The reasoning behind Maryland men’s soccer’s disappointing season

After a season that featured a rollercoaster of emotions, Maryland’s men’s soccer found itself watching from home during the postseason, unable to clinch a berth to the Big Ten tournament, let alone the NCAA tournament.

The Terps started the season ranked No. 14 in the nation and were picked to win the Big Ten, but were left out of the NCAA tournament entirely. Three big things led to Maryland’s sharp decline.

A Lack of Offense to Begin the Season

The Terps were attempting to recover from losing more than 60 percent of their point-getting production from a season ago and it most certainly showed.

With a very inexperienced offense, they struggled to get the gears turning, only logging five goals in their first eight matches of the season. The struggles were accentuated at the start of Big Ten play when the team failed to score in three conference matches in a row — all of which resulted in losses. 

A Decline in the Defense to Finish the Season

It wasn’t until the Villanova match that Maryland’s offense finally started to figure things out. Three underclassmen — Max Riley, Luke Van Heukelum and Kimani Stewart-Baynes — really started to fill the shoes of that lost production.

But the problem with the offensive turnaround was that it came at the same time the Terps’ defense began to struggle. After giving up little to opponents to begin the season during the offensive drought, during the last five matches the defense gave up a whopping 12 goals — the stretch included two games with four goals given up.

The timing of the defense’s drought sealed the deal for an already struggling team, coming in must win Big Ten matches after many winnable chances had already been missed earlier on in the season. 

Unforced Errors

Perhaps the biggest reason for the disappointing season was the many unforced errors that became the difference between wins/draws and losses. 

In the aforementioned three conference games in a row without a goal, two matches were lost due to preventable goals. 

Against Penn State, it was an unforced turnover on a pass from Mikah Seger that led to the game winning goal. Against Wisconsin, it was a cross that Jamie Lowell dropped due to an apparent lower leg injury leading to a tap-in for the Badgers’ own game winning goal. 

Each of those matches were crucial to Maryland’s success later in the season but proved to be difference makers in the team making the Big Ten tournament. 

“You flip a few of those plays and we’re sitting here, instead of 4-7 (at the time), maybe we’re 7-4,” coach Sasho Cirovski said.

But perhaps the biggest group of unforced errors this season were from the penalty spot. Maryland went 0-4 on its penalty kicks on the campaign — all four were taken by different offensive players. Two were easy saves, while two missed the frame of goal. 

The results of the matches that included a missed penalty kick were a scoreless draw vs. Wake Forest and three one-goal losses to Virginia, Wisconsin and Rutgers. 

“We’ve had kind of a remarkable run of bad luck this year,” Cirovski said. “I think anyone that’s watched us closely…have seen how close this team is to not only making a Big Ten tournament but being a top 20 team.” 

Looking Ahead

Only time will tell to see if Maryland’s dominance in the Big Ten is coming to an end. The Terps will lose multiple key pieces, but still have promise moving forward.

Maryland will likely be losing four important seniors along with two graduate students. The Terps’ main goalkeeper, Lowell, right back Kento Abe and center back Bjarne Thiesen all will likely be leaving the program this offseason. 

All served as big pieces for Maryland’s defense, starting in numerous big games this season. Lowell started matches throughout his career, playing a huge role in some of the Terps’ best seasons of late. 

In addition, Maryland will be waving bye to its captain, Alex Nitzl, a calming presence in the middle third for the last few campaigns. The team will also be losing a solid bench piece in Justin Harris. 

Up front, the Terps will be losing Stefan Copetti. Copetti was most known for his heroics, clinching the Big Ten regular season title at Indiana a season ago. 

Yet the next couple years still hold plenty of promise. Maryland played an abundance of underclassmen last season, particularly in the offense with Stewart-Baynes, Van Heukelum and Riley. The three combined for 36 points this past season.

Freshman Leon Koehl will be returning in the midfield, who recorded over a thousand minutes this season. Defensively, sophomores Luca Costabile and Seger will return, alongside William Kulvik who they will have for at least one more season, to provide upside for the Terps’ defense next year.