Frank Salituro, head coach of the Kamloops Excel, knows his team will be in tough in the first month of the Pacific Coast Soccer League men’s premier season.

After that, he’s quite confident.

The Excel is to open the season on Saturday against the Okanagan Challenge in Kelowna, before playing host the Victoria Highlanders on Sunday, 1 p.m., at Hillside Stadium.

Salituro’s lineup is full of injuries — some short-term, but a couple of them are long-term. When the short-term injuries end, the Excel should quite competitive, Salituro says.

“It’s just a matter of getting our players back and healthy,” said Salituro. “Once we get all of our players out, we’ll be one of the stronger teams.”

The Excel was 8-6-2 last season, and missed the playoffs on a goal-differential tiebreaker. It was 7-10-1 in 2008, after going 4-12-2 in its first PCSL season.

If Kamloops wants to make the playoffs, it will be without two of its top players — Brynden Swint is out for the season with an ACL injury, and Casey Cullen is out with an Achilles injury.

Brett Nordin has recently had hernia surgery, so will miss at least three matches, while Jason Burrows is a couple of weeks away and Seb Gardner is out of town and won’t play this weekend.

“We’re just waiting for them to get back out there,” Salituro said. “We’ll be strong as soon as we get all the guys out. Our players are good as it is, so we’ll be able to hold the fort down.”

The Excel still has a solid core of players — among them are goalkeeper Aaron Kidd, Jamie Spendlove and Kyle Bowman, who also will miss this weekend’s games. Ryan Glanville has decided to return for the summer.

“We’re going to be fine, we’re thinking we can make the playoffs,” Salituro said. “The league will be very close, I think, and we’ll be right there.”

Each PCSL team will play a 16-game regular season. The Challenge Cup, for which four teams will qualify, is scheduled for July 24-25 in Coquitlam.

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The Kamloops Heat, meanwhile, will play host to Vancouver FC on Saturday, 5 p.m., at Hillside Stadium.

Kamloops is 1-2.

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca