Wake Fores....NO, I mean American!

I felt like it was a game day, so why not come out with a little blog action?

The game against Duke lived up to the hype in the first half with Matt Kassel's pinpoint accuracy of putting the corner kick right on Omar Gonzalez's head. After that Kassel and Gonzalez and the rest of the deadly defensive unit shut down Duke for the next 85 minutes and the Terps beat their arch rivals 1-0. When I said it lived up to the hype for a little while, I meant it, because when Mike Grella (Duke's most prolific scorer and all around good player) was thrown out of the game for his head butt on AJ, you felt like Duke just lost an edge. That wasn't the case.

In the second half, playing down a man, Duke stepped it up big time getting a couple of good scoring chances but Will Swaim stopped them dead in their tracks. Swaim has certainly come on as of late, and is solidifying himself as this team's starter.

I've also received word from a sorority/WMUC inside, that this year's men's team is spending some time out at the bars and with the lovely Kappa Deltas. Well I say GOOD FOR THEM! When you beat Duke, you deserve to hang out with hot girls and go to the bars (when you are over 21 of course). As long as they keep on winning, let them drink until they drop. Who says winning and soccer couldn't be fun? They says everyone needs some extracurricular activities right?

Anyway...Tonight's game against American is the definition of a trap game. The Terps are now ranked #2 in the country and have the game everyone is waiting to see this Friday, when the #1 Demon Deacons come to town. American isn't that bad of a team and if the Terrapins look ahead, they could be doomed tonight. They need to play their game, only think about tonight's game, and get through with a victory and get through healthy.

Friday's showdown is going to be one for the ages, 1 vs. 2, as Wake Forest is coming off an awesome road victory against UC Santa Barbara. But as someone covering the team, I don't want to look too far ahead either.

Let's get past American then talk about Wake. I'll be back later in the week to break down the battle of the best.

A Rivalry Renewed

So yeah, I have been sitting here for about a week now, trying to think of a better title then “Men’s Soccer Blog” for this blog. After much deliberation, I have come up with “Gsuss Talks”, the name of my old newspaper column back in high school. Now, while seemingly simple “Gsuss Talks” really is creative, as it is a take off of the brilliant Kanye West song, “Jesus Walks”. Jesus and Gsuss…it works right! Then you have talks and walks and really it all just makes sense. So now and forever, this blog will be known as Gsuss Talks!

Now that all of the administrative stuff is out of the way, you come here to hear about soccer not so much about a title. I began writing this blog up before the BC game, but with natural procrastination and other things in my busy schedule taking up my time, I have wound up writing it after two days of reflection.

Boston College came into College Park and YOUR Terps, absolutely showed that they are a force to be reckoned with this season. For most of the game, they dominated the playing field. Graham Zusi scored the only goal, but Maryland had many chances against a very solid Eagles team tonight. Boston College has beaten the snot out of Maryland the last couple of times they have played, so for Maryland to put one on the board early against BC (11th minute) was definitely a momentum builder. After Zusi scored, the rest of the team really did their jobs. Jeremy Hall and Casey Townsend each had phenomenal games and the Terps came away knowing that with a performance like this, they really could beat anyone.

I think it is very telling that Will Swaim was in goal for this one. Swaim had a miraculous save on Mike Konicoff in the second half and may have solidified his spot as Maryland’s official “starter”. I am a bit surprised with this decision from Sasho (who picked up his 217th win in the affair tying him with Doyle Royal for most in school history), as I thought Zac MacMath had done enough to wrestle the job away from Swaim. However, Swaim has certainly earned his chance to be the starter and I have no doubts it will be Will the Thrill in goal against the Blue Devils this Friday night. If its MacMath all normal logic goes out the window, but is that really a surprise when Sasho Cirovski is coaching your club?

Couple notes I want to mention about the Davidson game I broadcasted last weekend. Casey Townsend and Matt Kassel are GOOD and I mean really good. Townsend is lightening quick and is a threat to score every time he touches the ball and Kassel is ridiculously solid in the midfield. He is on target with seemingly every one of his kicks and his corner kick directly to Rodney Wallace’s head was just on the money. I’m not sure how long both of these men will stay in the program, but with them on the field this team is something to watch. I said it last week, I’m saying it again this is a team that can do some amazing things this season with the mix of the young guns and the veteran power.

