Road trip leaves club soccer with tie and loss

Following last week’s victory over Emory, the men’s club soccer team hit the road for weekend games against Valdosta State University on Saturday afternoon and Florida State University on Sunday.

Tying the first game 2-2 and conceding the second 5-1, the team worked toward playing cohesively as new players integrate with veterans.

“A large number of the team haven’t played together as a core unit because there’s a lot of new guys this year. From year to year the starting line up will look different,” junior center midfielder William Strawbridge said. “The whole idea of team chemistry comes into play, and that might have had a part in it. But we’ll absolutely get used to playing together, and that’s the kind of thing that comes with time. People aren’t exactly real comfortable in their slots yet, but I think it’s the kind of thing that if it goes well it will turn into something really good.”

Under the hot Valdosta sun Saturday afternoon, the men played a 4-4-2, putting four defenders in the back, four in the middle field, and two forwards up top to keep the pressure on Valdosta’s defense, like last week’s game against Emory University.

“Last weekend we played Emory and near the end of the game we got urgent and we kind of lost our heads and started playing just bad soccer,” junior student coach Elliot Payne said. “The main focus of this weekend was no matter what the score line is, just to stay focused on playing our version of soccer, which is controlled possession on the ground.”

According to Payne, the defense played solid in midfield for these games.

In the first half, Strawbridge stuck a penalty kick to the bottom left corner of the net for GC’s first goal.

After Strawbridge’s successful pentaly kick, freshman striker Paul Murray got the ball past Valdosta’s defense for the first goal of the game and his first goal of the weekend.

“It was right after the penalty kick that Will scored, and it was a little play off of that into the middle and I was there to hit the bouncing ball,” Murray said.

According to Strawbridge, Murray’s great goal was followed by two defensive blunders costing two goals to Valdosta, who tied the game before halftime.

“I think it was just sort of a mental lapse,” Strawbridge siad. “We started out well, scored two goals fairly quickly, and it seemed like everything was going well and we were playing pretty decently. But it was a scrappy game. The second half was  more chaotic, very back and forth. They probably had more chances than we did.”

Ending the game in a draw, Strawbridge says it is hard not to admit disappointment.

“It’s definitely sour I would say. To come off the field and it be 2-2 when you’re up 2-0 at one point, especially to go up 2-0 with relative ease, it was definitely bittersweet,” Strawbrige said. “You don’t want to lose on the road, but I think people were okay with the tie.”

They took to the road again for Sunday’s game, playing Florida State in Tallahassee. In even warmer temperatures, the team felt the heat.

“The score line looks like we got slaughtered, but it was actually a close game until about the last 15 minutes when we just got burned out from the long weekend, and they took advantage of us,” Payne said.

The men held the score at 1-0 for almost the entire first half of the game, missing a few chances at a mark on the scoreboard.

“Near the beginning of the game there was a moment where we played extremely well. We built it up from the back and someone crossed it in and we almost got a goal,” Payne said. “There was another play that if we would have scored, then it would have been a different game. It would have been 1-1, and that would have been more motivation. Then, later on in the game it was 3-1, we had a breakaway but it was called offsides. We would have scored on that breakaway, but they called it back so that was kind of a bummer because it could have changed the game, made it 3-2, and given us good momentum.”

Murray stepped up and scored GC’s only goal of the game in the second half, after being down 3-0. According to Payne, Murray trucked over Florida State’s defense, taking out the one defender in his way, and jumping over him to grab the header and send it into the net.

“Paul has really stepped up. Paul’s a freshman so it’s cool to see him rising up and scoring goals. So far he has scored a goal in all of our games,” Payne said.

“It was nice to see people still working hard when it’s, you know, 5-0. The team came together, and we bonded over this weekend,” Payne said.

“Team chemistry might have a lot to do with this weekend’s outcome. The Florida State game was good though, it was a good chance to experiment and a lot of younger guys got playing time,” Strawbridge said. “It was good that the guys got that experience, I think this trip will be like a positive step in terms of the rest of the season, down the road, even though in the short term we didn’t really get the results that we wanted.”

Posted by Caitlin Renn on Sep 22 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.