The NC State men’s soccer team heads back to Raleigh to face rival and No. 15 ranked UNC-Chapel Hill Friday, following a 0-0 draw with ACC opponent Boston College last weekend.
The Wolfpack (5-4-3, 1-2-2 ACC) takes the field at Dail Soccer Stadium against the Tar Heels (9-4-0, 3-2-0 ACC) knowing that handling UNC’s individual threats is a priority.
Heels senior forward Andy Craven leads the ACC in scoring with seven goals, while highly-rated freshman forward Alan Winn and sophomore midfielder Nyambi Jabang, who scored twice in a 4-0 victory against Georgia State earlier this week, provide additional offensive threat.
At the back, Carolina’s anchored by one of the top defenders in the country, senior Boyd Okwuono.
“The reality is, on paper, they’re better than us individually,” NC State Head Coach Kelly Findley said. “Our responsibility is to go out and be a better team. Our guys understand that and are willing to do whatever it takes to get a result.”
For NC State that means employing the same organized, defensive approach combined with clinical counter attacking that allowed the Pack to take down No. 5 Louisville earlier this season — the team’s marquee win.
Crucial to this is the play of freshmen defenders Caleb Duvernay, Matias Fracchia and Conor Donovan, who, along with junior goalkeeper and ACC saves leader Alex McCauley, will be tasked with directly stopping the Tar Heel’s dangerous attacking group.
Although this match seems crucial to the Wolfpack’s hopes of making the tournament, Findley and his players concentrate on performing to personal expectations.
“We need to try to get points out of any game, but we don’t look at any individual match as a must win,” Findley said. “That just adds pressure. Instead, we just go out, play the way we play, and try to get better at what we do.”
With the win against Louisville earlier this year and a 1-0 overtime victory over Carolina in 2013, Findley said he believes the team’s culture is changing for the better, and while the group is once again the underdog, games are not played on paper.
“There’s no question we can get a result,” Findley said. “The guys know that, we have the quality and our work ethic is coming on. Those three things together can create great results.”
The Wolfpack will look to attack strongly through players like sophomore winger Travis Wannemuehler, freshman midfielder Zach Knudson and redshirt senior forward Nick Surkamp, and exploit the spaces left by the Tar Heels’ overtly attacking style.
“We’ve watched their last four games,” Findley said. “We know what they do well, but more importantly we examined their weaknesses and want to capitalize on them.”
