After first win of season, a tough week ahead for men’s soccer

The stage is set differently for VCU men’s soccer heading into late September matchups this season than it was last year.

In 2014, the 3-3-0 Rams were riding high after recording a win over Georgetown University, who at the time were ranked No. 6, and almost conceiving a draw to the University of Virginia, the eventual NCAA Champions. The performances encouraged VCU head coach Dave Giffard and almost earned the Rams a spot in the top-25 of the NSCAA Coaches poll. But that was then.

Now, the Rams head into the tail end of the month with a 1-0-4 record. On Sept. 17, the team begins a stretch of games which sees them host the same two teams that gave them momentum a year ago: Georgetown, now ranked No. 25, and No. 5 Virginia. The Rams will subsequently travel to the West Coast to face the No. 8 ranked University of California, Los Angeles, all in a span of eight days.

Georgetown, U.Va., and UCLA all saw their national rankings drop from 3, 2 and 1 respectively in the span of two weeks as each team suffered underwhelming starts to the season. Georgetown lost to University of South Florida and the University of Akron. U.Va. were held to draws against Duke University and the University of Tulsa, while UCLA has suffered losses to the University of Maryland and Georgetown.

With three of their four losses coming against ranked opponents, VCU’s Giffard acknowledges that his team has faced an unusually tough schedule and problem injuries, particularly an injury to sophomore forward Ivan Sakou. Giffard hopes the return of the Cameroonian native, who played his first game in the team’s 2-0 win against the University of Hartford on Saturday, will help the offense in its big upcoming matchups.

“Against good teams, it’s difficult to play without a striker,” Giffard said. “To have Ivan (Sakou) back into the team gives us a more bite. It’s a big boost.”

Sakou, who signed with VCU in 2015 from Western Nebraska Community College, made his NCAA debut against Hartford and recorded three shots on goal, but it was sophomore midfielder Jorge Andrade-Santos who gave the Rams the early lead when he chipped Hartford’s on-rushing goalkeeper on a breakaway in the 2nd minute.

Giffard’s team, led by senior captain defender Dennis Castillo, fought to protect the slim lead as its sophomore goalkeeper, Perre Gardan was forced to make four saves. The Rams held on and doubled their lead four minutes prior to when junior forward Jorge Herranz dribbled past Hawks defenders and put away a near-post finish.

Both of VCU’s goal-scorers fn the night, Andrade-Castillo and Harrez, opened their scoring account with the Black and Gold to ensure the Rams their first win of the season.“I think we were a bit unlucky to not get points in the past few games. We worked a lot in practice after those games and I think we deserved to win today,” Herranz said. “We have to keep playing our style and following the coach’s instructions and we will continue to win for sure.”

The Rams worked to get their first win of the season. Physicality was the staple of the game for VCU, receiving four yellow cards throughout the night.

“It was a good hard pretty win against a very good NCAA tournament-type team,” Giffard said. “It was good for us to get the monkey off our back and get the results. Both teams are not used to not winning. There’s a lot of fight and battle to it, those are the kinds of games you’re going to have against these types of teams.”

To add sentiment to the win, it was Giffard’s 50th career victory. The next match for VCU will be against Jacksonville University on Sunday, Sept. 13.

“The guys are working hard,” Giffard said. “We’ve had a lot of very good players here in the last five years. This group is no different, it’s been a little bit of tough start to it for us this year. If you’re playing against top teams, the margin of error is very small.”

Fadel Allassan, Staff Writer

Fadel is a sophomore print journalism major. He is fluent in English and French and enjoys writing about politics. // Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

allassanfg@commonwealthtimes.org