It seems like the turning point has finally been realized — and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Virginia men’s soccer team.
Virginia (3-3, 1-0 ACC) enters tonight’s home game against Central Connecticut State University (4-1-1, 0-0 Northeast Conference) fresh off an impressive win against N.C. State, which the Cavaliers blasted 5-0 Friday night at Klöckner Stadium. Freshman midfielder Tony Tchani, an emerging star in Virginia’s offense who scored two goals and added one assist in the contest, now leads Virginia in scoring with five goals overall. Heralded freshman forward Chris Agorsor also added a goal against the Wolfpack, his fourth of the season. Virginia’s offense was firing on all cylinders Friday night, putting up more goals than in any other game this season.
Defensively, Virginia also recorded its first shutout of the season behind a standout performance from junior goalkeeper Michael Giallombardo and the Virginia defense. Giallombardo, recording his first start of the season, tallied four saves to give Virginia the impressive win.
“I like to say we were due this kind of game ... but when you start five freshmen and you count on them to get a lot of minutes and goals ... you kind of hold your breath sometimes,” Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. “Tonight they stepped up.”
The challenge for Virginia, however, will be to sustain that success. Tonight’s game against CCSU will be an important test. The Cavaliers have two tough ACC road contests looming against Virginia Tech and North Carolina, and they will need to come out and establish themselves early on against CCSU in order to maintain the momentum they gained Friday night.
It’s unclear what kind of a challenge CCSU will present. Implicitly, one might be tempted to overlook the Blue Devils based solely on the name of their school; however, that would be a grave mistake. The Blue Devils are marching through their schedule impressively so far, with big wins against Manhattan, St. Bonaventure, Marist and Holy Cross. On the other hand, CCSU suffered an 0-2 loss a week ago to Vermont at home.
CCSU is led by senior captain Yan Klukowski, who kicked the Blue Devils to victory against Manhattan Saturday evening. The Blue Devils are also led by junior goalkeeper Paul Armstrong, who is riding a hot streak with three shutouts in the Devils’ first six games.
Tonight’s game will be the first-ever matchup between Virginia and CCSU, and it’s anyone’s bet as to how the game will play out. Virginia, however, seems to have the certain edge and will look to put away the Blue Devils early on.
To do that, the Cavaliers will need to capitalize on scoring opportunities, which has been something of a problem for Virginia this year. The Cavaliers have routinely out-shot opponents yet still have come up with several losses because they were unable to finish scoring chances. Virginia, however, was able to capitalize on changes Friday night and put away N.C. State in the first half.
“We needed a breakout game in terms of scoring,” Gelnovatch said after Friday’s win. “We had [approximately] 19 shots against both VCU and St. John’s and zero goals. Tonight we got five goals on [approximately] 14 shots ... I think that’s going to do a lot for us moving forward.”
Tonight Virginia will hope to follow the same blueprint, but whether that happens remains to be seen.
“I think one thing that we do as a team which is important is that we kind of approach every game the same way,” Agorsor said. The “ACC definitely holds more importance to us, but as far as preparation, we go into every game with a goal of winning the game.”
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