Guerrieri & Co. host Denver, Fairfield this week to open 2024 home slate

Now 1-0, the 24th-ranked Aggie soccer team faces off against Denver in their first home match of the season on Wednesday and hosts Fairfield on Saturday. Texas A&M soccer head coach G Guerrieri joins TexAgs Radio to highlight what he's looking forward to seeing this week.

Key notes from G Guerrieri interview

• I am doing great. It is game day. We are excited because we are off to a good start with a 5-0 win on the road. We are back, and the 12th Man is finally back in town. It is time for us to kick things off.
   
• It was great to go on the road and win 5-0. For the most part, we return the exact same team we started with last year. We return ten starters from last year's squad that finished the NCAA Tournament at Florida State. That was a tough 1-0 loss to FSU, who then crushed Texas 5-0 and beat Stanford 5-1 in the national championship. We were the only team that played them within one goal. We knew we had a lot of power coming back. The only position we had to replace on the field was Kenna Caldwell, our goalkeeper.
   
• We thought we might be pretty good, and we are. About ten minutes before kickoff, we let Grace Ivey know that she would start, and she went out and scored two goals. I think it was a great first impression by most of our players. Sydney Becerra had two bombs, one goal from about twenty-five yards and another from about thirty yards. We had to score from deeper positions because Lamar was packing it in. We did not have a ton of chances from in close. If you can't score from there, then you have to be able to hit from distance. I feel good about it.
   
• There is an upgrade in the opponent today with the University of Denver. They have won their league for the last six years. This is a team that is athletic. They were ahead of North Carolina for most of the game this last week before losing 2-1. There is nothing wrong with that result. They come in well-coached and very athletic. They are tough on the break. We are going to have our hands full. 
   
• I am excited that the 12th Man is here. Hopefully, that will help us with the energy that we need. There will be new stuff out at Ellis Field. There will be food trucks, which should be fun for the fans. The pitch is in great shape. We have new lights. More than anything, the team is playing really well. I think it will be an exciting match.
   
• The way the RPI works in our sport is you do not get any bonus points for winning games in your league, which is kind of silly because the SEC opponents are some of our toughest games. We have seven teams ranked in the top 25 in our league. You get credit for beating good teams for the eye test, but you get points in the RPI for beating teams that win games.
   
• Lamar is going to win a lot of games this year. Same thing for Denver and the team we play on Saturday, Fairfield. They are one of the favorites to win their league. You want to play these teams and get bonus points for beating these teams. You get even more bonus points for beating them on the road. We usually go on the road the first week because the 12th Man is not here yet, and we can get bonus points in the RPI.
   
• You build upon what you do well, and you bring in some new players and new ingredients. Our biggest thing is we needed some more goal punch. We missed so many chances within six yards. For the freshmen class and the transfer portal, we wanted to bring in people who could finish. We wanted one more striker, so we went into the portal and brought in five. Phil Stephenson, our associate head coach, phrased it as we are really good speed daters.
   
• Texas A&M is pretty impressive when you show them what the school is about. Then, we show them the video of the chances we create for our strikers. We show them we can play in front of these crowds. We have these academic resources. Then, they ask where they can sign. 
   
• We were able to get an All-Conference player from Rutgers. We got an All-Conference player from the Big 12. We were able to bring in an All-American from Grand Canyon. We were able to bring in players with experience. Sometimes two years of experience, sometimes three years of experience. Kennedy Clark was a big-time player from Xavier. She had a great year in the Big East. Allison Lowrey from Rutgers had a great year as well. And especially Leah Pirro, who is on the All-American Herman Trophy watch list, and Brie Severns, who people have not seen yet. She is coming off an injury at Kansas. Those four are going to be influential types of players for us.
   
• Plus, we return Jazmine Wilkenson, our leading scorer last year. We return our entire defense. We return all the setup people in the midfield and our dangerous wingers in Mia Pante and MaKhiya McDonald. We also get back Kate Colvin, who was out most of last year.
   
• This is the first time we will do a kickoff event, and this is thanks to you guys. It started with Brandon Jones and Ali Russell talking about doing some sort of kickoff event. TexAgs has always done such a great event for football. We would love to do something for soccer, and it kind of got started late last year. This year, we wanted to do something like that. It came to us that Stage 12 is the perfect place to hype the new season and talk a little bit about Texas Aggies United and NIL. We will be downstairs, and all of our players will be there. This will be on Friday night over at Stage 12. Ali Russell will be the hostess for it. It starts at 8:30 p.m. and will be a lot of fun. At the same time, there will be a VIP event upstairs that starts at 8 p.m. This is a way for us to kick off our NIL program.