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Confident USF Taking It A Step At A Time

By SCOTT PURKS, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 23, 2007

TAMPA - In a year that many dubbed "rebuilding," the University of South Florida returns to the NCAA men's soccer tournament, ready, willing and ...

"Not looking too far ahead," Bulls coach George Kiefer said. "We're concentrating on the first game and then, if we're fortunate enough to move on, we'll concentrate on the next one."

First things first: opening round against Colgate (9-5-5), tonight at 7:30 at the USF Soccer Stadium.

"I know that Colgate is very organized defensively and they are opportunistic on offense," Kiefer said. "We'll probably have the ball a lot of the time, and that being the case, we'll have to be patient."

No matter what, odds are the Bulls (12-5-2) will be in the game because they've been in every game this season, including two down-to-the-wire losses (2-1 and 1-0) against the nation's No. 1-ranked team, Connecticut.

"The bottom line is that we haven't lost a game this year in which we've played well," Kiefer said. "We have the ability to surprise a lot of people."

Which many see as a surprise in itself.

On paper, skeptics see South Florida losing eight starters from last year's squad, which didn't even make the NCAA Tournament.

Looking from the inside out, however, team captain Yohance Marshall said this team believes in itself, always has, always will.

"It's a fun group," said Marshall, in his third year at USF. "It's a group that has a lot of chemistry and plays well together. We're like a family."

A family, he said, that feels it belongs in the 48-team tournament.

The Bulls didn't receive one of the top-16 seeds, but rather one of the 32 remaining unseeded slots doled out for first-round games.

That is fine with Kiefer.

"Anything can happen in this game, especially at this level," Kiefer said. "We feel good about ourselves right now, and we feel good about our chances."

The last time the Bulls were in the NCAA Tournament was 2005, when they lost in the second round to Virginia on penalty kicks. Overall, South Florida is 6-9-2 in the tournament and its best finish was in 1997, when it reached the third round.

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