One more game to go and we never have to watch this group ever again. Rozhansky is the only one that consistently shows up. Also apparently Chase Gasper is the most important player in college soccer history. Ever since he got hurt everything has fallen apart.
It certainly makes you wonder if (at least some of) the players were naive enough to think Sasho might have (had) even a snowball's chance of consideration.
I was at the game, btw, my first and (very likely) last chance to watch the team in person, unless Maryland runs the table and makes it to the College Cup Final.
Oh, so we are blaming the press now. He is a coach with 25+ years experience between Hartford and Maryland. If he can't handle some college student reporter's questions then that is another reason for him not to be USMNT coach. If he didn't mean exactly what he said, he should have just said 'no comment' or change the subject. Coaches do it all the time. Meanwhile, my guess is that Maryland will sneak into the NCAA Tournament, despite the five losses in a row. The committee will give the program credit for putting butts in seats, plus a decent if not great overall record. The committee wants a nice, big turnout in the 1st round and Maryland always does that, even if they don't deserve to be there.
Um, sure they have had a terrible end to the season, but they still have an RPI of 23, no where near the cutoff. By Maryland's standards, they have had an off year, but they are still a very good team. Let's not forget that all of their losses are to top 30 teams in the country. They have their work cut out for them, but it's possible that they perform better in the tournament with less expectations on them than the #1 seed they had last year.
No one is forgetting Maryland's strength of schedule. Year in and year out it is one of the selling points of this program and to his credit they take on all these teams. The point is, once you've set the schedule you need to do something against it. It would be one thing if they lost five in a row in September; you don't wanna do it in October/November and the conference tournament. In every NCAA sport the selection committee looks at who finishes strong and who does not. All that said, I still think they squeak in. It may be a gift for the long-term success of the program and the attention they draw to the sport, but I'll take it.
Maryland should be in the NCAA tourney easily. And I doubt anyone really wants to draw them first round: they are for sure a dangerous team, and they likely are a pissed off, very dangerous team. I hope Akron draws them first round, ensuring one of them won't advance.
Maryland is in easily, will get a first round home game and then pity the seeded team that draws them as their first opponent - Maybe UVA ?
Hmmm....could happen. As of right now, #15 UVA, #10 Akron, #12 Georgetown, and #14 Duke are top 16 in the College Soccer News Top 30. I am thinking that if those rankings hold and turn into seedings, then Maryland plays a northeast team in the first round: Dartmouth, UMass, New Hampshire, Columbia, St. John's, etc. -- same way they had the joy of facing Providence last year. Then assuming they advance -- not a given the way they are playing now -- they face one of the aforementioned seeded teams. I am assuming the committee wouldn't make them play VCU or Coastal Carolina again but who the hell knows..... Oh and btw, about this "Maryland is a pissed off team..." they should have been pissed off after they lost two in a row.
At least this thread has finally come alive - it's been a down year for Maryland posters - perhaps the team will follow suit. All Maryland needs to do is survive their first NCAA tournament game. If they manage to do that and build a little momentum, they may run the table, however improbably. As mentioned by previous posters, - as down as the team seems right now, I doubt any team in the upcoming tournament would like to see them as an early-round opponent.
I wish I had more time to comment about the game, merely my impressions - feel free to skip over this post. I went with my 15-year-old son, who had just finished his high school season (won 2, then eliminated in the round of 16). Had promised him a MD tournament game last year, but I took a chance and skipped the Providence game - a long story, which I will now have to relate in last-year's thread. Once again, the weather was uncooperative. No gale-force winds this year, but light rain fell throughout the first half. The stat sheet says cloudy, but for a couple of minutes it rained hard enough to get out the umbrella - the opening of which brought a stiff rebuke from a woman seated ten rows behind us, the stands on our side - even where we sat, exactly at midfield - being virtually empty. Announced attendance was under 650, with maybe 50 or so favoring Wisconsin. About 40 students sat behind the opposing GK's goal, switching ends (as the GK did) at halftime. These fans contributed to the cause be shouting "You suck, Philipp!" every time Wisconsin GK Philipp (Schilling) took a goal kick, or (less frequently) a free kick. Dare I say this became tiresome, and even allowing for the age and immaturity of the MD fans, it struck me immediately as unoriginal and unfunny. Not to mention ineffective, as pretty clearly Philipp remained unintimidated and undistracted throughout the match. More original and much more clever was the loud counting of these same fans from one through six, then repeating the number "six, six, six ..." from the moment Philipp gathered the ball until he released it. A Wambach flashback! Unfortunately, as Philipp handled the ball every minute or two, the magic of this chant wore off as well. ....
