Men’s soccer foiled by Howard, draws 0-0

Photo credit: GW Men’s Soccer

By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)

Men’s soccer drew a frustrating match 0-0 to crosstown rivals Howard on Tuesday afternoon and extended their winless streak to four matches.

In the second straight match played at home in perfect conditions, the Revolutionaries (2-3-3, 0-1 A10) once again failed to find the back of the net. GW has now gone 428 minutes without a goal from open play, with their last one coming in the 22nd minute of their 3-1 win against Stony Brook on September 5.

“We did create some chances in the second half and I thought we should have converted some of those,” GW head coach Craig Jones said in a video posted to the team’s social media accounts. “But we stopped a rut in terms of losing games and we kept a clean sheet, so that’s a positive moving forward.”

Howard was the better team to start as GW made some tactical tweaks from the jump, putting senior midfielder/forward Carter Humm and freshman forward George Vincent on the field at the same time. Both Humm and Vincent have seen time up top this year and we saw a formation that morphed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 depending on if GW had the ball.

Graduate student midfielder Conor Stephens was involved in GW chance creation early on, playing a tantalizing ball into Humm in the 12th minute that was cleared by senior defender Brandon Franklin at the last moment. On the ensuing corner kick, the Revs played it short to set Stephens up for an inswinger from the corner of the box, which he put deep and onto the head of freshman defender Colin Prendergast, who put it back across the face of goal.

As the half wore on the Bison (0-4-1) continued to threaten, with graduate student forward Roy Henderson causing problems for the GW center backs and creating chances for himself and his teammates. One of these opportunities came in the 16th minute when junior forward Bryson Baker collected the ball in his own half and looked to catch GW off guard with a one man counter attack. Unfortunately for the Bison, Baker fired his shot wide.

GW looked tepid going forward and went to the bench around the 30th minute for some fresh legs. The change that impacted the game the most from my vantage point was the introduction of graduate student midfielder Roee Tenne, who came off the bench for the first time this season. The walk-on turned captain from Switzerland got stuck into a few tackles and won some duels, springing attacks and breaking the lines of the compact Howard setup. Tenne has stepped into a bigger role this year as a steady presence in the midfield after being named one of the team’s three captains prior to the season.

As the first half came to an end, the Revs were on the front foot and saw a good chance come along in the 42nd minute when Vincent played a ball through to graduate student midfielder Nacho Alastuey, who had it cleared away.

I would be remiss not to mention the refereeing in this match. It was not good. Nickrod Fateh gave a free kick for anything that slightly resembled a foul in the first half, coming out to 19 fouls at the break. In a sport like men’s college soccer which can be very physical (which is a good thing! Let the boys play! It’s a contact sport!) that can make the game difficult to watch, as neither team can develop a rhythm. 

Fateh then came out in the second half and did what any rational person would do: call the game differently than he had in the first half. Suddenly he was turning a blind eye to tackles he was whistling fouls for in the first half and we had a more open game just as the teams were realizing they needed to be careful. It got better towards the end of the game once he started handing out yellow cards but I felt like he lost control of the game early on. One positive I will add is that he did not make any decisions that truly impacted the result of the game, which is always a positive but is a low bar.

GW started the second half the same way they ended the first, by putting Howard under pressure. After arguably the best buildup they’d had all day in the 52nd minute, a cross fell to Alastuey, who was unable to put his shot on goal but won his team a corner and drew cheers from the home bench. A few minutes later, sophomore winger Alex Nicholson found junior defender Sean Vaghedi with an inswinger to the back post but Vaghedi volleyed it right at the goalkeeper.

The Revs would have a few more chances that Bison senior goalkeeper Benjamin Hoeslii would handle well but they never truly forced him into a remarkable one. Howard looked menacing on the break a few times, getting in behind GW’s backline, although the Revs largely kept them in check.

A few opportunities came off set plays for GW, who had success putting in deep balls from  both open play and set pieces. But the Revs best opportunity for my money came in the 82nd minute when freshman winger Louis Saville won the ball off a Howard defender, danced his way past another on the endline and played a ball on the ground into the middle. But as was the case all day, GW couldn’t get a touch on it as freshman winger Yago Torres was shielded off the ball.

There would be a few more opportunities for the Revs but they were unable to find the final ball or finish their chances. Being unable to score against a Howard team that had conceded 16 times in four matches coming in is disappointing, there’s no two ways about it. But a silver lining is that the Revs created the chances and kept their second clean sheet of the season.

Next up is a tough test against a Davidson team who is undefeated through five matches and has only conceded once. You’d be naive to think that there wouldn’t be bumps in the road for this young Revolutionaries squad, and I think we will learn a lot more about this team in the coming weeks as they move into conference play.

Kickoff at Davidson is 1 PM on Saturday. The game will not be streamed, which is a disgrace and a disservice to the players, coaches, fans, and parents. Soccer is not a sport that can be captured through live stats and any attempt to do so is an admission of guilt that you don’t care about the players or your fans. You are a Division 1 school, act like it.