The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

​Virginia beats physical Coastal Carolina, 2-1

Late goal by Opoku lifts Cavaliers in season opener

<p>Sophomore forward Edward Opoku broke the tie with a late-game goal Friday night, giving Virginia a win in its season opener against No. 21 Coastal Carolina.</p>

Sophomore forward Edward Opoku broke the tie with a late-game goal Friday night, giving Virginia a win in its season opener against No. 21 Coastal Carolina.

The Virginia men’s soccer team found itself in a physical battle in a closely fought match against No. 21 Coastal Carolina Friday night before pulling away with a 2-1 victory in the team’s season opener.

However, all did not go well for the No. 17 Cavaliers early on. The match was delayed an hour due to a thunderstorm, forcing an 8:00 p.m. start rather than at the scheduled 7:00 p.m.

Despite the thunderstorm, a large home crowd showed up to cheer on the Cavaliers. Virginia sophomore forward Edward Opoku had no doubt the fans played a big part in helping the team prevail.

“It was actually like a really nice crowd,” Opoku said. “We didn’t think we were going to get a lot of people, you know, considering we had the thunderstorm, but it was like really good having the students supporting us. We obviously needed students to help us to have a good performance, so it was really good having them there.”

When the match finally started, Coastal Carolina (0-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead, scoring within minutes into the match. However, Virginia displayed their strong fortitude and resilience, responding right back with their own goal, courtesy of a penalty kick from senior midfielder Paddy Foss.

However, it seemed as if Coastal Carolina had much of the momentum, as they continuously played a physical brand of soccer, roughing up and knocking down a handful of Virginia players. This culminated in a red card for Coastal Carolina junior forward Frantzdy Pierrot after a big hit on Virginia sophomore midfielder Daniel Barir.

This resulted in Coastal Carolina playing a man down the rest of the match. However, Virginia coach George Gelnovatch believes this made the match even tougher for the Cavaliers.

“I thought when he got sent off it was harder to play against Coastal then when he was on,” Gelnovatch said. “I would have preferred that he’d not get thrown out and that they play equal strength so that the game had a little bit more openness to it, which I think would have favored us.”

Gelnovatch pointed to Virginia’s mental strength and discipline in helping the Cavaliers pull out a victory.

“I think they did a good job, our guys, of keeping discipline, you know, no silly fouls, no red card-esque type of plays,” he said. “I think the guys did a really good job of keeping their discipline.”

With their season opener against one of the top teams in the country, Virginia knew it had a tough task in front of them. To Gelnovatch, beating the Chanticleers was be a great way to start off the season.

“Coastal Carolina is a good team, I think they’re a playoff team,” Gelnovatch said. “This game is going to help us, it’s going to help them, but they’re also a big, strong, athletic, tough team, you know, and yeah a few tackles were, you know, yellow card and that red card looked like a bad one, but they’re not dirty, they’re just a hard, physical, big, strong team, and it’s good for us.”

Opoku expressed a similar sentiment, talking about how it was important for Virginia to get a win right out of the gate, as opposed to suffering a slow start to the season, like the team did last year.

“It’s actually really good to get our first win,” Opoku said. “I mean last year we had a slow start and this year having to have a whole new system playing and having new guys in the back too, we’re trying to still get to know everyone. It’s great and our confidence is really high and we hope for a good season.”

The Cavaliers will finish off their mini two-game home stand Friday against Xavier at 7:30 p.m. Afterwards, Virginia will take to the road to begin a two-game road trip against James Madison (0-1, 0-0 CAA) and conference rival Wake Forest (0-1, 0-0 ACC).

Comments

Latest Podcast

The University’s Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admission, Greg Roberts, provides listeners with an insight into how the University conducts admissions and the legal subtleties regarding the possible end to the consideration of legacy status.



https://open.spotify.com/episode/02ZWcF1RlqBj7CXLfA49xt