The Concordia Stingers men's soccer team will make its second consecutive playoff appearance when it battles the Montréal Carabins on the road at CEPSUM in the RSEQ semifinals on Friday night.
Under the direction of head coach Greg Sutton, the Stingers finished in fourth place with a 5-4-3 win-loss-tie record and will face the first-place Carabins, who have nine wins and three losses to their credit.
The teams met twice in 2021, with the Carabins winning 6-2 in the season-opener on Sept. 10 and Concordia taking the next game 1-0 on Oct. 8. At the time Montréal was the No. 1- ranked in the country, but has since fallen to the No. 7 spot.
“We always seem to play our best against the best teams,” said Sutton. “I feel like we have a good group of players that can perform under pressure.”
The Stingers will go into the game with a fairly experienced team, and Sutton is counting that to pay off.
“The majority of our players have had playoff experience from 2019 and that will be a factor,” said the head coach. “That’s good for us.”
Two years ago, the Stingers finished fourth and met the first-place UQTR Patriotes in the semifinals. Concordia lost 3-0, and UQTR went on to win the national championship.
This year, Concordia has more weapons. The Stingers have some added scoring prowess with newcomer Mohammad Reza Nafar leading the way.
“We are strong as a team but we have some game-breakers like Reza,” said Sutton. “He can go out there and win a game for you.”
Nafar was the leading scorer in the RSEQ with seven goals and four assists for 11 points in 12 games. Alberto Correa is always a threat and has four goals and an assist in 11 games.
The game kick offs at 8:15 p.m.
