USC set to kick off 2011 campaign
There’s no denying that the series between South Carolina and College of Charleston has been filled with tension over the last few years, which is understandable considering that many of the players have faced each other in the high school and club levels.
When the two programs meet Friday night, senior captain Vance Benson will be playing against his younger brother, Robbie Benson, as well as former high school teammate Shawn Ferguson. Charleston’s Thomas Winstead, a Columbia native, will be playing against his hometown team.
Last season, the tension escalated into an altercation during an exhibition matchup where the Cougars threw visible punches. Entering this year’s opener, the events of 2010 are the last things on coach Mark Berson’s mind.
“Obviously, it’s on the road and it’ll be a very charged environment,” Berson said. “We’re going to have to learn to deal with that, and it’s OK because that’s part of the learning curve and it’s part of the things that we need to learn as a team and grow as a team. It’ll be a good opportunity for us to see where we are, where we need to improve and what we need to do going forward. Our goal is to just keep getting better game by game.”
Having a week between USC’s preseason match with Elon and tonight’s opener, Berson had the opportunity to review the game film and work on the areas where the team struggled.
“I think it was great to play a game,” Berson said. “You can only learn so much playing against yourself in scrimmage situations, so it was a good opportunity to see us in a full-field situation against a good opponent in Elon. I think you learn a lot from your first scrimmage, and generally, it’s an old coaching axiom that a lot of teams improve the most between their first game and their second game.”
Offensively, the Gamecocks came out sluggish in the first half of the scrimmage, posting just one shot, but gelled better in the second half as Stephen Morrissey managed to score. Berson also stressed improvement in transition on both sides of the ball, as well as continued adjustments due to the group’s versatility.
“With this team, since we have so many new players that can play a number of different spots, we may be making a number of changes from game to game as we move on,” Berson said. “I think as guys nail down a position, as they definitely do a good job in a certain spot, they can adopt a certain role and become effective in that role. Then we can look at another spot. This is what we have to do in getting this team slowly put together as we move into the early part of the season.”
Being no stranger to the intensity between the two teams, Fox has chosen to air the match on the Fox Soccer Channel, making the stage even bigger for the young Gamecocks.
“It’s a great opener,” Berson said. “Clearly, we’re taking a very young team with a lot of inexperience into a very tough situation as far as an environment being on the road. It’s great that it’s the opening game of the Fox Soccer Channel on TV. I think our players are always excited to play in a Fox Soccer game, so that’s great.”