Sept. 20, 2011
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Lobo Faithful:
The long awaited return to the Buckeye State, the stomping ground of my youth! Our Friday night, Sept. 16 match against the defending College Cup Champion Akron Zips had been circled on our calendar for quite a while. Not only the chance to play one of the premier teams in the nation, but a tremendous opportunity to showcase our program across the country, as the game was televised nationally on the FOX Soccer Channel. Our second opponent of the weekend was Syracuse University out of the Big East Conference on Sunday Sept. 18. This was the second time we had traveled to Akron for their annual tournament. The last time was in 2007, where we came away with a win and a loss. Two big matches awaited us, with the concern being putting too much emphasis on the Akron game and losing sight of Sunday’s neutral, midday game with a lesser atmosphere. Akron provided us with rooms for our three-night stay, and what unique accommodations. We stayed at the Quaker Square Inn, right next to the Akron campus. The Inn is constructed from 19th century mills and silos which were the beginnings of the Quaker Oats Company. Each room is perfectly round and is constructed within the cluster of 36 turn-of-the-century grain silos. The boys were intrigued and our two international players didn’t know what to think. Always nice to mix a bit of history and culture into a trip. The game time atmosphere was first-class. Akron put on a show for the national television audience. Fireworks, pristine playing surface and a sold-out house! Quite a contrast to Sunday’s noon match played in front of faithful family and friends.
NEW MEXICO LOBOS vs. AKRON ZIPS: FRIDAY, SEPT. 16, 7 p.m. — CUB CADET FIELD, AKRON, Ohio.
The boys were full of energy and confidence for this one. Our preparation was “spot on” and our team matched up extremely well against the then No. 4 ranked team in the nation. Akron is a very possession-oriented team comprised of high profile players from across the country and world. Our challenge was to break up their playing rhythm, press them deep in their half and really “get at ’em” in transition. I felt that our speed in attack, our toughness and ability in the air would cause them problems. The television coverage caused some slight adjustments to the timing leading into the match, but we were focused and didn’t miss a beat. The opening 30 minutes were some of our best. We pressed high, connected our passes and created some great chances in transition. We were flying! In the 36th minute, Akron won a corner against the run of play. Great service, near post header deflected to the back post. 1-0 Zips. What a shock to the system. We continued to fight for the remaining 9 minutes of the half, but entered intermission down a goal. Our team has a lot of confidence and the boys were excited to get back at it for the remaining 45 minutes. Twelve minutes into the second half, Akron’s star forward got tangled up with our defenders in a goal box melee and took a wild swing at our keeper, Victor Rodriguez. The center official consulted his assistant on the touchline, and awareded a straight red card. Akron was down a man for the final 33 minutes of regulation. We got a hold of the ball, but never really took charge of the match. In the 80th minute, we were awarded a direct kick 30 yards from the Akron goal. Kyle Venter came up big with his second goal in the past two games to tie it up 1-1 with 10 minutes remaining in regulation. We continued to press and attack but couldn’t generate the winning goal playing up a man. Twenty hard-fought minutes of over time, but Akron held with the match finishing deadlocked 1-1. I loved our team’s reaction: great sportsmen, but very disappointed with the tie. We expected to win the game from minute one and should have! Here is the link to the re-cap from our website: Another Late Game Rally Leaves Lobos With a Draw at Akron.
NEW MEXICO LOBOS vs. SYRACUSE ORANGE: SUNDAY, SEPT. 18, 12:30 p.m. — CUB CADET FIELD, AKRON, Ohio.
Sunday afternoon games are always challenging coming off a high energy Friday night match. This one was a real concern going into the tournament. Syracuse is a team built for Sundays. Very physical, patient and looking to win on set pieces, transition and direct play. As soon as Friday night’s match ended, we discussed the importance of Sunday’s game and the need for extreme focus and maturity in our play. Our leaders quickly switched gears and were confident that we would be ready. Captain Lance Rozeboom took a hard knock on Friday, but appeared ready to play. He started the match, but had to come off in the opening 25 minutes. We played very maturely and controlled the match from the opening kickoff. It seemed to be only a matter of time before we found the net. We had an 11-0 advantage in corners for the match, a 17-7 advantage in shots, one save by our GK and only six fouls. Dominant statistics. Yet soccer rarely plays out exactly as expected. We controlled the match, created chances and played with great maturity for 80 minutes, but with a 0-0 score the boys started to show signs of fatigue and frustration. In the 81st minute our patience and perseverance payed off. Levi Rossi to Devon Sandoval on the back post to go up 1-0 with nine minutes on the clock. History tells you that teams lose focus right after scoring a goal. Not sure how it happened, but Syracuse won a throw in deep in our half off a poor clearance. Long throw in, bouncing ball, game tied 1-1 less than two minutes after a seemingly locked down affair. The game remained even for the duration of regulation and 20 minutes of “golden goal/sudden death” overtime to play. We stayed strong and confident. Six minutes into the first overtime, Levi Rossi took space on the right flank and played a tremendous near post ball to Devon Sandoval. Precision header…2-1 Lobos with the overtime victory. Great result! Here’s the UNM website link: Sandoval Strikes Twice Against Syracuse on Sunday.
We entered the weekend looking for two wins, but coming out with a win and a tie is a positive. We remain unbeaten on the season with a record of 5-0-2, with one remaining non-conference match. Our 2-1 win over Syracuse coupled with Akron’s 1-0 victory over Cal Poly on Sunday gave us the tournament championship by way of a tie breaker (most goals scored on the weekend). Kyle Venter was named the tournament Defensive MVP, Devon Sandoval the Offensive MVP and Travis Campbell and Mattie Gibbons were named to the All-Tournament team. A total team effort with any number of Lobo players deserving of individual awards. Sandoval was also named MPSF Player of the Week. Our final non-conference match of the season is this Friday night at 7 p.m. at the UNM Soccer Complex against Loyola Marymount. STUFF THE STADIUM NIGHT! LMU was a 2010 NCAA Tournament participant and the Lions always give us a great match. It should be an attacking, action packed contest! Hope to see everyone on Friday night and thanks for your support. GO LOBOS!
Editor’s notes:
– The Lobos’ claiming the championship title in the UA Tournament marked the first time since the tournament’s inception in 2007 that a participating team other than Akron has come in first place.
– New Mexico’s 1-1 tie with Akron on Friday night was the first time that Akron did not win a game outright in tournament history. The Zips were 8-0-0 prior to Friday’s game against UNM.
– Akron head coach Caleb Porter had amassed a 61-0-0 record over six seasons when his team led the game at halftime. New Mexico foiled the record by entering intermission down 1-0, and coming back to tie the game 1-1.
– Devon Sandoval and Kyle Venter earned tourament MVP awards for the second consecutive week, having been named the Offensive and Defensive MVP’s of the TLC Invitational.