While talking about this year’s Terrapin men’s soccer team, coach Sasho Cirovski couldn’t help but reflect on the way last season ended.
“I still have a bitter taste in my mouth,” Cirovski said. “I think the returning guys know there was an emptiness. What they’ve recognized is the margin is very slim, and this year we’re going to have to pay attention to all of those details that really matter.”
With a two-goal lead and 2:31 remaining in their NCAA tournament third-round match last December, the Terps allowed visiting Bradley to send the game to overtime. A controversial goal in the 109th minute ended their season.
But the team refuses to dwell on the loss, choosing instead to use it as motivation for 2008.
“Of course I thought about it,” junior defender Omar Gonzalez said. “It was a pretty bad way to lose, but it’s really just motivation to come out this year and do a lot better, and really just close out games better.”
Attention to detail might be easier this season, with what Cirovski labeled his most experienced and most talented team since the Terps’ 2005 national championship squad.
The backline returns almost intact, with Gonzalez, the 2007 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, and seniors A.J. Delagarza and Rich Costanzo anchoring a unit that posted six shutouts last season. The midfield is almost as experienced, with sophomore Rodney Wallace and juniors Jeremy Hall, Doug Rodkey and Drew Yates expected to start.
With senior Michael Marchiano nursing an ankle injury, freshman Matt Kassel has seen more time at defensive midfield. Kassel, who was part of the MLS’s New York Red Bulls youth training program and almost joined the club instead of the Terps, is just one part of what College Soccer News listed the No. 1 freshman class in the nation.
The forwards will include senior Graham Zusi, redshirt sophomore Jason Herrick – who tallied 13 points his freshman year before missing last season with an injury – and freshman Casey Townsend, who has seen time on the U.S. Junior National Team.
Sophomore Will Swaim returns in goal, but is facing stiff competition from freshman Zac MacMath. Cirovski said he won’t decide on a permanent starter until four or five games into the season. Thorne Holder, who battled with Swaim throughout last season for the job, transferred to Adelphi University in New York.
Cirovski said the mix of experienced veterans with a highly-touted batch of freshmen reminds him of the 2005 team, which included then-freshmen Chris Seitz, Robbie Rodgers and Zusi.
But that team also included 2005 Hermann Trophy winner Jason Garey and 2007 MLS SuperDraft No. 1 pick Maurice Edu, and had been to the final four three straight years before they finally won it all.
“I think the hunger is the same, though,” Cirovski said. “This team maybe has a hunger of maybe not quite accomplishing what they came here to do so far.”
In a soccer program with such high standards, last season’s third-round loss was a disappointment. Yet these Terps have not shied away from talk of the ultimate goal.
“I don’t see why a national championship is out of our reach, by any means,” Zusi said. “Absolutely we can win it; without a doubt, if we play to our full potential.”
“For sure, I think it’s the most reasonable since I’ve been here,” added Yates of how likely expectations are for a national championship. “I think, overall – from top to bottom and depth-wise – this is the best team we’ve had since I’ve been here. I’m expecting good things this year, and hopefully we bring the trophy home.”
The Terps’ main competitors for that trophy could be from within their conference. No. 4 Boston College, the defending ACC regular-season and conference tournament champs, will come to College Park Sept. 12. Wake Forest, the top-ranked team in the nation and defending national champs, will visit Ludwig Field two weeks later, on Sept. 26.
The ACC Soccer Championship will take place throughout the first half of November in Cary, N.C., followed by the NCAA Tournament, where the Terps hope to avenge last year’s collapse.
“I think about [the Bradley game] all the time, because we definitely could have done a lot better last year,” Yates said. “It just makes you think, but it’s in the past, and we’ve moved on. We’ve got to move on, but we can never forget.”
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