Forward Sunny Jane holds off two Virginia defenders as he tries to escape the trap during the Terps’ 1-0 win over Virginia for the ACC championship on Nov. 17, 2013 at Maryland SoccerPlex.
On Oct. 11, the Terrapins men’s soccer team played to a thrilling 3-3 draw against Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., as both teams combined for six goals in the first 27 minutes of play.
Just more than a month later, the Terps and Cavaliers went head-to-head again in the ACC tournament championship game in Germantown, producing an equally entertaining match. Forward Patrick Mullins forced an own goal on a cross in the 88th minute after outmuscling defender Matt Brown for the ball down the left sideline, leading the Terps to their second straight conference title.
After the victory, fans figured the two national powerhouses had met for the final time as conference opponents. The NCAA tournament, though, has brought them back together for yet another chapter in their storied rivalry, which coach Sasho Cirovski believes is the best in college soccer.
The No. 5-seed Terps and No. 8-seed Cavaliers will face off tomorrow night at PPL Park in Chester, Pa., for a spot in the national championship game. And with both teams rested and playing their best soccer, Cirovski expects a much cleaner affair compared to the two nail-biters from earlier this season.
“I think you’ll see a different game,” Cirovski said yesterday. “This week, both teams will be fresh. I think you’ll see something in between.”
The Terps and Cavaliers both endured overtime contests in the semifinals of the conference tournament just two days before the championship game. Not to mention, the referees allowed a great deal of physical play throughout the weekend at Maryland SoccerPlex, leaving players on each side worn out and fatigued, including forward Schillo Tshuma, who sat out the final game with a tweaked hamstring.
“The game at Germantown was a tough game,” Cirovski said. “Both teams had used different kinds of energy on the Friday. Our game with Clemson on Friday was a very physical, very draining game. [Virginia’s] game, they were down by two and had to use a lot of energy to come back and force the game into overtime. Both teams were exhausted on Sunday. It was a survival contest.”
This weekend will mark the Terps’ eighth College Cup appearance in
Cirovski’s 21 years as coach. His program, however, has dropped five of its seven semifinal matches since 1998, when the team made its first final four since 1969, including a heartbreaking loss to Georgetown last season in Hoover, Ala.
“I think we have the approach this week that it is an ordinary game,” Mullins said. “Maybe a little too much last year was about getting to the College Cup because that group of seniors and nobody else on that team had been there, so it was very special to get there.”
The two years the Terps won their semifinal matches, 2005 and 2008, they went on to win the national championship. The road to a title this year, though, could cross paths with another ACC team because No. 3-seed Notre Dame will face No. 7-seed New Mexico in the other semifinal tomorrow.
Regardless, Cirovski knows his squad will need two high-quality wins in three days if it wants to bring home the program’s first national championship in five years.
“We know this is a great group of contenders at the College Cup with not only teams that have had great years, but with teams that have had great pedigree over years and great coaches,” Cirovski said. “So we think this is going to shape up to be one of the better College Cups in recent memory.”
