Texas will always feel a little like home to the Thunder Bay Chill.
Five years and three Final Four appearances ago, the upstart squad took the Premier Development League by surprise, knocking off host Laredo to capture the first trophy in franchise history, the first for a Canadian team.
Today, only midfielder Nolan Intermoia, named Tuesday to the all-conference squad, and goalkeeper Stephen Paterson remain from that title-winning team.
Paterson, who win or lose plans to retire after this year's Final Four in Austin, Texas, said the two veterans don't have much advice to hand out.
With a mixture of savvy veterans and talented newcomers, they already know what needs to be done. There’s no sense putting more pressure on his teammates by offering up too much advice.
“I think that we’re just trying to take it like it's another important game. That's kind of how you have to do it,” said Paterson, who threw up a pair of clean sheets in last weekend’s home-field sweep of Michigan and London in the Central Conference championship.
”You take it one game at a time. Hopefully we’ve got two games this weekend, but you’ve just got to prepare. You do the things that you know you can do. You play simple, you play hard, you work hard. You just prepare yourself and you see what you need to do in the game and you try to picture that in the game.”
First and foremost they'll have to get used to the heat, with high temperatures in Austin expected to hover around 39C on Friday, when the Chill kick off their title bid with a semifinal match-up against the Victoria Highlanders FC.
“That’s definitely hot, compared to what we’ve been playing in,” said coach Tony Colistro, still smarting at not being chosen to host this year’s Final Four, the team's fourth appearance in the past six seasons.
”Although a lot of our players come from those areas, they’re still now acclimatized to our weather. So it's a lot of preparation for that."
Defender Zetroy Robertson said it will be an adjustment to make.
”It’s been cold (in Thunder Bay) and we’ve been playing in that condition, but we just have to start drinking a lot of water and get hydrated.”
Then again, added Colistro, it's not like the Chill are the only team facing weather woes.
”The one good thing about it is Victoria is going to be in the same situation as us, because they’re coming from a colder climate as well.”
He’s hoping lightning strikes twice in the Lone Star state.
“Obviously we’ve had success there. But there are going to be a lot of good teams there. Austin is a solid team and Victoria is solid too. It's all going to depend on performance. The key to winning is confidence,” Colistro said.
”The players know, especially after last weekend with the defensive performance we put in, that’s definitely a confidence builder. We just have to have our players play their game and just combine on their plays and get the goals that we need."
Pitch marks: Defender Axel Sjoberg on Wednesday was named to the all-PDL team.
