bleedCrimson.net: You take on rival UNM on Friday night, the first meeting between the two programs, they're an established program with good tradition.
Michael Needham: We're excited about going up there. It'll be a game we play every year and the first one will be special. I'm looking forward to a great environment. I think we should have a huge crowd there tomorrow night. They always draw good crowds. They've been around for a little while and they've done a good job and I'm sure it'll be pretty hostile and definitely a fun one to play in.

bc.net: Having been an assistant at UNLV, how much of an advantage is that for your team since you're more familiar with their style of play than against an opponent who you've never seen before?
MN: I don't know how much of an advantage that is. I know Kit and Jorge pretty well and they know me pretty well but every year, if you're a good coach and I consider myself a good coach, you're going to be a little bit different. The players are going to be a little bit different. If I had played them last year then I could say, "Okay, now I know some of their players."

In playing them four years ago when I was at UNLV, they're a far different team and a far different program. They've done a nice job of building that thing. I have ideas of how they might play but the player personnel is the thing that really changes all the time.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: How did Friday's Crimson and White scrimmage turn out?
Michael Needham: It went well, it went real well. The game was very even and the kids were all competing. We're still trying to figure out what's going to be the right combination of players and the right group for playing UTEP on Friday. It was a good runout and it was a good chance to see the kids in a game environment."

Even though it was against ourselves I felt that it was pretty competitive. The pressure could have been a little bit better. There wasn't quite as much defensive pressure as I would have liked in terms of preparing us to play a rivalry game next Friday. At the same time you're playing against your teammates and you play a little bit differently anyway. All in all it was good. We got through it healthy which is the most important part. We had a some great performances from a lot of kids and got exactly what we wanted out of it.

bc.net: What have been the differences starting year two versus year one?
MN: The first thing, and it's very similar to last year, the first thing we're looking for in preseason is for our group to come together as a team and to get to know each other a little bit. I think they've done that really well. I'll credit my returning players on that. Any time there's going to new players, they were all new players last year, any time you bring in a new group of players and you're trying to incorporate them and get them going, you're trying to make them as comfortable as possible as quickly as possible. All credit to our returning players. They've been great to the incoming kids. They realize that both groups of players, both the returning players and the incoming players, are all going to contribute to this effort. They've treated them very much as equals and not made life real difficult on them as a group of freshmen. That was the first thing, come together.   Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the season overall?
Michael Needham: The season overall was a lot of different things. It was exciting, it was emotional, it was fantastic. There's a lot of things about it. The biggest thing is I think we laid a great foundation for what this program will do in the future.

bc.net: Going back to the North Texas match when I spoke after the match you expressed that normally you looked forward to a day away from soccer after a match but after that match you couldn't wait to get back out on the practice field with the team. What was it that you saw at that time that made you feel differently?
MN: After the first three games I think our kids were down. Any time you lose three games in a row it's difficult but we had played and competed so well in those first three games and I knew that the stretch of the next seven to 10 games would be absolutely telling in what we would do for the year. I felt that we had played well enough to get a result or two so that was exciting because I knew we were on the edge of something good and I just wanted to get back to work and get them organized and make sure we were ready to go for the next week and ultimately we were.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the North Texas match.
Michael Needham: I think North Texas is probably the best team we've played yet from a pure soccer standpoint. They weren't as athletic as UTEP but they were definitely a very good soccer team and made us chase the ball a bit. We did a good job defensively. Again, we still need to do a better job of connecting passes and keeping possession of the ball as we go forward but that being said that was the best we've done doing that yet against a good team.

I was pleased with it. I think as we move forward, the thing that struck me when I walked away on Sunday was that I was very excited to get back out on Tuesday. A lot of times when you just lose a game it's like, "I'm happy to have a day off." That wasn't the case Sunday. We're right there, everything's happening the right way, we're doing things the right way, we're approaching things the right way, so we were just very excited to get going today and head up to Colorado this weekend.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: How big was it for your team to erase that one goal deficit with under four minutes left?
Michael Needham: It was huge. We started slow, we gave up a goal early that I don't know if it was what you would call an emotional hangover from the Friday night game but we started out a little bit slow, came out not doing really what we wanted to do and gave up a goal early and then we withstood some of their pressure and started to play a little bit more in the second half and started to create some second chances for ourselves. To be able to come back and score a goal was very important as we go forward. Any time a team goes down 1-0 a coach is always going to wonder what your team is made out of and I think we proved they're battlers, they're fighters and they're going to keep pushing to win games.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts after the first week of practice and how your team is looking as you get ready for first exhibition game on Saturday?
Michael Needham: We're definitely very happy with the performance of the kids. The effort level and commitment level to what we're trying to do has been outstanding to this point. Myself and my staff are all very pleased with each one of them. They're all doing what they need to do. We would have wished they were a little fitter when they came in but we're getting there. We're doing a lot of work in terms of fitness. Team organization, the first three or four days we really focused on getting them comfortable with each other. We did a lot of team building exercises, did a lot of technical work. The past three or four days we've gotten into a lot more technical ideas, how we're going to attack people, how we're going to defend people. Actually this morning we did a 5 vs. 5 tournament with the kids and let them compete. They really got after it. I think it was definitely very good.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the first day having all of your players here and holding your first practice?
Michael Needham: It was good. Obviously there's things we're going to work on. The big thing today was to try to get the stress out. The fitness testing was good this morning. I was pleased with the results from that. We'll do some more testing tomorrow morning and we'll really start to get after it tomorrow morning with training and start to teach a little bit more.

These kids have all come from good club environments but they've never played together. So everything we do in the next two or three days will be trying to gel and come together as a group and start to get a little bit of an understanding for each other.   Continue Reading This Post >>