Wes Hart: “It’s just another game.”

The Alabama Soccer head coach isn’t putting too much hype in the Tide’s return to the NCAA second round.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - It's going to be an exciting day for soccer in Tuscaloosa. Not only will the Crimson Tide take on the Portland Pilots in a second round NCAA Tournament matchup, but fans will be treated to a doubleheader: a match between Brown and UC Irvine, both who made it by upsetting Rutgers and USC in the first round, respectively. 

What makes it more interesting is the winners of the two matches will meet on Sunday in the third round of the tournament. Alabama is going in as the favorite to make it out of the bunch, but as a host of three total games in three days, it makes for a compelling weekend of tournament soccer.

"It'll be a lot of fun having UC Irvine and Brown play before us," Coach Wes Hart said about playing in a doubleheader. He also shared how it reminded him of coaching club soccer, the only difference being he won't have to coach three games in one day.

Among all the anticipation, however, the fact still remains that this is the same spot that Alabama reached last year, where the Tide lost 4-1 to BYU.

This time around, Alabama is much stronger, but Hart isn’t too invested in the hype of the moment.

"It's just another game," Hart said about the message he's telling his players. "It's no different than us playing BYU, or Clemson. For me, I don't want to make this game bigger than it is. It's another game, another opponent, and we gotta continue doing what we've done all year long."

It'll also be a cold one tomorrow as temperatures around game time will be in the 50s, but Hart said once the players start running “it’ll be fine.”

Alabama will take on Portland tomorrow at 6 p.m. 

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