THE SCHEDULE: San José State hits the road for another tough non-conference match on Thursday, making the trip up the Bay to face San Francisco. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Negoesco Stadium.
FOLLOW ALONG: Thursday's match will be streamed on the WCC Network with Charles Wollin on the call. Live stats will be available and you can follow every San José State men's soccer game live on Twitter, @SanJoseStateMS.
SIMON SAYS: "We played probably our best game of the year against them last season at home," says head coach Simon Tobin. "Now we have to go to their place and out of all of the fields we'll play at, their home field might be the hardest. Our main focus is for WAC play but USF will give us a chance to look at a lot of things. It's another local rivalry and we want to prove we're the best soccer team in Northern California."
FIRST TOUCHES:
- Four different players (Eduardo Buenfil, Suliman Khorami, Danny Sanchez, Rodolfo Castro) have scored a goal this season.
- Goalkeeper Rodrigo Reyes-Zavalza have been on the pitch for all 364 minutes of the 2019 campaign.
- Castro leads the team with nine shots and four shots on goal through four matches.
- The Spartans' 1-0 lead over Saint Mary's marked the first time the Gaels have trailed in a match since September 16, 2018 (0-1 at UC Riverside).
- In addition, SJSU was the first team to score on the No. 8 Gaels in 2019.
- Midfielder Max Allen was named to the All-WAC Preseason Team last month.
- Allen and juniors Omar Lemus and Willy Miranda are also back for the Spartans after earning All-WAC honors a year ago.
- Lemus led the Spartans in both goals (six) and assists (four) as a sophomore in 2018. He enters the 2019 campaign with 18 career points.
SCOUTING SAN FRANCISCO:
- San José State has played San Francisco 70 times in program history, trailing the all-time series with a record of 19-47-4.
- The two teams met at Spartan Soccer Complex a year ago and SJSU emerged with a 4-1 win. Current Spartans Willy Miranda and Omar Lemus combined for three of the four goals in the runaway victory.
- USF enters Thursday's match with an 0-3 record. The club was last in action on Sunday at Cal State Northridge, falling in a 6-0 decision to the Matadors.
- The Dons finished the 2018 campaign with a 6-10-1 record.
TOBIN'S TEAM:
- 2019 marks the sixth season at the helm in San José for Tobin, who joined the Spartans after spending the previous 27 seasons as the head coach at CSU Bakersfield.
- Tobin is a native of London, England, graduating from Nonington College in 1983.
- His 338 career victories ranks No. 10 in all of Division I among active coaches.
- Postseason success has been a staple of Tobin's time in San José as the Spartans have made the Western Athletic Conference title match in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
- He has continued to turn out some of the top talent in the conference year in and year out, placing a total of 15 players on the All-Western Athletic Conference Team throughout his tenure.
THE STAFF:
- San José State's coaching staff features three men who each saw success in their collegiate playing days at universities throughout the state.
- Jonathan Lester is a Spartan alumnus and ranks No. 4 on the program's all time saves list with a dominant 225 in just three years.
- Jesus Sanchez played for Tobin at CSU Bakersfield, finishing his four seasons there with 16 goals and 27 assists while compiling a record of 40-22-15.
- Nic Ryan rounds out the staff as a volunteer assistant coach. He played collegiately at UC Santa Barbara, reaching the NCAA Tournament three times in four years with the Gauchos.
- Lester is in his third year on staff with the Spartans, while both Sanchez and Ryan came aboard prior to the start of the 2018 season.
FRESH FACES:
- San José State's 2019 roster features 12 newcomers, nine of which are freshmen.
- 10 of the 12 newcomers hail from California, bringing the team's total to 24 in-state products.
BETTER KNOW A SPARTAN:
- SJSU was one of five teams to receive a first-place vote in the WAC Preseason Poll. The defending WAC Championship runner-up finished sixth in the poll of the conference coaches.
- Tobin has taken the program to back-to-back WAC title match appearances. This year's conference tournament is scheduled for November 13-17 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- The San José State squad features a trio of European players in the form of freshman Kasper Poulsgaard, sophomore Finlay Wood and junior Max Allen. Poulsgaard hails from Denmark, while Wood and Allen come to San José from Wales and England, respectively.
- The Spartans will face five NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago in 2019, with both Saint Mary's (September 9) and Air Force (October 27) coming to the Spartan Soccer Complex.
- Senior Jeff Dukes has gotten the job done both on the field and in the classroom, earning Academic All-WAC recognition last season. It was the second such award for Dukes in his collegiate career.
- SJSU prepared for the regular season with a pair of serviceable exhibition matches. The club played a 110-minute friendly at California before returning home and defeating Holy Cross.
THIS YEAR'S SLATE:
- Three of San José State's seven non-conference matches will be hosted at the Spartan Soccer Complex.
- The Spartans seven non-conference opponents represent three different conferences (Big West, WCC, Pac-12).
SOCIAL MEDIA: The men's soccer program can be found on both Twitter (@SanJoseStateMS) and Instagram (@sanjosestatems). Be sure to follow for a behind the scenes look at the team.