I see I still have the floor. The game itself was something of a rainy blur. At no time did MD seem confident, even though they enjoyed long periods of possession. At lot of skill was on display, but the MD attack was oddly ineffective. Whenever Wisconsin counterattacked, they were much more threatening. One sequence in the first half (still at 0-0, before MD opened the scoring), a Wisconsin player running to his left was played in deep for a great (but not easy) chance, if only he had a left foot. Still, his right-footed effort rocked the left post, and before my son and I could fully debate my son's position (that rocking the post justified using the right foot - nonsense), Wisconsin had two more great chances to score, both blocked by MD's GK St Clair, and the second save - on a certain goal hammered from almost on the goal line, which he managed to redirect up and over the crossbar at a very astute angle - might have been the greatest save I have ever seen live and in person. Haven't seen a replay, but it was sensational. As unlucky as Wisconsin then seemed, MD got a fortuitous half-clearance that fell to a well-placed Elney, who banged it home. Had MD's fortunes turned? Alas, though they made it to halftime 1-0 ahead, no. At halftime, we wandered around, passing on the cheeseburgers ($5.75) and the MD gear (cap for $25, {sinking} Under Armour sweatshirts for $80 - new motto 'only our stock price shrinks, our apparel never does.') But I digress. ....
From the point at which MD scored (28') until Wisconsin tied the score (51'), Wisconsin unparked the bus and the game was pretty enjoyable, with chances to score at each end. Finally Wisconsin scored, on a nice individual effort from Leibold, who controlled a long corner kick, lost control, regained it and smartly fired through a big crowd - doubt St Clair had a good look at it. Wisconsin retreated and MD built up their attack, mostly down the wings followed by ineffective crosses. About five minutes before Wisconsin scored the game-winner, there was a nice (instructional) moment almost right in front of their bench and clearly in our view. A MD player pretty obviously put the ball out of play, and only the linesman saw it differently. One of Wisconsin's coaches went absolutely ballistic on the linesman standing right in front of him, and the center ref really had no choice but to show the coach a red card. Speaking of cards ...
Completely forgot to mention Steve Goff reported in the Washington Post today that ex-Terp Robbie Rogers announced his retirement. This is the quote from the WPost article, appears at the end of an article about Nashville approving construction of a soccer stadium and seeking an MLS franchise: : "Robbie Rogers, the first openly gay male athlete in U.S. pro sports, announced his retirement after missing the Los Angeles Galaxy’s 2017 season with an ankle injury. Rogers, 30, played one season at the University of Maryland (2005 NCAA championship) before moving to Dutch club Heerenveen for six months, then the Columbus Crew for five seasons, Leeds and Stevenage in England for two seasons, then the Galaxy in 2013. He played in the Olympics and Under-20 World Cup and earned 18 senior caps (two goals). In thanking the public, he wrote: “That feeling of acceptance and support pushed me as an athlete and as a person. Having the opportunity to win an MLS Cup in my hometown [in 2014] with my hometown club as an openly gay man will be something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”"
I remember the first college soccer match I ever saw was the 2005 semifinal game where Robbie Rogers absolutely torched SMU down the left side. At the time, I thought he was the best winger I'd seen. He was an inspiration to me and it's awesome to see him live out a good career through soccer.
Now, where was I? Cards, iirc. Not counting the red to the Wisconsin assistant coach, Wisconsin had 3 yellows, Maryland 1, but there could have been a few more. Williamson certainly suffered from persistent infringement, and a couple of bad fouls on him were in fact carded. On one foul on Williamson well after he released the ball, the ref played on but came back and issued a card to the offender, but that probably should have happened another time or two. But Wisconsin was mostly physical but fair. That leads me to point number one. Maryland of late is not exactly a hothouse flower, but the team does seem to be built for a fast track and a fair wind. Wisconsin seemed very much at home in the breezy rain, with the sloppy footing and slick ball. They played good, safe soccer, while Maryland was inefficient and mostly ineffective. ....
Well, does everybody feel better now? Terps make it to the 1st round and host Albany (14-4-2) of which I know nothing about. Has anyone seen them play? Their departmental blurb on getting into the Show says the 14 wins is a program record: http://www.ualbanysports.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=15800&SPID=7995&SPSID=84579
What a bunch of losers and/or mental midgets. Only two seniors actually played, but I won't be upset if plenty more of the starters don't come back.
Sadly, never been happier to have a Maryland soccer season come to an end. To a refreshed and refocused 2018.