Preview: Maryland men’s soccer vs. No. 16 Northwestern

With its road trip now over, Maryland men’s soccer (1-4-2, 0-2-1 Big Ten) looks to exit September with a win in its return home by delivering No. 16 Northwestern (7-0-2, 1-0-1 Big Ten) its first loss of the season. 

The Terps still have yet to notch a win this month, with their record sitting at 0-3-2 over the course of September. 

Maryland is coming off of yet another tough road loss, this time against Wisconsin. The Terps played a good opening half but were unable to find the back of the net. 

“We did a lot of things well … in the first half,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “But unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of that opportunity and the momentum shifted a little bit in the second half.”

The match eventually boiled down to an unfortunate mishap that led to the Badgers goal. Maryland goalkeeper Jamie Lowell went down with an injury on the play.

“We just didn’t make a play on a simple cross and we don’t get the result,” said Cirovski.

The Terps must look to right the ship against one of their biggest challenges of the season in a Wildcats side that has certainly earned their rank. They look to be the best team in the Big Ten thus far and have shown great consistency over their results.

The schools have some history over the last couple years, though this year seems to be a very different chapter in their rivalry.

A struggling Northwestern side pulled off the major upset over Maryland in the first round of the Big Ten tournament in 2021, winning 3-2 on penalties in what was a scoreless affair. The Terps got their revenge over a shaky Wildcats squad in 2022, ending their season with a 1-0 win in the same round of the Big Ten tournament as the prior year.

The outlook of each side heading into this year’s match has seemed to have flipped, with Maryland struggling while Northwestern prospering. 

Possibly the most prominent difference in the switch of the teams is their different levels of success offensively so far. The Terps have sat near the top of the Big Ten while the Wildcats have placed in the bottom three over the last two years. Now, those ranks have flipped. 

Northwestern currently leads the Big Ten in scoring with 2.2 goals per match, while Maryland is struggling with just 0.7 goals per contest. Unless the Terps can be the first team to shut out the Wildcats this season, they will have to go well above that average to secure the win.

For Northwestern’s offense, it’s been forward Justin Weiss who has jumped onto the scene in his senior campaign. Weiss has notched an unbelievable 18 points through the Wildcats’ first nine games, which is more points than the entire Maryland team has notched this season (17).

Weiss is nationally ranked at 21st and 7th in goals (6) and assists (6), respectively. To put his form properly into perspective, when he won Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week earlier this season, Weiss registered seven points over a two-match span with a game-winning assist against Northern Illinois, followed up by a hat-trick against Illinois-Chicago. 

Weiss had more points in those two games than any individual Terp this season. 

Maryland’s defense will certainly have a tough task ahead of it with Weiss and the rest of Northwestern’s formidable offense, and it will likely have to do it without Lowell. The senior keeper’s injury at Wisconsin seemed to have been serious, requiring the cart to take him off the field. 

The good news for the Terps is they have an experienced option in sophomore goalkeeper Mikah Seger, who has already been alternating starts with Lowell to begin the season. 

No matter who starts at goal, they’ll need a big performance to pull off the upset.

Kickoff at Ludwig field will be at 7 p.m. Friday.