Kentucky men’s soccer (1-0-0) defeated the Eagles of Florida Gulf Coast (0-1-0) 3-0 on Thursday night, opening the new season with a show of force.
The Cats entered the season having been ranked third in the preseason poll, a fall from last year, where they spent a majority of the campaign ranked No. 1 overall, only for it to disappear in the loss to Pittsburgh in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
With the departure of numerous contributors to the success of the team last year, head coach Johan Cedergren, who is entering his 12th season with the Wildcats, believes that he has all the pieces, and is now trying to figure out how well they fit together.
“It’s been a lot of work in the preseason to making sure that we get all the new pieces to understand exactly how we want to do it,” Cedergren said. “And that wasn’t perfect, but I think it was better, so it’s exciting to be able to play everyone and to have a lot of competition for spots.”
The beginning of the match saw the Cats make a couple of sloppy passes and some noticeable instances of lapses in concentration, but neither team could find the opening goal.
It was in the 31’ that a spark appeared in the form of graduate transfer Finn Ballard McBride, a native Australian who spent the last two years making a name for himself at UC Santa Barbara, who took a heavy touch away from FGCU defender Alon Drey only to be fouled in the box.
Ballard McBride had great success with UC Santa Barbara, having won the Big West’s Player of the Year award for the 2022 season and leading both the conference and team with 13 goals. His talents even named him as a Hermann Trophy Player to Watch.
“I’m just looking to come in and take over from these guys who did really well last year and hopefully do a bit better and take this team forward to the national championship,” Ballard McBride said.
With the tall Norwegian Eythor Bjorgolfsson now gone, Cedergren found an unlikely replacement in junior forward Aboubacar Camara, a transfer from in-state rival Louisville, who stepped up to take the penalty, slotting it into the bottom left corner.
“We were so pleased when he showed up in the portal and we were definitely battling with several other big programs in regards to trying to get him here,” Cedergren said. “Abou and I spoke a couple of times, he came and visited and I felt like we had a really good connection in regards to my goals and our team goals.”
The stroke of halftime saw a brilliantly executed through ball from defender Max Miller into the path of Gonzaga transfer Logan Dorsey, who poked it past FGCU goalkeeper Wyatt Kistner to make it 2-0 and give the Wildcats some breathing room.
The halftime team talk allowed for Cedergren to make some needed adjustments to see out the game, which also put the aforementioned Ballard McBride in a more advanced role, eventually leading to a debut goal for the Australian.
The 60’ saw Camara receive the ball just past the halfway line, hold off his defender and put the ball in the path of Ballard McBride to calmly slot past the goalkeeper to put the game well out of reach.
“It’s always good as a forward to get off on the right foot and get a goal and just build some confidence,” Ballard McBride said. “Once you get one, usually some more follow so great to get off on the right foot.”
After the third goal, both sides essentially accepted the score line and didn’t really play for much, but any potential comeback was completely erased when FGCU’s Jonathan Bryant was shown a second yellow, morphing into a red card, making the climb back nearly impossible with just 10 men.
Full time saw the Cats win comfortably, but knowing full well that the rest of the season still looms. Even still, Cedergren was chomping at the bit to get started and was eagerly anticipating the true arrival of the season.
“I just want the game to start. Give me some problems to solve because again, nothing was perfect, and we got plenty of tape that we can [use to] get better on Monday, but there is nothing like it,” Cedergren said. “You know I have the best job in the world, so I’m very very happy.”
The Wildcats will have their second home game against East Tennessee State University on Monday, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m., also streaming live on ESPN +.
