I am copy & pasting what I posted on Premium Board last night after the loss to Louisville. Only things I would have added to the post on second thought was more detail on the injury situ on the backline, especially Alex Lee being unavailable. Note I also put in a plug for TMAN's reporting on the recruiting scene -- thanks again buddy! Overall, it was a good year -- disappointing end, yes, but still a lot of really good soccer from our guys and yet another Sweet 16 appearance. I can't complain about that:
OK, there is the bad news/good news aspect to this. Bad News is that this is two years in a row that Maryland had home field advantage in the NCAA Tournament and got upset: last year to Michigan, this year to Louisville. Louisville was a #12 seed because they had their ups and downs during the regular season, but everyone knew they have talent and can score goals in bunches. They were a preseason #1 in the polls but lost 4 games in the Big East regular season, so they were something of a wild card. Meanwhile, Maryland had issues at goalie and Cirovski decided to make the move to freshman Keith Cardona, benching veteran Will Swaim in the previous tournament game. Maryland's defense just wasn't consistent most of the year, but the fact that the team was a #5 seed in the tournament tells you something: they were playing well in the toughest conference in the country and had guys like senior forward Casey Townsend who proved he will be playing in the pros next year.
I have been reminding people all year that Maryland had three top underclassmen who gave up eligibility this past winter to go to the pros: defender Ethan White who ended up starting for DC United most of the MLS season, gave up two years of eligibility; Matt Kassel, a midfielder who played reserve squad ball for New York Red Bull (an MLS Tournament team) and goalie Zac MacMath who was the #5 pick overall in the MLS Draft last winter -- and the top goalie taken -- who ended up playing about 8 or 9 games for Philadelphia last year after their starter got injured. All three of these guys would have been penciled into the Maryland starting lineup if they had stayed and I guarantee you the Terps would still be playing if they had stayed.
Granted, Cirovski is far from being the only top NCAA D1 coach who loses players. Akron was defending champion last year and then lost their super freshman defender Perry Kitchen who was drafted by DC United and ended up starting next to Ethan White most of the year. All the top programs have to find ways to recruit top talent to replace other top talent that goes in and out of the program. College soccer is a lot like college baseball in that some of the very best players never stay in school and the really really good ones often never go to college at all.
None the less, Steve Goff reminded us in the Washington Post this morning that this is now TEN (10) years in a row that Maryland has made it at least to the Sweet 16 including the two NT years (2005, 2008) so the last two season may have ended up in frustration, but this program is always in the hunt. The recruiting by Cirovski virtually guarantees they will always be in the tournament, will make it to the Sweet 16, and always has a fighting chance to make the Final Four. Nobody has been as consistent as these guys and recruiting has been a big part of it.
The College Soccer News rated Maryland's freshman class this year as the #7 class mainly because of Cardona, midfielder Alex Shinsky, and mid Dan Metzger. Shinsky was #2 among all incoming freshman according to CSN but he had injury and conditioning issues this season. For '12, CSN rates Terp recruit Michael Ambrose, a defender from El Paso, TX, as the #3 overall player in the country and the top defender.
For a full rundown on Men's Soccer recruiting, check out TMAN's posts on the Other Sports board. He has been all over it and can give you the blow by blow in better detail. Needless to say, tonight's result may have been a disappointment, but things are always exciting with this program. They are consistently good, have a coach who gets the recruits and the results, and are always fun to watch. And there is one more thing about Cirovski: he is a consistently aggressive tactical coach. He plays a creative, attacking style and wants bodies going forward. Not once in the nearly 20 years I have covered him have I ever seen him get a 1-goal lead and then go into a defensive bunker, put 10 guys behind the ball and play keep away from the opposition. He plays the kind of style that the guys want to play which is why he gets so many good ones here.
So OK, if he can keep some of the really talented guys in the program as he did in 2005 (Jason Garey) and 2008 (Graham Zusi) and keeps getting the diamonds in the rough he has now like John Stertzer and Patrick Mullins, he will be back in the Final Four and probably sooner rather than later.
Posted on 11/27 11:01 PM | IP: Logged
OK, there is the bad news/good news aspect to this. Bad News is that this is two years in a row that Maryland had home field advantage in the NCAA Tournament and got upset: last year to Michigan, this year to Louisville. Louisville was a #12 seed because they had their ups and downs during the regular season, but everyone knew they have talent and can score goals in bunches. They were a preseason #1 in the polls but lost 4 games in the Big East regular season, so they were something of a wild card. Meanwhile, Maryland had issues at goalie and Cirovski decided to make the move to freshman Keith Cardona, benching veteran Will Swaim in the previous tournament game. Maryland's defense just wasn't consistent most of the year, but the fact that the team was a #5 seed in the tournament tells you something: they were playing well in the toughest conference in the country and had guys like senior forward Casey Townsend who proved he will be playing in the pros next year.
I have been reminding people all year that Maryland had three top underclassmen who gave up eligibility this past winter to go to the pros: defender Ethan White who ended up starting for DC United most of the MLS season, gave up two years of eligibility; Matt Kassel, a midfielder who played reserve squad ball for New York Red Bull (an MLS Tournament team) and goalie Zac MacMath who was the #5 pick overall in the MLS Draft last winter -- and the top goalie taken -- who ended up playing about 8 or 9 games for Philadelphia last year after their starter got injured. All three of these guys would have been penciled into the Maryland starting lineup if they had stayed and I guarantee you the Terps would still be playing if they had stayed.
Granted, Cirovski is far from being the only top NCAA D1 coach who loses players. Akron was defending champion last year and then lost their super freshman defender Perry Kitchen who was drafted by DC United and ended up starting next to Ethan White most of the year. All the top programs have to find ways to recruit top talent to replace other top talent that goes in and out of the program. College soccer is a lot like college baseball in that some of the very best players never stay in school and the really really good ones often never go to college at all.
None the less, Steve Goff reminded us in the Washington Post this morning that this is now TEN (10) years in a row that Maryland has made it at least to the Sweet 16 including the two NT years (2005, 2008) so the last two season may have ended up in frustration, but this program is always in the hunt. The recruiting by Cirovski virtually guarantees they will always be in the tournament, will make it to the Sweet 16, and always has a fighting chance to make the Final Four. Nobody has been as consistent as these guys and recruiting has been a big part of it.
The College Soccer News rated Maryland's freshman class this year as the #7 class mainly because of Cardona, midfielder Alex Shinsky, and mid Dan Metzger. Shinsky was #2 among all incoming freshman according to CSN but he had injury and conditioning issues this season. For '12, CSN rates Terp recruit Michael Ambrose, a defender from El Paso, TX, as the #3 overall player in the country and the top defender.
For a full rundown on Men's Soccer recruiting, check out TMAN's posts on the Other Sports board. He has been all over it and can give you the blow by blow in better detail. Needless to say, tonight's result may have been a disappointment, but things are always exciting with this program. They are consistently good, have a coach who gets the recruits and the results, and are always fun to watch. And there is one more thing about Cirovski: he is a consistently aggressive tactical coach. He plays a creative, attacking style and wants bodies going forward. Not once in the nearly 20 years I have covered him have I ever seen him get a 1-goal lead and then go into a defensive bunker, put 10 guys behind the ball and play keep away from the opposition. He plays the kind of style that the guys want to play which is why he gets so many good ones here.
So OK, if he can keep some of the really talented guys in the program as he did in 2005 (Jason Garey) and 2008 (Graham Zusi) and keeps getting the diamonds in the rough he has now like John Stertzer and Patrick Mullins, he will be back in the Final Four and probably sooner rather than later.
Posted on 11/27 11:01 PM | IP: Logged
