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The men’s soccer team is seeded 10th in the tournament and will host either Connecticut or Fairfield, Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 7 p.m. Junior goalkeeper Michael Giallombardo recently checked in with VirginiaSports.com to give his first-hand account of the team’s run to the ACC Tournament and to preview the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
Going down to the ACC Tournament we had lost four conference games in a row. Two of them were away and two of them were home, so we knew we were not assured of anything. But leading up to our opening game against Duke, it was all about beating the Blue Devils. The importance of that quarterfinal game was not only just about the ACC Tournament, but would also help our NCAA hopes.
We had lost to Duke earl
ier in the season, 1-0, on a penalty kick, so we had some major incentive to get the victory. To have our senior midfielder Matt Poole convert two penalty kicks and then get two goals from our talented freshman forward Brian Ownby was great.
Next up in the semifinals was Wake Forest, a team we faced in our regular-season finale at home and lost to, 2-0. We went into it really excited. I mean, an ACC semifinal against the No. 1-ranked team in the country, if that doesn’t get you pumped up I’m not sure what will.
Coach Gelnovatch gave us a game plan and we stuck to it. We didn’t shock ourselves, but we were impressed by ourselves once we started into the game and we knew that we were doing what we needed to be doing. We were up 2-1, and we thought we had the upset in hand, but they scored to tie the game late and we were going to overtime. Looking back on it, playing two 8 p.m. games and going into a second overtime against Wake Forest may have hurt us a bit in the final against Maryland. Regardless, we got the golden goal vs. Wake Forest and knew we were going to be playing for an ACC Championship the next day.
Maryland is a good team. I remember looking at freshman defender Howard Turk after they scored early and thinking we would be okay. A couple of things didn’t go our way and we didn’t lose because of lack of effort.
I was very impressed with Brian Ownby because Ownby doesn’t have a position. All season he has been not only adjusting to being a freshman, but adjusting to playing several different positions. For him to get those goals in the tournament I think boosted his confidence.
So now we are moving ahead to the NCAA Tournament and we host either Connecticut or Fairfield on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Honestly, it can be seen as an advantage. Obviously you want to be home. Nobody wants to go on the road and play but you’ve got to approach every game in the NCAA Tournament like it’s an away game. Even if you are home you need the edge. In the playoffs, it’s win or go home. We started practicing in June-July. All that work comes down to hopefully the next five or six games we play. Having said that, we set ourselves up pretty nice with a home game.
Go Hoos!
Mike G.