As I said, coming up this Friday night the Duke Blue Devils return to College Park. Duke surprisingly is not as good as we have come accustomed to in recent years, but any Duke/Maryland game is a sight to be had. The Crew will be insane, the atmosphere off the charts, and I’m sure the game will live up to all Duke/Maryland hype.

I guess with Duke coming up, this is a good time to tell a story from my Crew days. So my freshman year, 2006, Duke came into town and of course “The Crew” did their research. They had acquired Duke goalkeeper and favorite target Justin Papadakis’s cell phone number. So along with the facebook information they had acquired about his girlfriend, favorite movies and music, they also now had his phone number. Now, being the shy person I am I hesitated for .000000000000001 seconds before calling it and, for the purpose that this is a family blog, ripped him apart. So Justin, as a complete unbiased member of the media right now, I’m sorry about that one. Want to come to College Park, I’ll buy you a drink? Yeah, I guess that won’t work because you have no interest in coming here and I’m not 21 yet (5 months!) Well hopefully we can put all that behind us, right Justin!?

So Duke vs. Maryland, Ludwig Field, 8:00 under the lights! Will the rivalry live up to all of the hype? Will the young guns continue to provide the spark that this team seems to thrive on? Will Justin Papadakis show up and heckle me from the stands?

Until next time…That’s a Rap!

~Sussman

Go Bradley?

By Robert Gerard Dawson

So I know my way around but I could probably use a GPS. The credentials of the other announcers on the crew that all of you will be listening to this season are astounding. Varsity high school soccer players, D-1 backups, intramural soccer champions this crew rocked in their playing days and will rock in the broadcast booth because they know their stuff. As for me, my credentials show that fifth grade house league was the most competitive level I played. My team won the house league championship that year because we were rescued by an immigrant from Bulgaria who scored two goals a game. So basically I had nothing to do with that. My blogs for the most part will probably be about outside tidbits about the happenings of this season that could be interesting to you as well.

Going along with outside tidbits, I worked in the clothing department at the University Book Center this summer. Folding, tagging, hanging, folding, stickering, folding, marking up, and marking down clothes. And because it’s a University store, 99.9% of the material on the floor has some sort of Maryland identification.

But not 100%

On a late July day, the store showed it was not perfect in Maryland apparel. I was folding away until I saw something amazing. I looked toward it, then turned around, and then turned back again. Could it have been? Could it really be? Is it?

The shirt HAD BRADLEY PRINTED ON IT!

Flashes of that infamous December 1st night entered my mind. Flashes of the final goal scored by Bradley which had up to three things wrong with it and Coach Sasho Cirovski running after the official and Assistant Russell Payne yelling in vain for some sort of video to be played to show that it was a handball, that it was offside, that it was something other than a goal.

I turned to my co-worker and asked “Is this some cruel joke?” Why is there a Bradley shirt in here? The co-worker said, “Oh it must have been a printing error. Sometimes they make a mistake. That’s why we have the shirt on clearance. It’s funny there was a kid named Bradley who walked in and almost bought the shirt.”

Unreal. How does a company screw that up? And how does Bradley-boy think that it is mildly acceptable to buy that shirt and wear it around on campus when Maryland lost in heartbreaking fashion to Bradley last season. But, you realize that we are human. You realize that the shirt company is run by humans and they make mistakes. And humans play soccer too. Maryland made miscues down the stretch, the officials made miscues down the stretch, everything came to a head at the same time, and Maryland lost the game. And it could easily happen again this season as well.

But I’ll say this. To have a ton of effort go to waste because of a fluke I feel has propelled this team to an intensity not seen since the 2005 team. Because they know they have to be that much more perfect, that much more disciplined so to make sure that flukey things never even come close to happening again. With nine starters returning who each had roles last year, with the addition of Jason Herrick coming back from injury, not to mention the number one recruiting class in the country, and an even more deadly focused team than last year, man that’s a lot going for them. The chance of mistake will still be there because were human, but I think the chance-of-fluke meter took a dive in the off-season. As Sasho said at Media Day, “the players realize that the margin for error is thin.” And he couldn’t be more right. I got a funny feeling about this team this year and I hope you do as well. You hope as a Terrapin fan that they will have a magic mix this season to score the go-ahead goal, to make the key stop, and to get a little luck here and there to make it all the way. You hope that the Book Center eliminates that Bradley shirt, and you hope Bradley-boy doesn’t wear that Bradley shirt on campus unless he wants to be socked by someone.

