In a difficult opening exhibition match to the 2014 season, the Akron Zips young roster had difficulties all night with the experienced Maryland Terrapins, losing with a final score of 3-0.
The Zips coached by Jared Embick came out with some great ball movement led by Adam Najem in the center midfield. Distributing the ball to the wings and up top, the initial movement by the Zips had the Terrapins pushing back towards their own goal. Great early runs by freshmen Nate Shultz and Stuart Holthusen near the left touchline were some of the highlights for the Zips.
Starting six freshmen in today’s match, mostly in the middle and attacking thirds of the pitch, the experienced Terrapins eventually were able to close the passing lanes that the Zips were dominating the first 15 minutes of the match. For Maryland, once they broke through for their opening goal, the Terps were able to pull away with another two goals in quick succession.
In the 18th minute of play, the scoring was opened by David Kabelik of the Terrapins. The Hungarian national was applying pressure on the Zips defense on counter attacks, but was able to finally break free and knock home a goal past the reach of the Zips keeper Jake Fenlason. The man with the assist on that play, Mael Corboz, would tally his own goal only two minutes later, after being taken down inside the box and was awarded a penalty shot. Kabelik wasn’t done on the night as he was able to score again in the 29th minute of play. A lack of communication for the Zips proved costly, as the junior midfielder was able to take advantage of the chaos and put it past the keeper again.
For the Zips, Fenlason was extremely busy all night. The Maryland attack totaled 15 shots, with eight being on target. Not helping Fenlason’s case were the never-ending substitutions made by both squads. Following the three-goal surge, both squads began their process of mass substitutions. By the end of the match, both squads had used almost every, if not all their allotted subs.
Following the match, Coach Embick spoke about his teams performance.
“I was disappointed with the score. With the young team, we scheduled this team to see where we were at. The goal is New Mexico a week from Friday. We’ve got to learn a lot. The second half I thought we competed better. First half, once we gave up the goal, the guys kind of lost confidence, a lot of young guys in their first game. Didn’t really respond well, but that’s to be expected.”
Looking forward to Friday’s matchup against Syracuse, Coach Embick looks to fix a few things that could improve his team’s performance.
“Today our communication and our shifting defensively wasn’t good, and then we’ll work a lot on the ball. You can tell a little disconnect in the pass, the passing was off, whether that was nerves or guys not used to where they need to go, we’ll find out. We’re gonna work on it and see what it looks like on Friday. You’ll see a different mixture of players starting and we’ll see if that combos better. If we can see guys fighting and competing, I think we have enough talent to get us through.”
With the immense talent that the 2014 Zips have at their disposal, look for them to improve greatly as the season continues. With players from England, New Zealand, Brazil, Israel, Canada, and the U.S., it will take some time to gel completely. Look for a more veteran squad against Syracuse as the Zips prepare for the regular season opener against the fifth ranked Lobos of New Mexico on August 29th.
