Maryland men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski’s most touching memory of The Crew in his 23 years with the team came in 2012. Maryland faithful were in tears after the Terps lost to Georgetown in the NCAA Tournament Semifinals.
Friday night, the Terps played the Hoyas again in front of a large showing from The Crew in Maryland’s first Friday home game of the season. The fans displayed a similar amount of emotion that they showed in 2012. This time, though, the tears were replaced with smiles.
In front of 7,431 fans, forward Gordon Wild scored the game-winning goal with 45 seconds remaining to push the No. 7 Terps to a 2-1 victory over No. 24 Georgetown.
“It was another magical Friday night at Ludwig,” Cirovski said. “The Crew was fantastic. It’s humbling to see them out here, stand the whole game, cheer and have fun. This is a great rivalry. The best soccer is ahead of them and ours is too.”
Cirovski was happy with the aggression the Terps (2-0-1) started with in their 5-0 win over Hartford on Monday, and he hoped his team could begin the same way Friday. While the Terps did, so did the Hoyas (0-3), as neither squad wasted time picking up their defensive pressure. Maryland was forced to play a faster tempo than it had all season.
Cirovski said the heighten pace may have resulted from it being early in the season or each team wanting to put pressure on the other talented squad.
The Terps still controlled possession, outshooting the Hoyas, 9-2, in the first half. Yet they weren’t able to finish on their chances. The Crew helped the Terps maintain their momentum, though, chanting “Let’s go Maryland” and mocking Georgetown goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski throughout the contest.
“With The Crew back, it’s not every team that gets to have this opportunity,” midfielder Eryk Williamson said. “It’s good to have them behind us. Right when you hear the ‘O’ at the beginning of the game, you kind of get the chills.”
In the second half, the Terps continued to put pressure on the Hoyas. It resulted in a goal in the 55th minute.
Midfielder Amar Sejdic sent a leading cross through two defenders to Williamson. Williamson sprinted past midfielder Kyle Zajec as Marcinkowski rushed out of goal to dive on the ball. But Williamson struck the ball past Marcinkowski and into the bottom right corner of the goal. The Crew broke out with noise and Zajec laid motionless inside the goal with his hands over his head.
While the Terps seemed in control, Georgetown, who hadn’t scored this season entering Friday, netted the equalizer in the 84th minute. Midfielder Matt Ledder crossed the ball in the box to forward Achara, who had beaten the left side of the Terps’ backline. He tapped the ball into the goal.
“We let them out too early and they got end line,” Cirovski said. “When you get end line, good things happen for the attacking team and bad things happen for the defending team. I’m not sure that our players thought there was a player at the back post. That’s too soft of a goal to give up.”
After the goal, the Terps’ leaders, such as defenders Alex Crognale, Chris Odoi-Atsem and Suli Dainkeh, grouped the team together in a circle on the field. The players encouraged each other to stay relaxed, and they were talented enough to win the match. Maryland had been in a similar position before. The Terps gave up a goal in the second minute of their season-opener against UCLA on Aug. 26 and scored about three minutes later.
Maryland rebounded this time, too.
With under a minute to play, Wild was fouled in the box. He missed his initial penalty kick, but the ball was still in play after Marcinkowski blocked it. The German followed it up with a goal into the bottom right corner of the net.
Wild dove near the corner post as teammates dog piled him to finish off Maryland’s first victory over Georgetown since 2009.
“You can’t describe that feeling when the whole team comes up to you, helping the team in that way,” Wild said. “That’s moments you live for and that’s moments especially I live for. How we fighted, this whole energy we had with these fans, that’s something I’ve never felt before.”
