His foot collided with the ball, instantly sending it flying towards the post. The powerful shot, hit from almost 25 yards out, rocketed neatly into the top left corner of the goal, beating the goalie on his near side. The goal was scored by senior Teymour Sadrieh, who possesses offensive capabilities that the team had worried would be missing this season.

To have a chance at fulfilling their goal of winning the championship in this year’s close league, the boys’ varsity soccer team needed to fill the offensive void left by Sasha Boussina, last year’s leading MCAL scorer and first team forward. In his absence, other players have stepped up, including co-captain Sadrieh, on whom the team now depends to stimulate their offense.

Sadrieh has become the deciding factor in many close games, scoring an early goal that proved to be the winner in the team’s MCAL opener against Branson, and tying up the score during a close non-league competition against Maria Carrillo.

“He is our most dynamic attacking player,” said varsity coach Gabe Zieff. “He has to, and he has been, stepping up in the absence of Sasha.”

Sadrieh endeavors to lead by example, and his teammates agree that he is an effective leader..

“I’m not really one for big speeches or anything like that. I just try to keep everyone focused and try to get everyone on the same page before games, ” Sadrieh said. “I think I try to carry over what I want the team to do with how I play. If I want the team to get fired up, I’ll try to run back on defense and make a good play to get everyone back in the groove of things.”

According to his teammates, Sadrieh’s dribbling skills and ball control, as well as his clinical finishing abilities within the box, have made him the leading scorer on the team, with seven goals under his belt in 13 games as of press time.

Still, the statistics do little to capture all of his contributions to the team.

Much of Sadrieh’s talent is in transition play, where he begins the sequence that leads to an offensive chance.

 Opponents have to watch for him challenging defenders and moving down the wings with pace, where he either swings the ball into the box with a cross, or cuts inside for a shot at the goal.

“I like to think that most of my contribution is starting the play,” Sadrieh said. “I move the ball up the field quickly and get things going. I definitely don’t play too physical of a game. I try to play with finesse. I’m relatively direct. I try to get the ball down the field as fast as I can.”

COLLIDING WITH Branson goalie Colby Morris, senior Teymour Sadrieh, who patrols the left wing, loses control of the ball and his chance for a goal. 

As both a starter and finisher, Sadrieh has developed  his role as a dual threat over nine years of competitive soccer experience.

“I played for the Tiburon Dynamites for two years, I moved to Mill Valley Fusion for three years, and then I played Marin FC for the past four years,” Sadrieh said. “I’ve been exposed to a lot of different playing styles.”

Sadrieh most enjoys the offensive half of the game, where he gets to be imaginative in his strategy.

“I’ve never been too physically strong, so I’ve never played defense,” Sadrieh said. “Playing offense allows you to be a lot more creative. Getting to make plays is probably the best part of soccer—just being able to create chances for yourself or make passes so that other people can score.”

While he is primarily an offensive asset, Sadrieh contributes across all positions, according to Zieff.

“He plays as an outside striker and midfielder, but he has significant duties dropping back defensively,” Zieff said.

Sadrieh said that the success of the team is dependent on the players’ wide range of skills.

“I think we play a very different style of soccer than when [Boussina] was here,” Sadrieh said. “Last year, he would pretty much score all of our goals. This year, I think I rely on other players a lot more than [he] did. I have a really good supporting staff this year. The forwards are really good scorers and everyone else has really stepped up to make my job a lot easier.”

Zieff also mentioned the team dynamic.

“We are very much a team that relies on every player,” Zieff said.

Sadrieh has been on the varsity team for three years. While he has stepped up as a main contributor this year, he said he did not get much playing time during his sophomore year.

As co-captain along with senior Jamie Planes and junior Isaac Perper, Sadrieh has also stepped up as a team leader.

“Our coach gives us a freer reign than normal teams,” Sadrieh said. “We have to organize warm ups and he wants us to inspire everyone on the team. I think that we’ve done a good job so far. We had a rough start, but now we’re doing a lot better than we started out.”

Sadrieh said while he has enjoyed playing competitively on both his club and high school teams, he does not want to continue playing soccer in college.

“I kind of wanted high school soccer to be the final thing I do in competitive soccer,” Sadrieh said. “If we could end up winning MCALs, that would be a really good way to end my soccer career.”

Although the team started slowly, winning only one of their three preseason games, the players have picked up the intensity for league play and currently have a 5-1-2 MCAL record as of press time.

Their only loss is against Novato in the second game of the season.

Both the coach and players are clear on the fact that the ultimate goal is an MCAL title.

“I think that we’re definitely an MCAL-winning team if we can put our mind to it,” Sadrieh said. “We had a lot of injuries and we were pretty out of shape at the beginning, but right now we’re really in a good groove. I think we’ve been undefeated for the past five or six games and we’re really rolling. We’re starting to score a little bit more, which was our initial problem. Our forwards and wings have started to find the groove.”

No current Redwood players have ever won an MCAL championship, although Sadrieh and a few of his teammates were on the team that lost a heartbreaker in last year’s finals against Tam.

The team’s next game is today at 4 p.m. at Novato, where the Giants hope to avenge their early loss. To win, the team will need to slow down their small but quick opposing team that is known for their counter attacks.

In particular, the team will need to lock down on Novato player and last year’s all-league second team player Gabriel Estrada, who scored one of the two goals against Redwood in their first matchup.

The Giants will play Terra Linda, the current leader in MCAL, on Oct. 21.