West London Varsity: Men’s football preview with goalkeeper Ace Prasad
The countdown to West London Varsity has begun. All the athletes are getting ready to represent St Mary’s and Brunel respectively in over 15 different sports all throughout Wednesday the 26th of March.
It promises to be a sporting extravaganza and a day that will end either with St Mary’s winning a threepeat of Varsity’s in a row, or the trophy returning to Brunel for the first time since 2022.
The teams will face off at facilities all around the main St Mary’s campus as well as down at the Teddington Lock facility where the football pitches will located. One of those teams playing down at Teddington Lock will be the Men’s Football first team, affectionately known as the 1’s.
I got a chance to speak to starting goalkeeper, and India under 21 national team trialist Ace Prasad, who has also played friendlies for Singapore’s under 21 team as well as club football for the likes of Harrow Borough and Abbey Rangers.
Varsity
Discussing the value of Varsity itself, and the wider British University and College Sports (BUCS) program, Ace described it as “a really good testing ground … [to] try different things that I’ve been working on in training, different techniques and implement that in game situations.”
He also went on to say that “where the consequences aren’t that severe allows you to try things freely without stress. I think that’s the best thing about it is the fact that there’s no pressure when you play.”
Varsity is almost an escape from league football where, as Ace mentioned, “there’s a very big spotlight on players, and so making mistakes at that level have quite a big impact on league performances, points plus there’s money on the line.”
Speaking of league football, some of the members of the 1’s team don’t just play for St Mary’s, they play non-league as well. Ace said that “Most of our guys have step football experience, step four, step five. [One of] our centre mid’s has experience at that step three, step two level as well.”
On the flip side as well, they have “guys who just play uni football but do it really well.” The blend of step, non-league and BUCS experience should serve St Mary’s well, taking on a Brunel team that they’ve already beaten twice away from home this season, each time winning by a 2-1 scoreline.
It looks like it’s going to be an extremely exciting match, with St Mary’s looking to do the threepeat, both in terms of the football and the overall Varsity trophy, and Ace’s steady hands in goal will go a long way towards making that dream a reality.
