Stretching back to last year, the Terps have gone nine games without a win, during which they've scored all of two goals. Since four of these games went to OT they've played an extra 73 minutes, so that's two goals in 883 minutes. They haven't scored in their last four games going back to last season; their last goal was in the first half against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament. The Terps' scoreless streak now stands at 482 minutes. In fairness, they've played mostly good teams during this slump. But it sure feels like someone has stolen Sasho's mojo. The 2013 NCAA final now seems like a long time ago and the kids the team is recruiting now were 5 or 6 when Maryland last won an NCAA championship. Maryland can't walk into a kid's living room and claim to be one of the top programs in college soccer anymore. Still a really good program, but Stanford (3x), Virginia (2x), Akron, Indiana and North Carolina have all won national titles more recently than the Terps and would seem to be more relevant to young players right now. And since they last made the College Cup, Stanford (3x), Akron (2x), North Carolina (2x), Indiana, Wake Forest, Denver, Clemson, Syracuse, Virginia, UCLA, Providence and UMBC have all been there. That's a dozen teams that have been to the final four more recently than Maryland. I'm not saying Maryland is no longer a national power. They have too many resources to suggest that and I suspect they will reverse their current trend, especially because they have a lot of good players and a really good coach on their team right now. And there are still positives from the program. Zack Steffen is one of the few former college players to get consistent call-ups from the national team right now. Eryk Williamson was one of just three players from last year's U20 World Cup roster to play college soccer in 2017. Chris Odoi-Atsem was a first round pick in 2017, Tsubasa Endoh the year before. Several Terps have signed homegrown deals. They are still getting some talent. But... they don't appear to be getting quite as much as they used to and there's also no denying that things are not trending positively for Maryland soccer. It will be interesting to see if this current run is a blip on the program's ledger or a harbinger of the direction it is going.
Would be interested in a Maryland supporters perspective, but they're only a season removed from a team that didn't lose a game until the NCAAT and a streak of 5 straight conference tournament titles (3 B10, 2 ACC) in the NCAAs two toughest conferences.
I can only comment from a great distance, as an alum and as a fan who has followed the team before, during and after my time in College Park. I don't watch much college soccer, and I realize I have enjoyed following it less since Stanford grabbed the game by the throat and strangled it - but I digress. I think the main thing that would set me apart from most Maryland soccer fans/supporters is that I have never thought that the current coach - now in his 25th season coaching the team - was ever a good coach, despite his admittedly tremendous record over the years. And of course I'm less enthused than ever right now. To be fair, I'm discounting recruiting, which is a large part of a college coach's job and something the current coach has always excelled at. He's a great salesman, and he's also been a strong proponent of the college game, which is much to his credit. He's also scheduled games and coached against the best programs in the country. But for a long time, I've felt that he's relied far too heavily on his ability to recruit, rather than to instruct, to team-build, and (very oddly) to motivate. His recent teams have been especially fragile and easily undone by adversity. I'll have to reread Sandon's post and then address some of his points, but for a long time I feel the coach has really run a pre-professional program - a showcase for future pros - especially (and very wisely) goalkeepers. And if the quality of your players is high enough - and a couple of years at Maryland it has been - the Championship years - or so, so close - the many 'near-misses' - you can beat all but the very best college-level opponents (without necessarily being a very good coach).
The scoreless streak is now at 572 minutes and the winless streak is up to ten games after Maryland falls to UCLA 1-0 at home. For a guy who brags about having a professional environment in his program, Sasho ought to be glad he's not actually a pro right now. Not a lot of pro coaches survive a 10-game winless streak and a 5-game goalless streak. 10/17/17 - Georgetown 0-1 10/20/17 - Coastal Carolina 0-1 10/24/17 - Virginia Commonwealth 0-3 10/29/17 - Michigan 1-2, 2OT 11/5/17 - Wisconsin 1-2, Big Ten Tournament 11/16/17 - Albany 0-0, 2OT (Albany advances on PKs), NCAA Tournament 8/24/18 - @ Washington 0-2 8/31/18 - Stanford - 0/0, 2OT 9/3/18 - vs. Virginia 0-0, 2OT 9/8/18 - UCLA 0-1 10 games, 8 at home and one a few miles from it, 7 losses, 3 ties, 2 goals scored, 12 goals allowed. Now in fairness to Maryland, almost all the results are against good teams. All six of the teams in last year's part of the winless streak went at least to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last fall and all four of this year's opponents should be NCAA Tournament teams this year. UCLA, Virginia and Stanford have won 14 NCAA titles between them; no shame not scoring against them. And the Terps are only 2 games under .500 with a lot of winnable games left to play. They should be expected to win each of their next six games and if that happens, this run will be happily buried in the back of the history books. And individually, each of the results can be explained and dismissed as not worrisome. But collectively, it's an almost impossibly bad run of misfortune and underachieving.
