. Saturday at 11 a.m. the Wildcats meet ASU, who has never beaten them, and they conclude round-robin play at 7 p.m. against the Rangers, another local team.

Of all the teams, Parsons thinks that Scottsdale will provide the Wildcats with their hardest test, although the ASU game will be an emotional contest.

"(Scottsdale) is real young, but they're big. I'm positive we will see them in the semifinals or finals," Parsons said.

"We are 8-0 against ASU in the history of men's club soccer. We usually find a way to squeak it out, but they're always up for us."

The semifinals will be Sunday morning at 8 and the finals will be at 11.

Wildcat Field is located at 15th Street and Plumer Avenue. Admission is free. Read Next Article