A&M Soccer coach G Guerrieri talks fast start, home opener & more

On the attitude in the locker room after the 2-0 start...

“Well it’s a really, really strong team in chemistry. This is as good of team chemistry as we’ve seen in a long time. It’s right up there with the same type of closeness and common bond that our final four team had and a lot of our elite eight teams had, and the fact that it’s a smaller roste – we’ve really only got 21 players that we’re able to play at the moment, and they are really, really together. And it’s a group that we can interchange a lot of different pieces, and they know that. They are all sharp. They are all pretty confident on what's going on and all feeling pretty good about finally being home to play."

On areas the Aggies can improve...

"Mostly just let us play. Unfortunately, the game against Oregon didn’t happen. We were really looking forward to that. There were a lot of things in play around it that would have had a sell-out crowd and would have been huge and a great way to start. Now we have to wait a while, and it will be a full house again on Friday with the Fish Camp game, so that's the biggest thing. We just want to kind of release the hounds and let them run a little bit because it is the type of team that even though Oklahoma State comes in as a really solid side – a team that's 4-0, that’s scoring goals, that's not given up goals – that’ll be a great challenge for us. They haven’t seen anyone like us yet, but it’ll be a great challenge when they come to town."

On the scheduling gap due to the cancelled Oregon game...

"I think it actually worked out well. It ended up giving us two days off as we recover from the West Coast and the two wins in California. Saturday and Sunday ended up being full days off, which was great, and then we were able to get two more days of what we refer to as 'being professional soccer players,' so the whole preseason what the players get to do. They play soccer, they eat and they sleep. And that's it, so you have a full focus on the team and on the job at hand.

"Once we get started with school, they lose their focus a little bit because their grades mean something to this team and having a 3.3 GPA by the team is something that they take a lot of personal pride in. There are many on our team with perfect 4.0 GPA’s, so for a couple more days they were able to be full-time soccer players, and now they will make their shift into being full-time student athletes.

"I think the days of rest were really good for us. Being able to practice on Monday, which would usually be our day off, gave us a little bit of an advantage, and now today on Tuesday we were able to be outside. There were blue skies on occasion, even though it was windy, and right now on Friday there is only a 10% chance of rain and a 15% chance of rain on Sunday, so that’s exciting.The Ellis Field surface is playing really fast and really good, so there are a lot of things to be smiling about."

On Jimena Lopez’s freshmen start and impact...

"Jimena is a world-class player. She’s already played a youth World Cup with Mexico, and she’s in their plans for the next under-20 cup cycle as well as hopefully for the full team in the future. She’s absolutely loved by everyone on the team. The cool thing is, as our left back, her and Kendall Ritchie, who's been our starter for the last two years, are both here, so we're finding ways to incorporate both of them into the way we attack and as well as into the way we defend. Coming in and scoring 2 goals in your first two games as a defender is quite a good first impression. Now she gets to come in and try and make another good first impression against a good team but in front of The 12th Man on Friday night is really exciting."