In the 57th minute of the Maryland men’s soccer team’s 3-2 win against Penn State on Sunday, the Terps were attacking the Nittany Lions’ goal when Penn State forward Riley Grant gained possession.
Maryland players wanted the referees to call Grant for a handball. Forward Sebastian Elney threw his hands into the air as the Terps’ forwards jogged back on defense. The Nittany Lions, meanwhile, worked the ball up the field, and forward Dayonn Harris sprinted past the Terps’ backline, which was standing at the midline.
With only goalkeeper Cody Niedermeier to beat, Harris received a cross and struck the ball into the bottom-left corner of the net to open the scoring.
Twenty-three minutes later, Penn State scored again off of a counter-attack. So while the No. 4 Terps avoided their first loss of the season by responding to each of their opponent’s goals, coach Sasho Cirovski said Maryland will focus on stopping counter-attack scores going forward.
“We have to be able to snuff out a counter much better,” Cirovski said. “As we attack, we leave ourselves very vulnerable to counter-attacks. Our decision making with the ball has to be better, and our ability to deny the outlets of other teams when they win the ball has to be better.”
The Terps held Penn State to two shots, but because of Maryland’s struggles to defend counter attacks, the Nittany Lions capitalized on both opportunities.
In the 80th minute, Penn State goalkeeper Arie Ammann sent a goal kick to midfield. The Terps failed to gain possession of the loose ball, so Nittany Lions midfielder Pierre Reedy sprinted to corral it.
Reedy slipped a pass between defenders Alex Crognale and Donovan Pines to find Harris, who again faced Niedermeier one-on-one before depositing his second goal of the match.
“Definitely [work on] just defensive awareness and little mental moments where the ball might be two yards away from you,” midfielder Amar Sejdic said. “If you’re in that position, you could’ve had that ball. It’s definitely conversation from the back and dealing with the first ball better and not allowing them to play that ball in behind.”
With three senior starters, Cirovski said before the season the Terps’ backline is one of the best units he’s coached. The unit and their teammates made some mistakes Sunday. While Maryland controlled possession throughout the match, two poor decisions allowed the Nittany Lions to hold a lead with seven minutes remaining.
It took two goals from forward Gordon Wild, who leads the Big Ten with eight scores, to lead Maryland to victory.
“They had two total shots and scored two times. That’s tough,” Wild said. “We definitely have to work on our defensive shaping. It’s something we will work on this week and hopefully we will put that away.”
After all, Sunday marked the second consecutive game the Terps committed a defensive miscue.
In Maryland’s 2-1 win over Rutgers on Sept. 13, Sejdic failed to clear the ball in the Terps’ box off a corner kick, allowing it to roll to Rutgers midfielder Dante Perez. From outside the box, Perez struck the ball into the top left corner of the net on one of the two shots the Scarlet Knights attempted in the contest.
While Maryland usually plays twice per week, it plays one match per week over the next two. Wild said the time off will help the Terps limit the backline’s mistakes.
“We have to become better defensively,” Cirovski said. “We have to be tougher to score against defensively. That’s my responsibility. That will be the focal point of our group going forward.”
