Mehlville Soccer Looks for Redemption in 2011

With Tom Harper at the helm, the Mehlville boys soccer program has grown accustomed to winning.

Since Harper took over the program in 2005, the Panthers have qualified for a Missouri Class 3 state semifinal, made four district championship game appearances and won at least 16 games on four separate occasions.

That's why last season was such an abnormal one for the Panthers. Mehlville finished the season with a 3-5 mark in the Suburban West Conference and an 11-14 record overall. It was the first time since 2005 that Mehlville fell short of .500.

“Last year was a little different for us because we’ve had such great success the years prior to that,” Harper said. “It’s one of those things we’d like to forget about, but I think it serves a good reminder of what can happen when you don’t do the things that you need to do.

“The boys have made it known that they don’t want a repeat of last year. They don’t want to be defined as that. That’s not what our program is about. They want to move on from it, but they haven’t blocked that out, because they know that if they don’t come together as a team, those are the kind of results that you can expect.”

Harper, who enters his seventh year as the Panthers’ coach and has compiled an 88-61-5 career record. The team has eight starters returning from last season’s squad, creating clear strengths in experience and attacking prowess.

Leading the offensive charge will be senior striker and four-year varsity standout Aris Nukic. For his career, Nukic has recorded 32 goals, 25 assists and 89 points. After missing several games with an ankle injury last season, Nukic will try to regain his 2009 form, when he scored 23 goals and assisted on nine others.

Nukic said that individually, he wants to score 30 goals this season, which would tie the Mehlville scoring record held by his brother, Adis Nukic. Team-wise, Aris thinks the Panthers will need to share the ball more often this season.

“We need to play unselfish. Last year, we were very selfish. Everyone played for themselves,” Aris said. “But I think this year, by the look of it during practices, we’re working hard. I can see that we want to win, unlike last year, where we really didn’t care.”

Also powering the Panther attack will be Faik Hajderovic, a senior who enters his fourth season as a varsity player. Hajderovic led Mehlville in goals (10) last season. For his career, Hajderovic has 15 goals and 12 assists for 42 points.

“Faik is exceptionally fast,” Harper said. “He has all of the traditional skill sets that you want out of a dynamic player. The last two years, it kind of clicked for him as a player. Last year, of course, and then going into this year, I think you’ll see that he has respected what we’ve had to say to him and he really has been self-motivated to be the best player on the field.

“He’s the kind of guy that wants the ball at the end of the game. He’s one of those little guys whose motor runs 1,000 miles an hour, but he’s so controlled and so composed on the field, no matter what the situation is. He doesn’t rattle real easy, and that’s what I like about him.”

Mehlville will look for senior Emir Alihodzic to control the game from the central-midfield position. Alihodzic buried eight goals a year ago.

“Emir is a big, strong physical presence in the middle,” Harper said. “We kind of think of Emir as our hired gun. We know his first thought is to put that ball in the back of the goal. If he can’t, then he finds somebody else to do it. He’s probably one of the most dominant players we’ve had in the air. He gets a lot of different looks in the attack.”

Also returning in the midfield is junior flanker Nijaz Muratovic, who tied for the second-most assists last season with five.

“Nijaz is a guy that has the stature of Faik; he’s kind of a smaller guy,” Harper said. “He’s very fast, very aggressive on the wing and gives us great service opportunities. He’s a very good one-on-one player.”

On defense, senior Adin Delic will once again be the anchor. Although Mehlville traditionally plays with a flat back four, Harper used a sweeper-stopper system last season, with Delic in the sweeper role. Delic will reprise that position again this season, though Harper wants to eventually get back to the team’s trademark flat back four.

“We’ve always been that build up from the back kind of team,” Harper said. “With as many great offensive players as we have, it’s difficult sometimes to tell them, ‘Hey, we’ve got to slow it down a notch and knock it around a little bit.’ That’s going to be the biggest challenge for us, I think, is to get that happy medium between when we play possession and when we go for the jugular.

“Typically, we’ve been a very possession-based team, knocking it around the field, spreading teams out and using the wide players. I don’t think anything will change there. I think what will be different is people will see us getting into the attacking phase of the game a little more quickly.”

In goal, senior Danny Gustafson will get his chance to be the starter. Gustafson has spent the better part of the past two seasons backing up Mehlville graduate Blake Westerman. Gustafson was 4-1 last season and 4-0 in 2009.

Mehlville opens its season at home against Triad on Saturday at 6 p.m. When district play rolls around, the Panthers will have to contend with Fox, Kirkwood, Lindbergh, Oakville and Vianney.

Vianney has eliminated Mehlville in districts each of the past three seasons. Harper and the Panthers will be looking to get past that hurdle, and many others, in the upcoming season.

“We’re not looking to be average,” Harper said. “We want to be well beyond average; so, every year, I’m very aggressive in my goals. Obviously if you’re playing high school soccer and your goal is not to be playing that final weekend of the season, I don’t know why you play. Of course, that’s our ultimate goal.

“I think the goal this year is to prove last year was one of those years where things just didn’t come together on-time or at the right times for us… we’ll just take it one game at a time until we get to that knockout round in districts, and we’ll see where the cards are going to fall for us. The ultimate goal is to be playing in November. If all else fails, that’s where we want to be.”