The USW Men's soccer team is getting ready to kick off their 2021 season on the road in a scrimmage at West Texas A & M on August 21^st at noon MST. The Mustangs are coming off a season in which they finished 3-5-1 overall and 2-3-1 in the conference. This season saw them reach the conference tournament for the RRAC in which they lost in the first round to LSU Alexandria. Head Coach Edgar Negrete enters his third full season as head coach and seems to have the program headed in the right direction. 
 
As far as expectations for the upcoming season Coach Negrete had this to say "This year we are looking to be a team that is willing to compete and have a winning record. I believe that our team came back hungrier than the previous year due to the feeling we felt last year being eliminated in post-season play. The team has grown as a whole and now, with that extra year, I believe it's going to benefit us from having more experience and the players having an idea of what to expect. This year we will be a more mature team, that if we are on as a whole will be able to upset some teams in some big games." 
 
Looking at key returners for the Mustangs, Negrete had to look no further than Matthew Alvarado saying "Matthew Alvarado was the offensive player of the year for our conference this past season. I think Matthew understands that he has a huge target on his back and teams will be aware of him, but he's putting in the extra work to make sure he has a better season than last year. I am excited to see what kind of show Matthew puts on this year. I can see that he wants to go all out in his final season of collegiate soccer."
 
When asked about key newcomers to the team this year Negrete said "The newcomer that I am excited to have is Gabriel Neufeld. Gabriel is a very unique player that will bring a lot of skill onto our team and will make us better defensively and offensively. He is a hard worker and when he's on the ball he can be hard to defend and he can be a dangerous player in the attack." 
 
Coach Negrete gave some overall thoughts about heading into this year after an encouraging but challenging year last year stating "Overall, I am excited about the upcoming season. I know we are still in a pandemic and it's a blessing that we can play and have our season set to take place. The thing I am most excited about is playing at Home. I know last year relocating was the only possible way to have a season and being away from home was a difficult thing to do. We are excited to play in front of our fans once again and I feel that will give the boys momentum to be able to succeed this year. I am excited for the players that came in to help make this team stronger and of course the addition of Isabel Chavez into our coaching staff. I truly believe we are heading in the right direction and only time will tell if we will be able to reach our goal of being a competitive team in the conference. We are hopeful for another playoff spot with the addition of two other schools entering our conference."
 
The Mustang's first home game will be September 13th against Southwestern Christian University at Bob Moran Soccer Field. We hope to see fans out there supporting this year after a year of playing no home games.