CSUN Stopper : Ass’ad Expects Freshman Goalie Nagy to Be Like Wall for Matadors

Marwan Ass’ad’s eyes gleamed and his voice took on a conspiratorial tone.

“He’s a natural, man,” the men’s soccer coach at Cal State Northridge said of his first-year goalkeeper. “This kid was born to be a goalie.”

And then: “If he plays well, if he has a great year, I guarantee you we’ll go to the playoffs.”

Nothing like a little advance billing, eh, rookie?

With guarded countenance, Zoltan Nagy twitches his shoulders and smiles thinly when Ass’ad’s sentiments are revealed to him.

“It’s exciting, but this first game will be a real test and we’ll go from there,” Nagy said. “I feel pretty confident in myself and my players.”

Ass’ad is obviously confident in Nagy. The 18-year old Diamond Bar native was the first recruit the Northridge coach pursued last spring and is one of 16 freshmen on the Matadors’ roster this fall.

So far, the touted netminder has lived up to his billing. Nagy has impressed coaches and teammates with an aggressive style and soft hands. But as he knows, the first real indication will come Saturday in the Matadors’ opener against California in Berkeley.

Nagy will need to shine, not only against the Bears, but throughout the season if the Matadors are to lay to rest memories of a turbulent 1994 campaign, the program’s first losing season since 1982.

Ass’ad first spied Nagy, then a high school junior, in the spring of 1994 when the club team Ass’ad was coaching came up against Nagy’s team in the semifinals of the State Cup tournament.

“We couldn’t score on him; he was a stud,” said Ass’ad, whose team failed to convert four breakaways against Nagy.

With budget concerns clouding the future of Northridge athletics last fall and winter, Ass’ad could not get an early start on recruiting and feared he would be unable to entice Nagy to join the Matadors.

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However, the 6-foot, 185-pound product of Damien High in La Verne was still unsigned when a student fee referendum passed last spring. Ass’ad wasted no time in offering a partial scholarship.

“We went after him immediately once the referendum passed and we had [scholarship money],” Ass’ad said. “This kid played with the best club teams in Southern California. He’s quick and he’s got experience.”

Nagy has been playing soccer since the age of 6, shortly after he and his family defected from their native Hungary and its then-Communist government.

“In those days you could not tell of your true intentions,” said Zoltan’s father, Tibor, who was a goalkeeper himself until an injury cut his career short at age 19. “We took a vacation and forgot to go back.”

Nagy played forward in Diamond Bar’s chapter of the American Youth Soccer Organization but he and his father soon decided he belonged in the goal. From youth leagues, Nagy progressed to traveling club teams and began a year-round obsession with the game.

Nagy’s life on and off the field has been flavored by annual summer trips to Hungary since the collapse of the Communist regime in the late 1980s. Nagy dreams of someday playing professionally in Hungary and he and his father often use the trips as an opportunity to attend games and study goalkeepers.

“We talk about techniques, timing, what the goalie’s thinking and what his mistakes are,” Tibor said. “I always tell [Zoltan] a goalie isn’t good when he makes big saves, he’s good when you don’t notice him. Big plays come when you have big problems on defense.”

Nagy and the Northridge defense may have a few problems this fall, if only for their inexperience.

The Matadors could start as many as eight freshman. Three of four their defenders are likely to be rookies. Nonetheless, Nagy has confidence in the team and in the tight guarding technique taught by Ass’ad.

“We play a real defensive style, a lot like the Brazilian national team,” Nagy said. “Other teams will have a tough time controlling the ball in the middle of the field.”

Ass’ad is practically giddy over his team’s chances. In his 13th season at Northridge, the coach has brought in the largest and what he considers the most talented recruiting class in recent years.

“It would not surprise me if we succeeded early on with flying colors,” Ass’ad said.

Goalie coach Mike Diamond knows it starts with Nagy.

“He’s starting to read the college game better already,” Diamond said. “He’s aggressive right off the bat with good hands and he’s real athletic. He knows a lot about the game already; he just needs experience.”

The match against Cal will provide a first test. The Golden Bears were 7-10-1 last season, including a 4-3 overtime loss to Northridge.

“If he has not got the seriousness of Division I soccer, he will get it on Saturday,” Ass’ad said of Nagy. “He will earn the respect of his teammates and coaches by winning and by making the big save. He hasn’t won anything yet.”