After 45 minutes of play Monday afternoon at Method Road Soccer Stadium, the men’s soccer team held a 2-1 lead and had out-shot Virginia Tech 7-2.
However, the second half was a different story.
The Hokies were the aggressors on offense, out-shooting N.C. State 8-4 and scoring the only two goals of the half to take the come-from-behind 3-2 win.
Senior defender Rami Ghanayem said the Wolfpack didn’t play with the same intensity in the second half as it had in the first.
“I attribute [the lack of second-half offense] to being complacent,” Ghanayem said. “We got too relaxed, too complacent. And they’re a good team, so hats off to them.”
Meanwhile, coach George Tarantini gave credit to Virginia Tech for the second half turnaround.
“They played better than us,” Tarantini said. “We did a good job, but this is a young team. And we made a lot of mistakes.”
With the loss, State dropped to 1-4-1 in the conference, and it has gone winless in its last five ACC matches. Since State knocked off then-No. 1 North Carolina to open league play, ACC opponents have outscored the Pack 7-2 in the second half.
“It’s frustrating because we have a lot of talent,” Ghanayem said. “We go up on Virginia, and we go up on Virginia Tech. And we go up on Carolina. We’ve been going up on all these ACC teams, and it seems to just slip away in the end.”
Tarantini echoed Ghanayem’s frustration and said losing a one-goal game after having the lead and “controlling most of the game” is particularly difficult to deal with.
“This is a hard loss to take,” Tarantini said. “It eats you alive inside. But I still believe we can get better.”
As far as how to get better and prevent the second half scoring droughts and defensive lapses, Ghanayem said communication between defenders has to improve.
“The [defenders] played well, but our communication slipped in the second half,” Ghanayem said. “If there’s no communication, then the back four can’t link up and be all on the same page.”
Junior forward El Hadj Cisse said some of the responsibility for the lack of communication falls on the shoulders of the offensive players as well.
“We just got to keep talking to the defense and keep telling the goalkeepers to keep us in the game.” Cisse said. “The more saves they make, the more chances we can have to get deep in goal.”
Despite the loss, Tarantini found a silver lining and praised the play of Cisse, who scored State’s first goal on a free kick after being tackled on a breakaway chance, and the other offensive players.
“El Hadj did a great job,” Tarantini said. “We had control of the game for the most part. We had a lot of chances — a couple of breakaways. They played hard.”
Cisse said the offense continues to be aggressive and create chances — just not results.
“The offense is playing well,” Cisse said. “In practice we work on moving off the ball, and we keep moving off the ball. So now we need to work on putting [the ball] inside the goal.”
The Pack next plays another ACC opponent, Duke (8-2-1) on Sunday at Method Road Soccer Stadium. It’ll be senior day for State, and Ghanayem said as a senior that it’s his responsibility to make sure the young team stays focused on the rest of the season.
“The key is being positive,” he said. “If you stay positive every day, [the younger players] draw from you. And you progress from there.”
