All eyes are on the beginning of pre-season for the University of Charleston's Men's Soccer program and their upcoming 2025 season.

The first team are less than a month away from jetting to the United Kingdom for their first leg of pre-season, landing on August 4th and playing against the academies of some of the best teams in the country. A host of players will arrive back to campus on July 31 before meeting the rest of the roster in London on a 7 day tour hosted by Vertex Soccer. Head Coach Daniel Smee is looking forward to taking the program outside of the US for the first time since 2014, and had this to say: "This is an idea that kind of came out of nowhere but, through the help of some generous community donations and huge amounts of help from our university faculty and staff, we've been able to put it together at fairly short notice. We believe it's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our student-athletes, and are absolutely buzzing for it! We're always looking for ways to enhance and improve and this trip is certainly going to do that."

Once the team return from England, they'll have two domestic pre-season tests, first away to Ashland University August 23, before they welcome Wilmington University to the WAC on August 29. Franco Tradatti, who has been playing at USL2 team Virginia Beach United during the summer, said he can't wait to get off and running again for the Golden Eagles: "I'm very excited about coming back for another year at UC; to meet new and familiar faces, and look to build on what we've done and get back to the Final Four!"

Following the end of pre-season, Charleston's season opener is an out of conference matchup away to Saginaw Valley State University on September 4.

Be sure to follow @ucwv_msoccer on both X and Instagram, and University of Charleston Men's Soccer on Facebook to stay up to date with the program's UK trip, as well as lots of other content throughout the season!