Sports

BEACON OF LIGHT: Cupolo criticizes King, talks playoffs

Fordham-bound senior midfielder Ryan Cupolo will bring you into the world of the Beacon Blue Demons soccer team, one of the best in the city and the defending PSAL Class A champions. Read all about the ups and downs of the season in his bi-weekly diary.

As the season is coming to a close, I feel extremely confident about the way the team has been playing. The improvement we have made from our first few scrimmages in preseason is groundbreaking.

Some of our younger guys have really stepped up and begun to fill the shoes we asked them too in the beginning of the season, which was for sure no easy task to tackle. We are playing great as a team and most importantly enjoying ourselves on the field.

Playing Martin Luther King Jr. for the second time was exactly the kind of test we needed before the playoffs come around. I am happy we get to end the regular season with them and Stuyvesant, which proved to be two of our stronger opponents in the PSAL this year. Although the result was not in our favor on Monday (MLK won, 1-0), I believe we played the better soccer and are now in a very good position going into the playoffs. I could feel it in the energy of the game on Monday.

We now have King on their heels. They can invade our Facebook events and attempt to dampen our spirit with sarcastic remarks, and call themselves the better team all they want, but they will never be able to keep us from enjoying the game, especially having a coach that always supports and respects us, win or lose.

Like I said in my previous journal, we are a family and no team can take that togetherness away from us. There is no need for arrogant remarks from our team or any other idle chatter that might arise on the subject of other teams. We respect every team we play and we are only concerned with the opposing team that steps on the opposite side of the field each time we gear up to play.

“Check in, check out,” my club coach used to say. That’s exactly what we strive to do each time we play. Give 150 percent and let our playing do the talking rather than our interviews.

I believe we are stronger than ever going into the playoffs and I’m very excited to get started in the playoff environment. First, however, we have Stuyvesant to focus on Saturday. They are a strong team, which will be a very nice challenge for us before entering the postseason.

We are also experimenting with a slightly shifted lineup in which I am playing defensive midfield more similarly to what I play on my club team. This puts me in a position to distribute from the backfield and organize on defense as well, which will ideally further strengthen our middle of the pitch. I personally am feeling just about 100 percent with my foot starting not to bother me when I take full force shots anymore which is very exciting especially since shooting from long range can be a dangerous factor for the defensive midfield role.

Overall, I feel great and the team is pumped to start the competitive playoff season. Academy season is starting to come into play for me personally as well. My team [Albertson Academy] goes off to play D.C. United this weekend for our first friendly scrimmage of the season. I am thrilled to be healthy and ready to go for all of the important games that lie ahead.

Check back with Ryan Cupolo every other Thursday during the season. His next diary will run Nov. 3.