After finishing last in the Southern Conference this past season, the Georgia Southern University Men’s Soccer team looks to use its experience from competing in Europe to make a statement this fall.

The men’s soccer team left for its 11 day European tour on May 13. GSU spent time in the presence of two of soccer’s biggest powerhouses: Spain and France.

Spain won last year’s World Cup and France won it in 1998. The men’s soccer team had the pleasure of watching professional European teams such as the European Champions, FC Barcelona play in an exhibition against Deportivo, and they had a series of friendly matches against three semi-professional teams.

Head Coach Kevin Kennedy shared his thoughts about the team’s visit overseas.

“I thought it was really neat. We got to play some professional teams and go to Camp Nou and see Barcelona play, as well as some other professional teams. It was really neat training with [them] and seeing their youth teams…[some] 17 and 18-year-olds competed for professional contracts,” said Kennedy.

GSU played San Lorenzo, a team recently promoted to the Second Division. It then moved on to Olympian Reserves, a French Division Three team that won the French Reserve League Championship in 2009 and 2010. The team ended its tour by playing in another exhibition match against AS Minguettes as its final test of the tour.

Kennedy said, “We played three games. We lost to San Lorzeno 2-0 — they were just promoted to the Spanish Second Division. We bounced back and beat the Olympic Reserves team 4-2 and then we closed out with a Third Division French team, AS Minguettes, and lost that game 2-0.”

Aside from competing and training with professionals, Kennedy mentioned another advantage the trip had to offer.

“It was a great experience for our team, but it was also great for our team to be together for two weeks to be around each other 24/7 and really come together and focus on soccer, as opposed to other things that student athletes are focused on while in school,” he said.

The Eagles will be put to the test in several exhibition games against the University of South Carolina at Aiken and Lander University Bearcats the following week before starting their regular season against Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C.

The Eagles will compete against their regular SoCon opponents such as Elon, Furman, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and College of Charleston. However, they will also play Division One teams such as North Carolina State, Belmont and Lipsicum.

Kennedy said he is very optimistic about taking on these teams.

“Hopefully, we’ll see the fruits of our labor because last year we were very young. Last year we were leading NC State 2-0 with 20 minutes left and lost 3-2, so hopefully we can go up there, score some goals, and put ourselves in a position to win again,” he said.

They have a philosophy of ball control that is definitely going to be tested this season. Last season, both UNC-Greensboro and the College of Charleston ascended to the national tournament, but the Eagles will be formidable themselves.

Kennedy said, “We haven’t changed much. We are a possession oriented team, we want to be able to hold the ball and play through teams. It requires us to be better technically and repetition and high pressure situations, we try to replicate that in practice.”

After finishing the season with a meager record of 3-11-1 and a conference record of 0-6-1, the Eagles have a promising season ahead of them. They did top the SoCon in saves per game with 16 by goalkeeper Neal Bates. With eight returning juniors and seniors, the Eagles have a more complete team and roster to work with.

Additionally, last season, the team was very young with experience, so Kennedy is very confident there will be improvement this up-coming season. Some of the players have even taken some initiative to train over the summer.

The GSU men’s soccer team did celebrate Striker/Forward Jon Cox’s signing with the Atlanta Sliverbacks and beginning his career in professional soccer.

Cox is only the second Eagle from the soccer team under Kennedy to ascend to the professional level of soccer. The first was Andreus  Carrbrerra in 2007 who signed with the Puerto Rican Islanders.