Men's Soccer Playoff Preview

For the UB men's soccer team, it has been a trying season, as their one total win on the year can surely attest to that.

As the Mid-American Conference playoffs commence on Friday however, everyone's chances are renewed as all records are reset to 0-0.

Buffalo (1-11-3, 0-6 MAC) will be given a clean slate, but they must create a lot of scoring chances, meaning they will need to pepper Akron's goalkeeper Justin Christafaris with as many shots as possible.

To accomplish this they will need to do away with their mostly conservative shot selection. During the season the team was saving their shots for the quality scoring chances.

Nevertheless, head coach John Astudillo feels his squad ups their game against their more highly regarded opponents, something the Zips definitely are.

"We have been playing up a notch against better teams," said Astudillo. "Right now I'm optimistic. I am encouraged by the way the guys are working hard in practice."

With a record of 13-4-1 and 5-1-0 in the MAC, Akron will ride into the game with a three game winning streak and 11 shutout wins on the season.

That certainly does not bode well for UB, considering the Bulls have been shut out six consecutive times and nine times altogether on the season. Currently UB has gone 562:26 without a goal.

Freshman Midfielder Erik Jaanimagi has started the last two games, and could get the nod for his first collegiate playoff start versus the Zips.

"He is doing very well," said Astudillo. "He is adjusting to the change well. I think he has a great potential and his development has grown by leaps and bounds right now. For a freshman I think especially towards the end of the year you better have developed well enough because (the better teams) will exploit you real well if you have any major weaknesses."

In the previous meeting, which was held at RAC field on September 29, the Zips took a 2-0 lead into halftime and held off Buffalo's second half charge for the win. The Bulls were forced to play without Jaanimangi for the last seven minutes of the game because he received a red card on a questionable foul.

Astudillo also thinks that his team lost its focus in the latter part of that game.

"I think we had several individuals trying to do individual work," said Astudillo. "It's not going to win games, not against Akron, they are way too balanced to be able to do that."

Akron is a beatable team if UB can come out motivated and aggressive, but they will also need some lucky bounces if they hope to knock off the No. 2 seed.

"Akron is a notch above the rest of (the teams in the MAC) and we played them before and we played a great game and we still came down on the losing end," said Astudillo. "Akron is not the kind of team that is going to give you a lot of breaks. They are going to play very tight."

The game is set for 3 p.m. on Friday at Akron.