In the world of sports, no head coach or manager is ever satisfied with a tie. The Glendale vs. Allan Hancock College men’s soccer game that ended up in a 1-1 tie Tuesday at the Glendale Sports Complex is no exception.

“There is no question,” said Head Coach Joe Agoston. “A tie is as bad as a loss.”

That would not be the case if the Vaqueros (2-5-4, 1-3-3) were fortunate and found a way to get a tie.

It was the opposite, however, since Glendale had an advantage in total time of possession, shots on goal, and corner kicks to keep the Allan Hancock goalie on the defense, but still could not find a way to get the victory.

“We had many opportunities to score but just could not finish,” said Coach Agoston. “That needs to change if we want to win games.”

Allan Hancock also had many opportunities to pick up the win.
They hurt themselves with numerous offside calls and defensive miscues that had their coach telling them to find their place on defense and prevent the opponent from getting shots on goal.

Sophmore David Garcia of Glendale scored the first goal of the game towards the end of the first half. After the game, though, he was not too excited about it.

“The goal never means as much when your team loses or ties,” said Garcia. “The team has to find a way to score more goals.”

Going into the halftime break, Coach Agoston was just satisfied with the score knowing that either team could have gotten more goals and possibly put this game away.

“I’m just glad we’re up 1-0,” said Agoston at the half. “We need to play better and with higher pressure in the second half.”

In the second half, Allan Hancock came out with more determination knowing they needed to tie up the score or else they would be going home with another one in the loss column.

Glendale was just trying to hold onto its lead, and maybe even get an insurance goal to secure the victory. The latter would not happen though as Allan Hancock got a goal to tie up the game at one apiece.

“It was a relief tying up the score,” said Allan Hancock Head Coach Alvaro Garcia. “It’s just too bad we did not get the win.”

When the game was tied, both teams played as hard as they could to not only try to get a goal on offense but to not give up a goal on defense.

Glendale had more shots on goal than Allan Hancock just like in the first half, but once again could not capitalize with goals.

Glendale not scoring more goals is not only because of the offense; the goalie of Allan Hancock had a great game stopping some good shots.
“We could do a lot better,” said Glendale player John Varela. “Sometimes things don’t turn out like they’re supposed to.”
Coach Agoston, who has led his student athletes to a number of Western State Conference championships and numerous playoff appearances, is calling this year one of those long years that every coach has to go through.

The Vaqueros, who have 16 freshmen and only six sophomores, have five home games to go on their seven-game home stretch. If the team wants to make anything of this season, they will need to do it on this stretch.
“Our offense needs to get better,” said Coach Agoston. “We have not scored more than three goals once this season and have been shut out six times.”