When senior centerback and co-captain Nikhil Goel went up for a header on Jan. 7 against Fremont, he didn’t realize that his opponent’s shoulder was heading for his head. Goel was knocked back furiously, onto the ground.
He landed on the back of his head.
Goel’s concussion marked the third of the team’s serious injuries. Just the game before, senior center midfielder Matt Foley had also gotten a concussion; not even a week before, sophomore center midfielder Jesus Chiprez Velasquez suffered a knee injury. After Goel, the team lost senior co-captain and centerback Will Guy during a game when Guy twisted his ankle.
“He’s a straight beast, he was only out for a game,” Goel said of Guy, who is his co-captain. “It’s like his body regenerates.”
With a litany of injuries, the team struggled through the first half of the season in the De Anza league and ending round 5 with a 0-3-2 record.
“Players had to play in roles they weren’t used to,” Goel said. “[It was a ] higher level of play and tough for them to adjust.”
In its most recent game on Jan. 27, the team suffered a loss against Mountain View, one of the top teams in the league. According to Guy, the loss reflected the team’s main weakness: an inability to play offense. The losses of Goel and Foley had hurt the team’s transition game, and the players struggled to move the ball against their opponents.
On Jan. 22, the team suffered its first home loss against Santa Clara, after it was unable to recover from an early goal that it conceded. The game ended 1-0.
The team had just come off of a 2-0 loss to Los Altos, and three games prior, the Falcons lost 3-0 to Los Gatos on Jan. 10.
The Falcons also drew 0-0 against Palo Alto on Jan. 17 and Fremont on Jan. 8.
With Goel playing in the game against Santa Clara on Jan. 22 and Foley working with trainer Liz Alves to recuperate, the team looks to improve its performance for the rest of the season; however, it may be too little too late. Sitting at second to the bottom of the table with only half the season remaining, the team may have to set its sights on a less lofty goal, and focus on avoiding relegation to a lower league next year.