The men’s soccer team (11-4-4 overall, 4-2-2 Big Ten) is preparing to play the Maryland Terrapins (12-5-2 overall, 5-2-1 Big Ten) in the semi-finals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday. The matchup will be the second time this season that MSU will travel to Maryland to take on the Terrapins.
“I think you’re going to see two teams that are playing probably some of their best soccer as of late,” head coach Damon Rensing said. “I think you’re going to have a great college game, could be a few goals, maybe a 2-1, 3-2 game, I just hope we have the two or the three against a very good Maryland team.”
The last time these two teams met, the Spartans defeated Maryland on their home field 1-0 on a goal by junior midfielder Jason Stacy Sept. 19. Much like last time, Ludwig Field, the home of the Terrapins, will have an electric environment, the Sept. 19 matchup drew a crowd of 6,014.
“It’s going to be a hostile environment, you know they’ll be buzzing,” senior defender Ryan Keener said. “We’ll look to slow it down, hopefully get a shutout, and steal a goal.”
If Keener and the Spartans hope to get that shutout the defender mentioned, the team will need to shut down junior midfielder Mael Corboz. Corboz leads the Terrapins in total points with 21 on nine goals and three assists.
Compared to September, both teams have a different look heading into Friday’s matchup. Last time around, the Spartans were without senior forward Adam Montague and the Terrapins were without senior forward and midfielder Alex Shinsky. Going into the Sept. 19 matchup, Maryland was just 1-2-2, but heading into Friday’s game the Terrapins are coming off of nine straight wins and a Big Ten regular season championship.
“While there’s a lot of good players on the teams, I think the attacking pieces, having Montague in the lineup consistently and their kid Shinsky, I think those two guys just add another demension,” Rensing said. “Those two guys have either scored goals or affected other goals ... so I think that’s the difference between both teams being successful right now.”
Junior goalkeeper Zach Bennett stated that the team can look to it’s victory over Maryland earlier in the season for confidence, but they can’t expect the same result.
"(The last game against Maryland) definitely gives us some confidence,” Bennett said. “It gives us something to build on, something to look at, something to show to the guys that (says) ‘hey we’ve done this before, no reason we can’t do it again.’”
“We can’t take it lightly, we can’t just say we’ve done it so we’re going to do it again, you’ve got to have that exact same mentality ... you take a little bit from the game, you take a little bit of the video, a little bit of the confidence, but you just can’t be complacent.”