And you hope all these things happen because there are no immigrants from Bulgaria to come help out on this one.

So It Begins

So it begins...the return back to the top of the ACC, back to national prominence, back to the College Cup. The bar has been set, the goal is clear, and nothing short of a championship will satisfy this year’s Maryland Men’s Soccer team. The team is stacked with returning veterans like Graham Zusi, Omar Gonzalez, and Jeremy Hall, but also features the number 1 recruiting class in the country including Casey Townsend, Zac MacMath, and Alex Lee. The home opener is set for tomorrow night, 8:00 at Ludwig against Hartford. The crowd is sure to be pumped up, the Crew in full force and the team definitely should be ready to go all out.

So who am I and why the heck am I the crew chief for Men’s Soccer? I’ve been a huge soccer guy all of my life. Since I was 6, I played recreational and then travel soccer. So it sounds like I’m really good at what I do right? Well not so much…I was never good enough for high school soccer, much less playing in college. I played intramural soccer here at Maryland and we made it to the finals before losing. Stupid referees! I have been a soccer referee since I was 12, so when I complain about referees on our broadcasts I have every right to, because I know they would be wrong. I also was an assistant coach for my soccer’s travel soccer team for about five years. I’ve definitely been around the game for quite a long time. But that’s just me…our crew this year is phenomenal! Returning from last year’s crew are Justin Granit (my Co-Crew Chief), Kyle Cox, former collegiate player Nick Reifschneider (definitely butchered that last name) and of course our director of News at WMUC Robert Gerard Dawson. The newbies to our crew are Brookes Staley and John Talty. Both are extremely enthusiastic about the game and I couldn’t be happier with the crew I have this year, that will cover these Terps all the way to Frisco, Texas and the College Cup! Enough about us though…you want to know about your Terrapins.

Thus far on the year, the Terps are 1-1, defeating #14 UCLA 2-1 in double OT after Sir Rodney Wallace scored on a break away goal off of a pass from Drew Yates. Wallace put it in the back of the net giving the Terps their first win of the year. Interesting to note, in goal was Will Swaim, last year’s majority starter. As many of you know, Swaim and freshman stud Zac MacMath are having the same battle that Swaim and Thorne Holder did last year. Well Holder is gone, but the more athletic and better MacMath has taken his place. Sasho has refused to name a starter as of yet, but promises to do so in the coming weeks. No word on who is starting in goal in the home opener on Friday. The guess here though it will be Will Swaim.

The second game of the year also took place on west coast, but didn’t have the same result for the Terrapins. After a wonderful first half, in which the Terps dominated the action outshooting California 8-3, they wound up falling 1-0. MacMath started that one and put on a wonderful performance, however, the Terrapins just couldn’t find a way to put it in the back of the net. Also of note in that game, Casey Townsend another one of Sasho’s prized recruits, was injured in the first half and did not return. Jason Herrick also didn’t play in that game, giving more time to freshmen Matt Kassel and Alex Lee. It will be interesting to see if the injuries to Townsend and Herrick affect their playing time in this weekend’s two home games against Hartford and than Davidson.

Looking into the future a little bit, #2 Boston College and #1 Wake Forest are both coming to Ludwig field, in what should be two of the best games in all of college soccer. What a year the Terps could put on for us!

As I stated in my phenomenal opening…anything but a trip to the College Cup, this team would deem as a failure. After the heartbreaking loss to Bradley (which Rob Gerard Dawson will blog about immediately after this post hits the press), the Terrapins are determined to get back to glory road. Can Will Swaim bounce back after the Bradley game and will he be the starter all year long? What will Graham Zusi do in his swan song season? Will the freshman class live up to the hype?

Until next time…That’s a Rap!

~Sussman