Kaland Named Conference Player of the Week
October 23, 2001 | Men's Soccer
Terrier senior captain Joachim Kaland (Fonnes, Norway), whose three goals and three assists this past weekend helped lead the men's soccer team to key conference wins over the University of Albany and Stony Brook, has been named the America East Adidas Player of the Week.
This marks the first time this year that Kaland has been so honored by the conference, but the second time a B.U. player has been named the Adidas Player of the Week. On September 24th, sophomore forward Andrew Dorman (Flintshire, Wales) was similarly honored.
On Friday night (October 19th), Kaland scored two goals, both on penalty kicks, in B.U.'s 3-2 overtime win over the University of Albany.
Then, two days later, he scored a goal and added three assists in the team's 6-1 win over Stony Brook.
His three goals over the weekend brought his season total to 15, which ties him for sixth place on the University's all-time list for goals in a season. Chris Parlante also scored 15 goals in 1962. The all-time record is 18 co-held by Kyle Fresh (1992) and Nick Bone (1994). His three assists on Sunday brought his season total to five and his overall point total to 35, which ties him with Bone for the seventh-best single-season total in school history.
With still four regular-season games to be played, Kaland has 29 goals and 72 points for his career. The goal total is tied for seventh on the all-time list with Tim Horton's (1989-91), while his point total ties him with Ola Olsen (1992-95).
"Joachim is having a great year for us," said Terrier head coach Neil Roberts, whose team is 9-4-1 overall and 5-1-1 in the league. The Terriers are tied with Towson and Hartford for second in the league. B.U. still has to play both teams. They travel to Hartford for a game on Friday night (October 26th) and will close out their regular season at home against Towson on November 4th.
"He has been finishing off consistently this year," said Roberts. Kaland has at least one goal in each of his last three games during which his totals are five goals and three assists for 13 points.
Overall, this season, he has at least one goal in eight games and at least one point in nine games. He has a season high six points on three goals against Lehigh on September 2nd, while he's had five points in two other games. He had 2-1-5 against George Mason on September 21st and 1-3-5 against Stony Brook last Sunday (October 21st).
He is currently second in America East in goals per game (1.15) and second in points per game (2.69).
Nationally, prior to last weekend's games, he was fourth in the country in goals per game with 1.09 and tied for ninth in points per game with 2.36. Both those averages are up this week following last weekend's action.
"We are certainly a much better team when he is on the field," said Roberts. "We are always a threat to score. He is very active whether he is back playing defense or moving forward on offense. Everything changes when he's in the game.
"Also, because teams are so conscious of him they tend to overplay him and that makes Andrew (Dorman) more dangerous," said Roberts. A sophomore, Dorman leads the team in assists with nine, while he is second in goals with six and in points with 21.
As a freshman last year, Dorman had 6-2-14, but Kaland played defense the first seven games before he suffered a season-ending injury. With Kaland back in the lineup this year, and his playing his natural position of midfield, Dorman's scoring totals are up, as are the team's totals. In 17 games last year, the Terriers scored 28 goals and added 24 assists for 80 points. Thus far, this year, in 14 games, the team has 35 goals and 30 assists for 100 points.
"Frankly, I am not surprised at how well Joachim is doing this year," concluded Roberts. "He is a complete player."
