As UMBC coach Pete Caringi told the media his team’s season wasn’t defined by its impressive 1-1 tie with the Maryland men’s soccer team on Tuesday, he paused and glanced over his shoulder.
“Wow,” he said.
On the other end of the field, Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski was still meeting with his players, yelling loudly enough that it temporarily distracted Caringi.
Cirovski was unhappy with his team’s play, which led to a somewhat surprising 1-1 draw. The Retrievers (5-2-2) welcomed No. 3 Maryland to Baltimore on the heels of a 2-0 loss to No. 12 Western Michigan.
“A lot of teams [that play Maryland] are satisfied with coming away with a draw,” Caringi said. “I’ll be honest — and I’m not trying to say that I’m bragging or nothing — but that’s really never how we play and that’s not how we played today.”
When watching film of Maryland, Caringi noticed Maryland’s opponents didn’t consistently pressure the Terps (6-0-3), so UMBC focused on countering.
Maryland still controlled play for portions of the tie — outshooting UMBC 24-12 — but Caringi and the Retrievers were more dangerous on counterattacks than many of the Terps’ previous opponents, who were dedicated to defending.
“We kept giving the ball away in the final third in their half,” Maryland defender Donovan Pines said. “So they were counterattacking us and so we just kept getting tired.”
That was part of the Retrievers’ game plan to break down a Maryland defense that hadn’t conceded in more than 500 minutes entering Tuesday. Caringi’s other objective was to capitalize off set pieces.
All four of the goals Maryland conceded entering Tuesday came off set pieces.
“We knew that some of our strengths were some of their weaknesses,” Caringi said, “and we wanted to exploit that.”
Cirovski estimated 70 percent of UMBC’s goals this season came off set pieces. In the 60th minute — five minutes after Pines gave Maryland a 1-0 lead — midfielder Amar Sejdic was called for a handball around midfield, giving UMBC a chance Cirovski called “innocent-looking.”
It turned out to be lethal.
The Retrievers lofted the free kick into the box and passed back to midfielder Sammy Kahsai. From just outside the box, Kahsai lobbed the ball toward goal, and Retrievers midfielder Gregg Hauck beat Maryland goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair to it, poking home the equalizer with his right foot.
“They have some really great competitors out there that just fight and scrap for every ball,” Cirovski said. “And you know, they got one.”
That ended Maryland’s shutout streak at 567 minutes and prevented the Terps from setting a school record with six consecutive clean sheets. Cirovski and Pines were still happy with the defense’s performance, despite conceding for the first time since Sept. 1.
“[St. Clair] had to come up big a couple of times,” Cirovski said. “He’s been doing that all year. Our backs stood tall.”
That defensive prowess prevented UMBC from stealing a win, but the unranked Retrievers’ attacking strategy helped them become the first team outside the top 10 to tie the Terps this season — and moved them to 1-0-2 in their last three meetings with Maryland.
“When we play them, we’re very confident,” Caringi said. “We welcome the challenge. You can’t say that about a lot of teams.”
