Upstart L.A. Hotspur F.C. finish first WPSL season with four points
After a quick and frenzied start to the 2014 WPSL season, L.A. Hotspur were able to finish the season with four points. In a year of starting from scratch, head coach Edi Mujic was pleased with the progress his team made throughout the season.
From the beginning of the season coach Mujic knew that this would be a challenging season. Coming into this season late, with multiple players coming after the season began, Hotspur faced many challenges. With only three or four players having prior WPSL experience, Mujic had much to teach.
“I got players really late to the WPSL season. Most of the players were taken, but nevertheless, what happened is I had players come and go, which was quite frustrating, and then I had players not understand what I wanted, but towards the end of the season, I was incredibly proud of all the girls, because they started understanding the play I want, and if it would have started at that time we would have done quite well.”
For Mujic, the game of soccer in the United States is approached differently than it is in other parts of the globe. Playing against teams in the WPSL who wanted to win with physical strength and not through strategic planning, Mujic approached his squad much differently. While some say a win is a win, to Mujic it’s much different.
“A loss isn’t a loss to me because I had many games where we played better, we just didn’t finish, but I didn’t let it bother me because I was looking at this as a development team. As I look at teams across the country, there were teams losing 5-0, 6-0, 5-1, but we were losing 1-0, 2-0, tied, and won one, lose 3-2. Everything was very tight, which made me happy that the girls walked off the pitch not being embarrassed. They held their own, which was the wonderful part.”
Looking to next season, Mujic is approaching how he builds his team much differently. Currently he is in the works of building his own team that will compete in the Southern California area. Unlike this past season, Mujic plans to start recruiting players in February and March, opposed to days before the season started this past season. His hope is that starting earlier will provide him with the time to teach his players the fundamentals of his game so they are ready to compete starting at the first match.
Unlike most modern soccer theorists who plan to build around a midfield star, Mujic will be approaching his new team much differently.
“I’m looking defensively first because I like to win the game with defense. I had trouble with my full backs, and my center backs had to do all the work. My first thing will be to look for strong full backs, since I have strong center backs. With most teams liking to come down the wings, you need those strong full backs. Then my next step will be to look for faster wingers. The wingers have to be super fast, but I didn’t have them.”
When looking back at the past season, it was tough for Mujic to pick out a team most valuable player. Catiana Vitanza, who played professionally in Italy and in the USL W-League, was a very important piece to the team.
“She was one of those players you could put anywhere and she would do a fantastic job. She was one of the captains. Wonderful crosses, wonderful play-ins, very effective.”
A second player for Mujic was Kimberley Allard, who plays college soccer for California Baptist University. Allard, who is a junior, was a star forward for the L.A. Hotspur this past season. Even in rare situations Mujic said that Allard could play sweeper and hold her own.
Wrapping up was center midfielder Ana Carinena.
“She was the playmaker, she had the wonderful vision. Very much a professional player, but she didn’t have enough support.”
In a 12-week season like the WPSL uses, it is tough to groom players 100 percent to your liking, but Mujic had a young player in Britty Walley who showed fantastic improvement. Playing center back for the Hotspur, Mujic says she is an absolute beast. A smart player, she learned this season how fast the game is. At 16 years old, she plays high school with Frankie Mujic, daughter of Edi. She jumped two or three levels in the eyes of coach Mujic.
Over the summer, one of the biggest rivalries that formed for the Hotspur was with eventual division champs Beach FC. Only losing 2-1 against the champs, it was the best game his girls played all season. With many of the girls from both squads knowing each other outside of soccer, it was a great rivalry and great competition. Mujic originally recruited many of the girls from Beach FC, only for him to find out once the season had started that their collegiate soccer coach was the coach of Beach FC. In what Mujic calls a “great tactical move” it is now a laughing point, knowing that he got tricked by the cross-town rivals.
With the 2014 season in the books, it overall was a great experience for Edi Mujic and the L.A. Hotspur F.C.. Having to overcome some early season hurdles, Mujic was extremely proud of this team and what they were able to accomplish. With a new team on the horizon for Mujic, look for that squad to give the Pacific South Division a new contender.
