The start of the men’s soccer season saw a new head coach, and a winning change for the team. The team has had a record number of wins this season.
When Markus Bathelt took the helm of the Principia Men’s Soccer team this fall, he made several changes to the team’s strategy. Bathelt has decades of experience coaching from Germany to California and spent the past couple of years at Principia as assistant coach. He introduced a new formation, a 3-5-2 formation, referencing where the players are located and players and fans say that is what strengthened the team’s offense.
Bathelt has played soccer for most of his life. He was born in Germany and played soccer from the age of 7 to 19 with different competitive teams in his home country.
“I decided I wanted to leave Germany,” Bathelt said, “and conquer the world a little bit and get to know other parts.”
The coach, who speaks five languages now, according to his CV, said he spent the past few decades in California, but has traveled to Central and South America, and back to Germany.
Bathelt said he first got interested in coaching, when his stepdaughter’s team needed a coach. This eventually led to him going back to college for a degree in kinesiology, the study of movement, which helped pave the way for him to coach various soccer clubs, high school teams, and college teams. Right before coming to Principia he spent more than a decade as head coach at a junior college in California.
Then Bathelt’s wife got a job in Illinois, so they moved he said.
“That was when I started to help out with Jess, the former head coach,” Bathelt said, “I was assisting him for a couple of years.” When Former Head Coach Jess Semnacher stepped down, Bathelt said he was asked if he was “interested in doing this. And that’s how we’re here.”
In the 2024 conference season, the men’s team has had a record of 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. COMPARE THAT WITH the 2023 CONFERENCE SEASON. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME IT HAD A RECORD WIN?
“I changed the formation from what Jess had before,” Bathelt said, “it’s probably 3-5-2 formations which makes it a bit more of an attacking style.” Bathelt said that the number of shots on goal this season so far is almost equal to those of last season combined as a result of the attacking. EXPLAIN WHAT 3-5-2 MEANS
“At the end of the day, I’d rather win 4-3 than lose 0-1 just because we didn’t get many shots on the goal,” Bathelt said.
Bathelt said that sometimes when the opposing team has a strong offense he’ll switch to a 4-3-3. This is still an offensive system, but more defensively inclined.
“Every formation has its strengths and weaknesses,” Bathelt said, “so as long as know those and are able to cover the weaknesses then that can help us be more successful and unpredictable down the road.” Bathelt said that being flexible is important especially when dealing with teams that might have a strong offense, when you have to reinforce the defense and shift to a more defensive formation.
An example of when flexibility was demonstrated was in their game with Westminster, which is a very offense-focused team.
“In the first half,” Bathelt said, “even though the guys did well in the 3-5-2, for some reason they were off and just us mixing it a little bit and changing the formation the first 30 minutes of the second half as opposed to the first half was like night and day.”
Sophomore Effenberg Joya Guerra has felt Bathelt’s impact on the team.
“Last time the idea was to keep the ball and to open space,” Joya Guerra said, “and this time we’re going more direct.” Joya Guerra is one of the leading scorers on the team.
