Following the team’s impressive win over Campbell on Thursday night, NC State men’s soccer is set to travel to College Park on Sunday to take on Maryland in its NCAA Tournament second-round game.
The 11 seed Terrapins (8-6-4) received a bye in the first round and will be well rested when the Wolfpack comes to town on Sunday. The Terrapins’ last game was a penalty shootout loss to Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament on Nov. 9.
Success for the Terps this season has been built on their defense. With only 16 goals against this season, expect Sunday’s game to be a hard-fought but low-scoring affair.
While the Wolfpack (10-6-3) notched four against Campbell in its first-round game, scoring has been the main issue this season for the Wolfpack.
The Pack has been shutout on six different occasions this season and failed to score more than one goal in another five matches. Despite these struggles, the Wolfpack may have found its solution in junior transfer and converted midfielder Gabriel Machado.
Machado netted twice for the Wolfpack against Campbell on Thursday, including one goal which he scored directly from a corner. The midfielder turned forward now leads the team in scoring with six for the season.
The Brazilian provides something different up top for the Wolfpack when compared to the other forwards. Since he is traditionally a midfielder, the junior plays more as a false-nine, dropping deeper to receive the ball and get other creative players involved in the play like David Loera and Ivy Brisma, who have a combined 11 assists this season.
Despite the scoring struggles that the team has faced this season, it has been able to win a lot of low scoring games thanks to stellar defense and goalkeeping. The Wolfpack has recorded seven clean sheets this season, two of which came against UNC-Chapel Hill and Akron who were ranked one and two respectively at the time of the games.
For the Wolfpack’s defense, all eyes will be on Maryland midfield duo Omar Sejdic and Paul Bin who have combined for nine goals this season.
On Sunday the key to victory is easier said than done; the Wolfpack needs to win the midfield battle. Both teams get an absurd amount of production from their midfielders, so whoever is able to win the midfield battle is going to win the game.
With Machado likely starting in the forward line that responsibility will fall to the trio of Loera, freshman midfielder AJ Seals and sophomore midfielder Brad Sweeney. Sweeney, who is known for his blue-collar approach to the game, will be the one putting in a majority of the defensive work while Seals and Loera look to progress the ball and open up scoring chances for the forwards.
If Sweeney can do what he has all season and protect the back line the Wolfpack has a very good chance of advancing to the third round for the first time since 1992 when it fell to Davidson.