Two streaks ended. With a 75th minute goal, Maryland beats West Virginia 1-0, stopping both it's goalless and winless streak.
Game summary https://umterps.com/news/2018/9/10/mens-soccer-terps-top-west-virginia-monday-night.aspx Now onward and Northward ... @ Northwestern on Friday.
A 1-0 result to a .500 West Virginia team in which they were outshot 12-10 isn't the most convincing result, but it's more of a morale boost that they needed than anything else.
WV was the better team in the 2H and to be honest, if soccer were fair, WV would have scored at least 1 in each half, if not a couple in the 2H. Congrats. MD.
This is correct. WV were the better team, had far more of the ball, created better chances and in all honesty should’ve scored a few times before a fortunate MD goal like stated above. More worrying for MD was their dependence on hitting balls over the top. In the 1st half they found some success with it, finding 2nd balls and chances from set pieces. But WV took that away in the 2nd half and pinned MD back for nearly the entire 2nd half. MD GK made some massive saves to keep it 0-0 and to hold the lead.
So much to comment on the remarks by Sandon and TimB4Last, but I'll go with the above remark by Sandon as a starting point. Part of the problem is that everyone is still mesmerized by Cirovski's recruiting and yes he still gets more than his share of prep All-American talent. There is just one problem with that. When I first started covering Maryland men's soccer there were only a couple of prep A-A lists that anyone paid attention to: NSCAA was one of them. Parade magazine ... and that was about it. The top 50 prep players actually meant something. Now there are a myriad of lists including Top Drawer and others. The top 100 - 150 kids in the country can all be on somebody's A-A list and the title has lost its meaning. It says here, that it depends on which of the A-As are really that good and have a legit professional future. Think back to the Maryland players who have had the most national caps over the past 15 years: Graham Zusi, Omar Gonzalez and probably Maurice Edu as well. Maybe throw in Clarence Goodson. When did these guys play for Maryland? They were key players on the 2005 and 2008 national championship teams (except Goodson who left after 2003). Since then, who for Maryland has gotten consistent national call-ups? Hardly anybody. Yes, Steffen and Williamson may change that but that is not certain. So yes, Cirovski still gets talent but is he getting the very best talent that win titles and later plays on national teams? Not like in the previous decade. Looks to me like Stanford has a better claim to that now. Cirovski often claims that his best players leave early for the pros. And nobody else in college soccer loses players the same way? Granted, for all the reasons Sandon and Tim mentioned, this is still a very good program. This is actually one of the few Maryland teams along with field hockey and the two lacrosse teams that have survived the move to the Big Ten without really suffering a fall-off. Maryland has now made the NCAA Tournament 17 consecutive years; in the Cirovski era they have only missed the tournament twice and one of those was his first year when he inherited a program in disarray. That said, I am not as impressed by the argument that he always schedules very tough opponents. Sure, and Maryland used to win those games. Tough scheduling is a wonderful thing but you still have to do something with it. At the end of the day, it is my hope that this is all cyclical and that Maryland can rise to the levels of the previous decade. The potential is still there.
2-1 OT win at Northwestern last night. A pair of admittedly lucky goals for Herve, but you won't hear me complain about a win. Back at it Monday against William & Mary before a couple of conference games.
