With 15 new players on his roster, Florida Atlantic men’s soccer head Coach Koz Donev admitted that it’s a rebuilding year. However, he’s quick to admit that his team with a 1-5-1 overall record late in September is a bit surprising.

“[In previous rebuilding years] we were able to put things [together] much quicker,” said Donev. Granted, he wasn’t expecting a 5-0 start.

He figured that by now, his team would “be about .500 and at least feel much better about [our] playing,” Donev said.

Injuries have made it a little bit harder to develop team chemistry. Mike Rubin and Andreas Heggeland are out for the year. Heggeland was averaging one shot on goal per game, which is tied for first on the team.

Rubin had one goal, four assists, and ten points. The one goal ties him for second on the team in goals scored.

One of their goaltenders, Anders Granstad, is injured and listed as day-to-day. Granstad played in six of the team’s seven games so far.

“Every game we lost, he kept us alive. Even when we played Vanderbilt, and we won 7-0, he kept them out of the game,” said Donev about losing the goaltender.

Sophomore Alex Figuero will be Granstad’s replacement. Donev says Figuero is talented, but he needs more experience.

The Owls not only have problems with team chemistry and injuries, they’re also not possessing the ball long enough on offense. Their 4-2 loss to USF on Sept. 22 was a perfect example of that.

“We were not able to play possession soccer for ninety minutes. We ended up chasing and defending for most of the second half, and that gets you tired and all of a sudden it opens up things [for the other team],” Donev said. All that chasing also caused Florida Atlantic to get 4 yellow cards in the game. Meanwhile, USF only got two.

The loss to South Florida was FAU’s third in a row. The other two were at the hands of Florida International and Stetson. FIU won 4-1 and Stetson won 2-1. The Owls were outscored 10-4 over those three games.

Donev saw aggressive play from his team in each of those games. Versus FIU, they played much better in the second half than they did in the first.

Moreover, they got 9 shots on goal in the second half, compared to 3 in the first. Versus Stetson, the Owls took a 1-0 lead in the first half, but couldn’t hold onto it in the second half.

Donev wants to build on the good things from those games, especially the one against USF.

“[That] game was good for us, because we at least did something against a good team,” said Donev. The Owls have to remember to play possession soccer.

“We just have to keep on training and training to be able to possess the ball [just as much as they do]. Then you’ve got an even chance to win, instead of throwing your body all over the place, getting yellow cards, and opening up the doors [for them to score goals],” said Donev.

Right now, winning and losing aren’t the most important things to Donev. “We need to find a way to play [good soccer], then to win,” said the Head Coach.

Six of the team’s last nine regular season games are against Atlantic Sun Conference opponents.