With a break in its schedule, the Massachusetts men’s soccer team is heading north of the border to take on the University of Montreal in a mid-season exhibition match.
UMass (3-4-2) is coming off its first home loss of the season, when it fell to a difficult Syracuse team, 2-0, on Tuesday.
“Well we knew that it’d be a real stiff challenge in terms of defending,” assistant coach Devin O’Neill said. “We watched some film today and some of the mistakes that we made and so, that’s really the whole thing is just continuing to use this, now, 10 days to get ourselves absolutely as strong as we can be for conference play.”
But, before conference play can begin, the Minutemen will take a detour up north to Canada to take on Montreal (2-3). The Carabins are in the midst of a rough patch, dropping three of their last four matches after opening up the season with a 5-0 win.
Playing a Canadian opponent is not uncommon for the Minutemen, who have played against Montreal and other Canadian schools in exhibition matches before, but UMass has not traveled to Canada for a match in the past 10 years.
“We had a little break in the schedule and we didn’t want to totally lose our rhythm and have a huge chunk of time off,” O’Neill said. “So it gives us an opportunity to get out of town and should be a fun trip for some guys.”
The Minutemen are 5-0 in the last 11 years in friendly matches against Canadian schools, including a 4-0 record against Montreal. This will be the first meeting between the two schools since 2008.
Despite the name friendly being used to describe the match, the Minutemen are still treating the game with the same amount of respect as any other game.
“It’s a game devoid of pressure,” O’Neill said. “We can play some guys in different positions. We can bring some guys along and get them more minutes for development. So the timing of it is very good and it’s, again, going to be another step in the preparation for Rhode Island.”
One major hump that UMass will be looking to clear in the match against the Carabins is getting its first road win of the season. Even though the game is only an exhibition, gaining a win on the road can give the team confidence heading into its conference schedule.
“The points are out there to be had, but we know that going on the road makes it that much harder,” O’Neill added.
The game plan for UMass against Montreal is to use the starters for at least the first half and then allow for other players to play the remainder of the game, getting them additional minutes that they have not been able to get so far this season.
One of those starters bound to see limited time will be senior goalkeeper Brian Frame, who has played every minute for UMass this season and has been very solid in goal. He has three shutouts on the season and despite surrendering two goals against Syracuse on Tuesday, stopped six of the eight shots that the Orange put on target. His play has gained the approval of the coaches so far this year.
“He’s just come in and done phenomenally well,” O’Neill said. “I think what’s been great for him is he was called upon early to come up big. He did it, that really pumped up his confidence and from there he’s been rolling.”
Following the Minutemen’s brief stint in Montreal, they will begin conference play next Saturday at Rhode Island.
The game against Montreal is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Patrick Strohecker can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @MDC_Strohecker.
