By: Johnny Moseman
The #7 ranked University of Maryland men’s soccer matched up against USF Monday night at Ludwig Field.
Gordon Wild started things off for the Terps in the 17th minute with a spectacular back-heel finish off an assist from Chris Odoi-Atsem. Wild was all over the field tonight, taking three of Maryland’s four shots in the first half. The sophomore transfer from USC Upstate has definitely established himself as one of Maryland’s top weapons this season.
That isn’t anything new according to head coach Sasho Cirovski. They’ve been expecting that ever since Wild, last season’s national leader in goals scored, announced he was transferring to Maryland.
“Gordon is a goal scorer, he lives to score goals,” Cirovski said. “I saw a little bit of Patrick Mullins in him and we’re seeing it now so far this season.”
Wild scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season tonight.
USF answered back in the 49th minute with a goal from Luis Garza. The goal came after a shot rebounded off Maryland goalkeeper Cody Niedermeier and Garza put it in the net from just inside the box.
Maryland took the lead again after Amar Sejdic scored an absolute beauty of a goal from outside the box in the 59th minute. That goal seemed to wake Maryland up a little bit, and they didn’t look back.
Right after Sejdic’s spectacular goal, USF’s Ricardo Gomez was issued a red card in the 59th minute. USF had to play the rest of the game with ten players.
Wild continued Maryland’s momentum in the second half, scoring his second goal of the night in the 65th minute. Freshman Keegan Kelly finished things up tonight with a spectacular goal in the 87th minute to seal the victory for Maryland tonight. This was Kelly’s first career goal as a Terp.
USF had a couple of chances early on in the game, especially in the 1st minute when the Bulls’ Michael Bajza had a great look and shot at goal but Niedermeier saved it. Niedermeier had only two saves tonight, mainly because USF finished with only six shots tonight.
This game came after an emotional win Friday night against Georgetown. Head coach Cirovski has always been weary of playing a Monday night game after a winning the previous Friday. Entering tonight the Terps had lost three straight games on Monday nights after winning the previous Friday.
“Friday night was such a huge event, physically and emotionally,” Cirovksi said. “It is difficult to come back from that, from a physical and emotional standpoint.”
Tonight was a different ending to a story the Terps had been so used to as they finally got the win they’ve been looking for three years.
“We needed to make sure we were sharp with the ball and with our discipline to win,” Cirovski said. “We accomplished both of those feats and that’s why we won tonight.”
Maryland takes the field next against No. 5 Indiana in Bloomington on Friday night at 7 p.m.
