Fans of the Seattle Sounders or those who follow the U.S. National soccer team probably wouldn’t believe it, but there was a time when Brad Evans wasn’t so sure of himself on the pitch.

There is a bit of tidying up left to do, but for the most part the soccer season is heading toward the postseason.

While the Desert Vista soccer teams brought home the hardware from the Tempe Diablos Soccer Classic, the Mountain Pointe programs showed something as well.

The Desert Vista boys soccer team is staying home for the holidays.

The Desert Vista boys soccer team is staying home for the holidays.

The high school soccer teams have been squeezed together like a bunch of sardines and it is leaving a bad aftertaste for a lot of the coaches.

The high school soccer teams have been squeezed together like a bunch of sardines and it is leaving a bad aftertaste for a lot of the coaches.

Spencer Thompson has played against every defensive soccer strategy known, but he never faced the kind of intense pressure he faced for a month in the Portland Timbers training camp.

The Mountain Pointe boys soccer team will make its second trek in four days to Yuma for the postseason.

February Frenzy is just about here.

Winter break can't come soon enough for most people.

Winter break can't come soon enough for most people.

The way Bryan Sabato sees it the 2010-11 boys soccer season is a chance to return to coaching a team game at Mountain Pointe.

The opening game of the year pitted neighborhood rivals Desert Vista and Mountain Pointe boys soccer teams at Karl Kiefer Stadium Tuesday night.

Chandler Hamilton has had Phoenix Mountain Pointe’s number in boys soccer this year, and that number is clearly a zero.

No one had to tell Forrest Townsend to make the most of his fleeting days in high school.

It started out as a lark, but Kevin Kadisak turned the shenanigans into an asset.

 There’s some good news and some bad news for the Mountain Pointe’s boys soccer team, news that comes with being realigned in a new athletic region.  “It’s good that we don’t have to get our butts kicked two times a year again by Corona,” Pride coach Bryan Sabato said. “But it’s bad that outside of Marcos we’ve never seen the other team in our conference.”  Mountain Pointe had been in the fourteam Central Region, but the revised East Valley Region is a mixture of teams from the Central, Pima, Southern and former East Valley conferences.  The new conference includes Casa Grande, Mesa Desert Ridge, Gilbert Perry, Mesa Skyline and Westwood, as well as Tempe Marcos de Niza.  “We don’t know what Perry or Desert Ridge can do, for example,” Sabato said. “You can read about them and talk to people who have seen them, but until you actually play them you just don’t know.”  The Pride have shed teams like Corona del Sol, Basha and rival Desert Vista from their regular season schedule in the make-over, but will still get a chance to see them during the year.  Mountain Pointe and Desert Vista open the season with the soccer version of the Ahwatukee Cup on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at Desert Vista.  The annual Tempe Diablos Classic is a week later.  “We have quite a few players back,” Sabato said, “but there still isn’t a lot of playing experience there.”  The Pride was 3-9-1 last season, but have some key players, like goal keeper Kevin Kadisak, midfielder Brandon Hansen, defender Ryan Leach and forward Ricardo Ardon, back this season.  “We should be solid up the middle with Kevin in goal, Ryan Leach in the middle, Ricardo and Brandon up top,” Sabato added. “With Brandon, Ryan and Ricardo you know what you’re getting, but we’re still waiting to see what other guys who were on the team last year bring with them.”  Tournaments like the Diablo and the Dobson Mustang Classic over the Christmas break give coaches an opportunity to explore lineups and schemes.  “There aren’t any power points involved, “Sabato explained, “so you get to experiment and see who is going to step up and it gives a chance to measure what you have to offer.”  None of this season’s East Valley boys teams made it to the state playoffs last year.  “Some schools may not necessarily have the talent,” Sabato said, “but that doesn’t make it a cake walk. It may be a new region, but we can expect every team to bring it hard every night.”

Hollywood thrives on these kinds of story plots.