Manny Perez also contributed to this article.
The Malden Boys’ Varsity soccer team is back and improved after ending last year with a record of 1-13-4. It took the team until the second-to-last game to achieve their first, and only, win of the season.
This year has presented a completely different story. Under the lead of senior captains Yasser Belatreche and Sandesh Ghimire, Malden has achieved two out of five wins, along with two draws. The season started with a 1-1 draw away at Methuen, followed by a 3-1 loss at Everett, a 1-0 win at Somerville, a 3-1 win at Medford, and then a 0-0 draw at Lynn Classical to end the road trip.
“We’re definitely heading in the right direction. I don’t want to put a summary on the season so early into it, but the first five games have certainly been positive. We’re definitely moving in the right direction of where we want to be, and it’s nice to see some wins again on the record,” said Malden High Boys’ Varsity head Coach Jeremiah Smith.
Starting the season off with five games away from home has been a task for the team, as Belatreche explained, “Our bench is completely new, so at first it was hard for them to not experience a home game. Now they’re getting used to it… When you come home, it’s like, now you have that confidence.”
“I thought that might have been some kind of a joke, because we have five away games to start and four away games to end the season. And right now, we’re in that middle block of time where we have eight straight home games. I don’t know who may have made the schedule, but they certainly didn’t do us any favors starting up with five straight road games,” Smith said jokingly.
Malden’s only loss so far has been against Everett, in the second game of the season. Malden started the game hot, leading them to progress to 1-0 in the first ten minutes from a corner by sophomore midfielder Matheus Martins. However, four minutes later, the team conceded a goal.
Early into the second half, Belatreche went in for a challenge and caught the Everett attacker in the box, leading to a penalty eight minutes into the half and ending with Everett putting Malden down 2-1.
Shortly after, a shot was fired straight at sophomore keeper Wender De Abreu Moura, who managed to punch it away, before it fell right to an Everett attacker lurking at the backpost for a tap-in to make it 3-1 with 19 minutes remaining.
“I didn’t really feel good because nobody really likes losing. But knowing that it was my fault for giving up the first goal, I felt really bad since I could’ve done better,” Moura explained.
“Our team, because of them being new… they saw that crowd, and as soon as we scored the first goal, everyone got hyped. Everyone got too comfortable. We got too comfortable. They scored. We broke down. Everyone became anxious. Then, we weren’t playing the way we should have, and it’s because of the pressure. Everyone felt the pressure, including me,” explained Belatreche.
“I’m the first one to admit it. I was the one who caused that second goal. That pressure caused us to lose that game, but it was also a learning lesson. It was a good experience. Everyone’s realized now how these types of games work under the lights.” Senior left back Yunus Yousfi weighed in with similar thoughts to Belatreche. “That first loss really showed us what we were missing. The atmosphere against Everett was very loud and nerve-racking; however, I feel like it really brought us closer, because now we learned how it felt to lose together and how it felt to win with the Somerville game.”
The loss against Everett was followed by a good win against Somerville and an impressive showing at Medford. The Somerville game was packed with chances for both teams, but included only one goal provided by freshman winger Dawit Adefris. At many points in the game, it looked as if Malden’s slim lead would be turned into a draw if it wasn’t for a big performance from Moura.
“I just put my head up and started playing as I usually do. I didn’t do anything special, just doing my job,” Moura recalled how he bounced back from the game against Everett and remained determined to bring the team back up in a new game.
The Medford game started wrong for Malden, as they conceded a goal off a bounce from a corner ten minutes into the second half. It did not take long for Malden to respond with a goal from senior striker Mike Joseph to tie the score. He then followed that with an assist to freshman Dawit Adefris, capping off the game with another goal to crush Medford’s hopes five minutes before the end.
The last away game was Lynn Classical, a game with no goals for either team. Both teams had chances to take the lead, but could not capitalize.
“I think it’s been a successful start, but we could have definitely done more. The league definitely is not the same as it used to be, and we have gone a long way better. But as a team, I think we should have won every single game we had, but I’m not too upset with our outcome because we have had a decent start, and we can still get more done,” senior centerback Omar Chouiki declared.
Junior winger Abdulmohamien Kalefa has noticed the team is finally “all together” and “playing for each other.” As they build their bond with one another on the field, their efforts and games have displayed that without fail.
The team has also appeared more prepared for challenges compared to last year. Smith recounts the captains putting together their own off-season training from “weight room in winter” to “team runs, team lifts, team workouts, all spring and all summer long….The amount of training that they put together on their own between last spring and all summer is paying off now.”.
Malden is currently sitting in second in the Greater Boston League behind an undefeated Revere. “My expectations pretty much every year are the same. I expect that we’re going to compete for a league title, we’re going to qualify for the state tournament, and ultimately, I’d like to go deep into that state tournament,” Smith said.
“I was telling the boys yesterday that our path to a league title goes through getting two wins over Revere because they are the front-runners right now. We can still control our own destiny with wins over Revere. That’s not to say that we’re going to forget about all the other games on our schedule because they matter too, but this coming Thursday game [against Revere] takes on a little bit more significance, simply because it’s the first-place team that we’re chasing,” insisted Smith.
“We’re looking forward to beating them. We’re looking to get wins out of the head-to-head games to get that spot in first place,” Kalefa added.
“We’re hoping the next game we have against them, we really pop off and just show them what we can do. I think it’s gonna be a good game, and as long as we fight with our hearts and fight with all we got, we can make something really happen,” concluded Chouiki.
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