It was a season full of many lessons for the men’s soccer team.
The Gaels recently concluded their regular season schedule with a 2-1 loss to the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks on Oct. 18 at Richardson Stadium. The team finished with a 3-6-3 record and ultimately ended up missing the OUA playoffs.
The Journal sat down with the head coach of the men’s soccer team, Kasy Kiarash, to get his perspective on the past season.
The Gaels came into this season with many new faces as many veteran players, and leading scorers, left after last season. With 17 new players joining the team, team chemistry would take longer to form.
“We had a little bit of everything,” Kiarash said on the influx of new players joining the team. “We had some talent, guys from different cultures and places. Our challenge was to get them all onto one page to be able to compete in the OUA East.”
Two seasons ago, the Gaels had an identical record as this year, also going 3-6-3 and missing the OUA playoffs. They had a decent season last year, going 6-6-1 before being knocked out in the first round by the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks.
After a slow start to this season, the Gaels picked up their first win of the year when they defeated the Carleton Ravens by a score of 3-0 on Sept. 11. Kiarash was very impressed with the victory over Carleton and considers it one of the team’s highlights of the season.
“There were moments of brilliance. That game against Carleton, 3-0, at home, that was one of them,” he said.
The team also pulled off an impressive win of the season when they visited the top-seeded Trent Excalibur on Oct. 9 and beat them 2-0 in an “almost perfect game.”
According to Kiarash, the Gaels had arguably “the hardest schedule in the OUA East.” He pointed out that the team had a lot of games against rested opponents while they had played the day before. Four teams in the OUA East have also been in the top ten national rankings at some point over the last five years, which added to the Gaels’ tough schedule.
Offense was hard to come by at points this season for the Gaels. They only scored more than one goal in two games this season, those being in wins against Carleton and Trent.
Despite not making the playoffs, Kiarash sees this season as positive, saying it’s “the best thing that’s ever happened to Queen’s Men’s Soccer.” He said the lessons and failures his players experienced this year will help build them up for years to come.
“Success is not a straight line. It’s one step forward and two steps backwards. It’s adversity and failure,” Kiarash said. “What I told [my players] then was to just relish these tough moments, because that’s what makes winning feel so good.”
When asked about key players for the team, Kiarash gave props to incoming players Ewan Vickers, Kin ’30, and defender Sebastian Agaude, ArtSci ’29, for providing leadership to the team. He also gave credit to striker Isaac Malouba, ArtSci ’30, who potted three goals this year and should be an integral part of the team moving forward.
With the offseason upon them, the team will have lots to train and prepare for in hopes to improve next season. Kiarash said he and the other coaches will look over all the games and do a lot of “internal reflection” to see what changes the team can make.
“Sometimes it’s not this big change that you have to make,” Kiarash said. “I think greatness and success comes from making lots of little tweaks where you might not think they’ll make a big difference, but when you add them up, they do.”
With lots of lessons learned and time to build chemistry, the team hopes to be back competing for a playoff spot in the 2027-28 season.
“There are really good signs that this group has so many of the right pieces, and when we put it all together, you see the best of Queen’s Men Soccer,” Kiarash said.
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