Maryland men’s soccer vs. Cal Poly preview: Terps play the Mustangs for the first time ever

Coming off an intense overtime win against No. 15 UCLA on Friday night, the Maryland men’s soccer team will welcome Cal Poly to College Park on Monday for the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

The Terps outshot the Bruins 19-9, but both sides traded two goals each in the second half to send the game into overtime for the third straight year. Jake Rozhansky made a “sublime” one-time pass to Sebastian Elney on the right side of the box, where the junior then ripped a game-winning shot eight minutes into the first overtime period.

Monday night’s matchup with Cal Poly is Maryland’s third of five straight games at Ludwig Field after opening the season on the road against Santa Clara. Following the game tomorrow, the Terps will host No. 7 Indiana on Friday and Rutgers next Tuesday.

The Terps and Mustangs are set to kick off at 7 p.m ET. The game will be streamed on BTN Plus here and broadcasted live by WMUC Sports here.

Cal Poly Mustangs (0-3)

2016 Record: 5-9-3, 3-5-2 Big West

Head coach Steve Sampson. A former United States Men’s National Team and Los Angeles Galaxy manager, Sampson is now in his third year as head coach of the Mustangs. He led Cal Poly to a program-record 11 wins in his first season, earning an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time in seven years. However, Cal Poly only won five games last season.

Players to Know

Junior goalkeeper Simon Boehme, No. 1. He played in just two games last season but because of a graduating senior, Boehme is now the primary goalie for the Mustangs. He’s played in every minute this season and has kept games close for Cal Poly so far. Despite giving up seven goals in three games, he does have the third-most saves in the country. He’s had at least nine saves in two of the first three games.

Junior forward Sean Goode, No. 23. It’s just his first year with the team after transferring from a community college, but Goode has found the most success so far for the Mustangs in 2017. He leads the team with five shots and has one of Cal Poly’s two goals. The two players that had more than one goal last year are both no longer with the team, so the Mustangs need to find offense elsewhere in 2017.

Strength

Keeping games competitive against good teams. While they’re 0-3, two of those losses came to top-10 opponents in the country. They lost 2-0 to No. 7 Indiana to start the season at home and then lost a 2-1 heartbreaker in overtime on the road against No. 10 Notre Dame. They’re coming off a 3-1 loss to Georgetown, but even the Hoyas received top-25 votes in the poll. The Mustangs clearly have had trouble scoring against very good teams, but haven’t necessarily been blown out either. They also have 38 fouls, six yellow cards and two red cards through three games, so it looks like the Terps will have to battle through some physically.

Weakness

Controlling the shot totals. The Mustangs have allowed 63 shots in three games this season. This might appear to be a typo, but it’s true. Cal Poly has given up 21 shots per game, including 30 to Notre Dame and 25 to Georgetown. The Terps had 19 shots against No. 15 UCLA, so things could get out of hand Monday night. Plus, two Cal Poly starting defenders were given red cards last game against Georgetown, which means they’ll be serving a one-game suspension against Maryland.

Three things to know

1. Maryland might use more subs than usual. This is an ideal game against a weaker team for the Terps to try to regain some energy after a tough overtime game against UCLA on Friday night. Seeing how many shots the Mustangs conceded against other top teams in the country and with two starting defenders serving suspensions, Maryland could potentially take a multiple-goal lead into halftime, which might allow Sasho Cirovski to empty the bench a little bit to get younger players some exposure and tired legs some rest before a showdown with Indiana on Friday.
2. Will there be any noticeable fatigue? Sasho Cirovski said that his players had heavy legs during their game against UCLA on Friday. The Bruins had a weekend more of rest before the game against Maryland and that showed at times on Friday. With just Saturday and Sunday to recover from an overtime game with 29 combined fouls, that in itself poses an issue. And since the Terps play an arguably bigger game against No. 7 Indiana on Friday, the Terps could be looking ahead. The goal for Maryland should be to get up early, score often and see if you can afford to give any tired players some extra rest before the Big Ten opener this next weekend.
3. Will Andrew Samuels play? Samuels was hurt in the second half of Friday night’s game. After the match, Cirovski said he didn’t know the extent of the injury, that Samuels received stitches, and that any missed time for Samuels would be a big loss for the team. Samuels has played as both a defender and a center-defensive midfielder this season. He started 13 games last year as a sophomore, so hopefully for Maryland the injury to a veteran presence isn’t too bad. If he doesn’t play tomorrow, we’ll try to get an injury update from Cirovski heading into Friday night’s game.