Luckily for the Virginia men's soccer team, Wednesday night's matchup against the Eagles of American University was just a pre-season exhibition. Such games are played with the purpose of working out a team's kinks before the start of regular season play. In Wednesday night's game, which ended with a 0-0 tie, the Cavaliers displayed many reasons to be optimistic about the upcoming season and also illuminated some areas of concern where work still needs to be done before the team takes off for California next week.
To start, any fair analysis of Virginia's performance must include the fact that injuries have plagued several of the Cavaliers' key players during the preseason. Virginia's 2004 leading goal-scorer, junior forward Adam Cristman, has missed both preseason games but practiced with the team Tuesday and is expected to be ready for the season opener next Friday. The same can be said for freshman defender Robby Rogers. The prognosis is more negative for another freshman defender, Bakary Soumare. He broke a bone on the outside of his foot and will not be able to play for most, if not all, of the 2005 season. Soumare was expected to emerge as a starter for Virginia's defense.
The Cavaliers' depleted defense put forth a solid performance Wednesday night. The defenders made no critical mistakes but there are, however, definitely some smaller aspects of the game to be improved upon. At some points, it appeared as if they held the ball too long and it also occasionally appeared that there was a lack of cohesiveness. This, however, is to be expected in the early going due to the high degree of turnover from 2004. Virginia has given up only one goal in two preseason games, so the defense must be doing something right. Sophomore Chris Tierney seems to be developing into a leader on defense and junior transfer Lee Sandwina made some excellent plays against the Eagles. With Rogers' impending return from the injured list, the jury is still out on the capabilities of the Cavaliers' rebuilt defense.
(On an aside, ex-Cav defender Matt Oliver, who graduated last year, was present on the sidelines of tonight's game, serving as a volunteer assistant coach along with another ex-Cav, Chefik Simo.)
Offensively, the Cavaliers were close to netting goals on several occasions but could never quite complete the process. Virginia's midfielders generally controlled the tempo of the game and put excellent pressure on American's defenders, but the Cavs' forwards were unable to finish off some potential scoring opportunities. Sophomore Jeremy Barlow displayed explosive speed at times and freshman forward Yannik Reyering showed flashes of brilliant potential. At 6 feet 5 inches, he towers over opposing defensive players and almost never loses a jump battle for the ball. He plays the game in a very physical manner, displaying no fear. He was involved in several plays that nearly ended in goals for the Cavaliers and he has the looks of being a future star for Virginia at the forward position.
(On a fashion note, sophomore midfielder Nico Colaluca has cut his flowing mantle of hair for a more subdued and customary hair style. Fellow midfielder Joe Vide, however, has grown his hair out to take over the role of "Virginia player who looks most like a Spanish soccer player").
Following the game, Coach Gelnovatch expressed satisfaction with his team's performance to date. With just over a week until the season begins, there is plenty of time for Virginia to iron out remaining concerns and fine-tune its game plan.
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