There will be no firework displays or rally towels when the Terrapin men's soccer team takes the field tonight.
There will be no student whiteout and no "Crew" taunting the opposing goalkeeper. Instead, there will probably be jeers when the No. 4 Terps play Clemson in South Carolina, the team's first match away from Ludwig Field since August.
While on paper the Tigers (2-4-2, 1-1-1 ACC) won't provide the competition the Terps faced on their last road trip, a split of opening-weekend games in the Los Angeles area, it will still be an adjustment from a month-long home stand.
But coach Sasho Cirovski said he wasn't concerned.
"We've shown that we can play well on the road by our performance at UCLA," Cirovski said. "I think we're ready for the challenge."
In that game, which was played in front of 3,214 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., the Terps tied the game in the final minute before scoring the golden goal in overtime, winning 2-1.
Clemson has scored only eight goals and allowed 15, as compared to the Terps' 17 scored and seven allowed. Clemson has lost to South Carolina, Georgia State and Stetson this season, but earned a scoreless draw at Duke last week.
"They've got a squad that's getting better with every game," Cirovski said.
Despite their struggles, the Tigers still have the advantage of playing in front of their own fans in tonight's game. The Terps lost to Cal in Los Angeles earlier this year and went 2-3-1 away from home during the 2007 regular season.
Like Ludwig Field, Clemson's Historic Riggs Field is viewed as one of the toughest places to play in college soccer. Coming into this season, the Tigers had won 82 percent of their games there, including a 2-1 victory against the Terps in front of 6,821 raucous fans in 2006.
But just like their coach, the Terps (7-2-0, 2-1-0) didn't seem overly anxious about the trip south.
After a 4-2 loss last week to No. 1 Wake Forest and a 1-0 win against Binghamton on Tuesday in which it struggled to create quality scoring chances, the team's mantra remains the same - keep improving.
"What we're trying to do now is file away [the Wake Forest] game," midfielder Jeremy Hall said. "We still have a lot of games to play. We're just going to try to take all the negatives out of it and turn them into positives."
Cirovski said he would like to see his players make one more pass into the box or dribble past another defender in certain attacking situations, instead of taking shots far from goal.
Cirovski also said he and his assistants will decide who will start in goal on the bus ride to Clemson. Sophomore Will Swaim has started the Terps' previous three ACC games, all on Friday nights, while freshman Zac MacMath has usually started in midweek games against nonconference opponents.
But regardless of how their offense performs or who starts in goal, the main task is to play well on the road.
If they do, the Terps will be back on track in the ACC and ready for the second half of their season.
akrautdbk@gmail.com
Be the first to comment on this article!