Nov. 22, 2011
Lobo Golden Goal Beats Duke in OT
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Lobo Faithful:
The University of New Mexico Lobo men’s soccer team continues to impress with tenacity, grit, resilience and explosiveness!
Sunday, Nov. 20 was our opening match of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Duke University, the winner of Thursday night’s NCAA opening round against Georgia State, arrived in Albuquerque on Friday afternoon to face the Lobos in the second round of the NCAA Championships (Lobos with the No. 10 seed received a first-round bye).
What an atmosphere: 6,200 in the stands for the 7 p.m. kickoff and hundreds more watching from outside the fence line. The wind screens were pulled off the fence by the fans denied entrance.
The game sold out several hours prior to kickoff, and hundreds of disappointed fans were turned away at the stadium gates.
The concern with having a bye is that you’re thrown off your usual playing rhythm. Your opponent has played an NCAA match three days prior, is already battle tested and confident coming off an opening-round victory. Duke appeared ready and its game plan was to defend with numbers and quickly counterattack with its two dangerous forwards.
Duke University is synonymous with athletic excellence, and this year’s soccer team was filled with USA Youth National Team members and high-profile players from coast to coast. Andrew Wenger, Duke’s top attacker, was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and would prove to be a handful.
I can’t say enough about the crowd. The gates to the stadium opened at 6 p.m. and our supporters started flowing in. They didn’t stop and the stands were filled to capacity by kickoff.
The highlight video below shows a pretty incredible time progression of the stands filling: Nov. 20 — New Mexico vs. Duke highlight video.
Our team’s preparation and focus was excellent, and the boys felt confident going into the match. We prepared like we have all season and great attention was paid to recovery, tactics and nutrition. Self-discipline has been a strength and is a result of great team leadership.
We were a bit stiff at the kickoff but quickly settled into the flow of the match. By flow, I mean back and forth for the opening 30 minutes.
Duke was very content to play “back to front”. The ball saw little of the grass, and our defenders had to be good in the air. Tied 0-0 at halftime, but we felt Duke would tire from the pace of the game and the second half would favor our style and approach.
We came out very strong from the whistle and began to really get a hold of things. We possessed the ball, played out of the back and created chances from wide areas.
In the blink of an eye, we made a slight mistake in the 51st minute (six minutes into the half) and Duke’s star attacker, Wenger (No. 10) took full advantage, feeding his attacking partner for a tremendous transition goal: 1-0 Duke.
We’ve been in this position before, kept our composure and immediately got back to business. Duke made some immediate tactical adjustments and moved Wenger back to a defensive position to preserve its lead. While this made the Blue Devils a bit better defensively, it took the pressure off our defense and allowed us to commit more players to the attack. We started to pour it on and created attack after attack from the flanks.
In the 75th minute, a Duke defender picked up his second yellow card trying to defend against our crafty attackers and was given a subsequent red card (two yellows=red). Duke was playing down a man and feeling the effects of the altitude, with the Lobos sensing an even more distinct change in momentum. Our boys kept hammering away but couldn’t find the net.
In the 82nd minute, Blake Smith found the ball 30 yards out after a Duke clearance. Blake took a forward touch while the ball was still bouncing and drove a rocket off the bounce to the keepers right. All net with the keeper only watching the ball sail by. Now, we’re tied 1-1, and our confidence was overflowing.
Never as easy as it may appear. We really turned up the heat but couldn’t close the game in regulation. We were confident and poised going into overtime.
Twenty minutes to finish off the match — two 10-minute sudden-death periods, otherwise known as “golden goal.”
Duke defended well and pushed everyone back to create a very compact defensive zone. Spaces were open in wide areas, and our flank players were creating havoc for the outside defenders.
We made a change in the overtime period, subbing Carson Baldinger for James Rogers. Carson is a finisher and is great in the air, and we felt our forwards would be seeing quite a bit off service.
In the 98th minute, left-back kiwi Mattie Gibbons received the ball about 35 yards out on the flank. Great far post delivery to a fading Devon Sandoval. Devon headed the ball back across the goal mouth and the dream ball was sitting right in front of Baldinger.
Carson calmly finished on the back post with his head and emotions flowed from everyone. Duke players fell to the ground in agony, and our players and supporters rejoiced. What an incredible moment to share with everyone.
The fans invaded the field, and everyone celebrated together. A group effort all year long and what a fitting way to celebrate the victory with our supporters.
Here’s a link to our website article: Stevens: Baldinger’s Golden Goal Keeps Lobos’ Golden Season Alive and here are highlights with the winning goal at the end: Game Highlights.
“Off the Pitch”… with Carson Baldinger
Here’s an excerpt from a facebook entry from one of our supporters:
“The atmosphere at last night’s match could only be defined as electric. Our Lobo hearts sank with Duke’s first goal early on. Then, an explosion of unbridled elation flooded us when we scored a goal to tie in the second half. Cheers, airhorns, and car horns blast long and loud from all around. Soccer aficionados armed with sideline coaching willed our defense to rarely allow the ball from occupying our half. One can only imagine the impending doom felt by the Duke keeper after witnessing the ball cross the mouth of his precious goal so many times. Nervously we awaited the start of the 10 minute extra time. Then, for the Lobo’s grand finale, the match winning goal in extra time? Treated to a NCAA tournament spectacle like this in our home town?!?! And that was just among the mass of us who were on the outside of the East fence.”
We now get to enjoy Thanksgiving at home and then depart for Tampa, Fla., on Friday for our third-round match against the University of South Florida on Sunday, Nov. 27 at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed live over the internet at the following link: UNM vs. USF webstream. South Florida is a very skillful, attack-minded team and will provide a great challenge. The boys are excited and confident. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thanks for all of your support and GO LOBOS!