In case anyone is wondering, the UMD vs. William & Mary game was cancelled last night due to the weather. It was supposed to be a night game and late in the afternoon there was a tornado warning. I was in the main library on campus and the library officials ordered everyone off of the upper floors and away from the windows. No tornadoes touched down, but further south of DC in the direction of Richmond, VA there were tornado strikes. The UMD website said the game will not be made up later. Terps play Wisconsin in College Park on Friday evening.
Has Maryland lost its luster? Sasho used to bring in a different level of player while coaching in the ACC. Since joining the Big Ten - seems like the well has dried up a bit. So have the results. OR is is that he is finding it hard to match wits with those in the Big Ten. Friday night the Terps looked lost when UW went to a 1-4-4-2 and turned up the heat a bit. No tactical adjustments made on the Terps sideline. Add in the days of berating the officials and getting a few calls is long gone. Troubled times for the Terps!
He really can't go there. In October 2014 he got suspended one game and the school was fined $10,000 by the Big Ten after he got into a confrontation with the refs after a game with Northwestern. After that and other problems earlier in his career he has to be a good citizen.
Haven't gotten a chance to watch either of the last two games, but the results are encouraging and the approach seems to be working - just based on the personnel in yesterday's XI against Coastal, it appears that Sasho is working with a 4-2-2-2 or a 4-2-4. It's also nice to see guys like Herve, Lansade, and Gielen becoming fixtures either in the starting lineup or rotation.
Yeah, the win against Coastal Carolina, which was #18 in one poll, was important at this point, especially coming on the road. That and 5 goals in two games (the other was @rutgers) means hopefully/maybe/possibly they are solving their offensive problems. The next two games are Michigan State and Georgetown after which we will have a better idea.
OK, so I spoke too soon. The successful efforts were followed by a 2-0 loss to Michigan State at home and then a scoreless draw with Georgetown in DC. Once again, the offense has deserted Maryland. And frankly, they are starting to run out of time. They are 4-4-3 with remaining regular season games left @indiana; home for Denver, Ohio State, Penn State, then finish on the road @Michigan. If they can't score goals they are dead. Doesn't matter if they have a first-class goalie and backline. They will have to do something in the B1G tournament or its over this year. The B1G Tournament is at Westfield, Indiana Grand Park
Maryland has been outscored by 12 different players in D-I this year. That is, there are a dozen players who have already scored 10 or more goals this season while Maryland has scored nine.
It's now 13 players after yesterday's game. Shinyashiki, Carbonell, Kadono, Patino and Wilschrey are seniors. Proch already transferred once so that's ain't happening and Kizza, Fernandez and Michel are likely going pro after this season. That leaves Willis, Rudel and Haynes Brown, the latter of whom is down the road at GW and would probably like a bigger platform to showcase himself to the next level, a la Gordon Wild. 1 Andre Shinyashiki - Denver - Sr. - 13 (games), 21 (goals) 2 Cal Jennings - UCF - Jr. - 10, 14 3 Javier Carbonell - Ga. Southern - Sr. - 11, 12 - Alex Willis - Northern Ky. - Fr. - 12, 12 5 Oscar Haynes Brown - George Washington - So. - 10, 11 - Edward Kizza - Pittsburgh - So. - 12, 11 7 Omir Fernandez - Wake Forest - So. - 13, 10 - Shinya Kadono - California - Sr. - 11, 10 - Benji Michel - Portland - Jr. - 11, 10 - Santiago Patino - FIU - Sr. - 11, 10 - Daniele Proch - Duke - Jr. - 11, 10 - Jake Rudel - Saint Mary's (CA) - Jr. - 12, 10 - Max Wilschrey - Old Dominion - Sr. - 12, 10 But here's another solution: Shinyashiki, Kizza and Michel (along with Wake junior Bruno Lapa (9 goals, 8 assists) all went to Montverde Academy in Florida. That's four players from the same HS that have scored as many goals this season as the Terps. Maybe Sasho should make nice with their coach and try and get a goal-scorer from that factory.
Thank you, Sandon, that's service with a smile. Montverde? I thought Florida was flat, but maybe it's time for Sasho to channel his inner Ponce de Leon ...