Gutierrez Already Making Her Mark In Athens
September 18, 2014 | Soccer
Sept. 18, 2014
Although the Mexico Women's U-20 National Team didn't make it out of the group stage of the World Cup in Canada this past summer, Mariel Gutierrez was able to learn plenty from her experience.
The Mexico City native is looking to build off of the things she learned playing against the world's best competition.
"Playing against the best players from each country like Nigeria, South Korea and England, they're pretty good," she said. "The fastest of Nigeria, the best of England and the biggest of South Korea, it made me try to understand the different styles of all the world."
Gutierrez, a freshman defender, is applying that understanding of different styles of play to her development as a soccer player never having played regularly in the United States.
"Well, the soccer is a little bit different," she said. "The style is different. The United States plays more directly. At the beginning, it was a little bit harder to understand their game. But I feel like I am getting used to how they play. At the beginning it was hard, but I like how they play."
Like many international players coming to play collegiately in the United States, Mariel has had to adjust not only to the athletic differences, but also the linguistic changes as well.
"(Mariel) has been fantastic," head coach Steve Holeman said. "She obviously arrived late being at the World Cup, but she's integrated extremely well into our system. It's a bit of a process for her because she started off having missed a week and a half of preseason so she has to learn our system and the way we do things, and the tactics, and also the language. She's fluent in English, but she has to learn the soccer jargon. She's come quite a ways."
With great ability comes great recognition in her home country, as Gutierrez has come to realize. With over 24,000 followers on Twitter, she has built up quite the support base.
Meanwhile, Bulldog fans looking out for her on the soccer field this season can watch as she tries to accomplish her goals.
"I would love to score a goal. It's really difficult to score from left back but I would love to do that," she said.
The Bulldogs have started the season 5-1-1 and will look to continue their success this weekend as they face Vanderbilt in their conference home opener set to air on the SEC Network. Georgia will kick off against the Commodores on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 at the UGA Soccer Stadium, located in the Turner Soccer Complex.
"I feel like we're going to play a good game (on Sunday)," Mariel said. "In our games this season, we have played really well. We have scored a lot of goals and we don't have a lot of goals scored against us. Our team is in good shape so I think it's going to be fun officially opening SEC play."
Jack Ryan is a junior from Chatham, N.J., who is majoring in Economics. Ryan, who grew up a self-processed Notre Dame fan but is now all Bulldog, is in his third year as a student assistant with the UGA Sports Communications office.
"Coming Attractions" is a weekly feature published on georgiadogs.com spotlighting a UGA student-athlete who will be competing in a key home event during the upcoming weekend. Previous stories include:
August 28 - David Andrews (football vs. Clemson)
September 4 - Carly Hamilton (cross country in Bulldog Invitational)
September 11 - Tirah Leau (volleyball in Benson Hospitality Invitational)
By Jack Ryan
Although the Mexico Women's U-20 National Team didn't make it out of the group stage of the World Cup in Canada this past summer, Mariel Gutierrez was able to learn plenty from her experience.
The Mexico City native is looking to build off of the things she learned playing against the world's best competition.
"Playing against the best players from each country like Nigeria, South Korea and England, they're pretty good," she said. "The fastest of Nigeria, the best of England and the biggest of South Korea, it made me try to understand the different styles of all the world."
Gutierrez, a freshman defender, is applying that understanding of different styles of play to her development as a soccer player never having played regularly in the United States.
"Well, the soccer is a little bit different," she said. "The style is different. The United States plays more directly. At the beginning, it was a little bit harder to understand their game. But I feel like I am getting used to how they play. At the beginning it was hard, but I like how they play."
Like many international players coming to play collegiately in the United States, Mariel has had to adjust not only to the athletic differences, but also the linguistic changes as well.
"(Mariel) has been fantastic," head coach Steve Holeman said. "She obviously arrived late being at the World Cup, but she's integrated extremely well into our system. It's a bit of a process for her because she started off having missed a week and a half of preseason so she has to learn our system and the way we do things, and the tactics, and also the language. She's fluent in English, but she has to learn the soccer jargon. She's come quite a ways."
With great ability comes great recognition in her home country, as Gutierrez has come to realize. With over 24,000 followers on Twitter, she has built up quite the support base.
Meanwhile, Bulldog fans looking out for her on the soccer field this season can watch as she tries to accomplish her goals.
"I would love to score a goal. It's really difficult to score from left back but I would love to do that," she said.
The Bulldogs have started the season 5-1-1 and will look to continue their success this weekend as they face Vanderbilt in their conference home opener set to air on the SEC Network. Georgia will kick off against the Commodores on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 at the UGA Soccer Stadium, located in the Turner Soccer Complex.
"I feel like we're going to play a good game (on Sunday)," Mariel said. "In our games this season, we have played really well. We have scored a lot of goals and we don't have a lot of goals scored against us. Our team is in good shape so I think it's going to be fun officially opening SEC play."
Jack Ryan is a junior from Chatham, N.J., who is majoring in Economics. Ryan, who grew up a self-processed Notre Dame fan but is now all Bulldog, is in his third year as a student assistant with the UGA Sports Communications office.
"Coming Attractions" is a weekly feature published on georgiadogs.com spotlighting a UGA student-athlete who will be competing in a key home event during the upcoming weekend. Previous stories include:
August 28 - David Andrews (football vs. Clemson)
September 4 - Carly Hamilton (cross country in Bulldog Invitational)
September 11 - Tirah Leau (volleyball in Benson Hospitality Invitational)
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