March 22, 2007

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara men's soccer team takes off on Saturday, March 24 for a nine-day trip to Japan. The team will play three matches and also catch a J-League match between FC Tokyo and Kashiwa Reysol. Head coach Cameron Rast is bringing a roster of 24 players and each match-day will feature an A-team game and a B-team game.

"We are all looking forward to this trip," said Rast. "Every player will get to play in some competitive games against some quality teams. Also, the trip will be a good cultural experience for our team. We have taken some teams in the past on some international trips that were very successful."

The Broncos traveled to Madrid and Barcelona in 1999 and also made trip to London and Manchester, England in 2003.

After arriving in Tokyo on Sunday, March 25, the team will then connect to Momoyama, where it will stay at Momoyama Gakuin University. The Broncos plan to spend March 26 sight-seeing around Osaka.

The Broncos play their first match of the trip on March 27 against Kansai University, which was the league champion in 2006. The following day, SCU takes on Momoyama Gakuin University the following day. Momoyama won the league championship in 2005. SCU is scheduled to play both A and B team games those days.

Two days later, and one day after more sightseeing, the Broncos will play their final match of the trip on March 29. They will face Hannan University with the squad split in half once again.

The excursion will conclude with the J-League match in Tokyo on March 31.

Stay tuned to SantaClaraBroncos.com for updates and scores of the games from SCU's trip to Japan.