Maeve Bauer, Executive Editor
VCU men’s soccer matched up against the University of Central Florida on Friday. Players and fans began the game with a moment of remembrance for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Both teams worked the ball up and down the field for the better part of the first period, with multiple attempts made on both sides.
During the first half VCU attempted two shots, made two saves and committed four fouls. UCF scored two goals on nine shot attempts and committed one foul, according to VCUathletics.
With a little over 10 minutes left in the first period, UCF forward, third-year Drew Hansen scored the first goal of the game. Soon after, second-year UCF defender Hugo Vogel, with an assist from Hansen scored another point, bringing the score to 2-0.
The two teams battled it out for the rest of the half, but ultimately VCU was unable to settle the score.
VCU head coach Dave Giffard said that he was very disappointed with the first 45 minutes and hopes that his team learns from it.
“I think the part that was very disappointing was, I think we allowed some less experienced, less mature kind of psychological things to creep in and it impacted our kind of first 45 minutes’ belief and fight,” Giffard said. “Some of that’s going to come with the team with a lot of new people. Not that it’s acceptable, but to be fair, some of it is going to come with that.”
The score for the rest of the game stayed at 2-0. However, Giffard saw a noticeable improvement in the Ram’s play.
VCU attempted 25 shots during the second half, according to VCUathletics.
Looking forward to the Rams’ next game against Old Dominion University on Sept. 14, Giffard hopes that they will not have a repeat of today’s first half.
“You’re not going to make wholesale changes to the level of readiness to carry a game or to do anything,” Giffard said. “Maybe you don’t have enough time to train between now and then. You know, those things take weeks, months, in some cases years.”
Second-year captain and midfielder, fourth-year Theo Drennan, said he was disappointed with both his performance and his teammates’ performance today.
“I think our effort today wasn’t good enough. Our effort wasn’t there, and, you know, whatever happens with the ball, what they can do, what we can do, that depends on the day, but, you know, if our effort’s not there, then it’s not good enough,” Drennan said.
Drennan’s plan going into Monday is to try and put in more effort than ODU.
“If they’re outworking us, then already that’s the base that we can’t build on,” Drennan said.