The Diamondback is coming at you with an all-consuming double-team of coverage tonight. Sports editor Aaron Kraut and myself will be keeping you up-to-date on the Terp men’s soccer team’s tilt tonight with No. 2 UNC.

It already looks pretty packed. The bleachers in front of us are filling up pretty quickly, but 7,000 tonight? We’ll see.

And for the moment, it looks like one of the day’s biggest question marks — the health of forward Casey Townsend — has an answer. Townsend was penciled into the starting 11 tonight, and he’ll presumably be up top with Jason Herrick as he has been for much of the season. It wouldn’t surprise me, though, to see Townsend work as the lone striker and have Herrick retreat back somewhat to help out with the Tar Heels’ talented midfielders.

Here’s what else we’ll be seeing from the Terps when they kick off in about five minutes:

——————–MacMath——————-
—-Lee—–White—–Tangney—–Kemp—-
——————–Kassel——————-
—Rodkey——–Yates———-Forbess—
———–Townsend—–Herrick————-

Keep checking the blog and twitter.com/DBKSports and twitter.com/jonas_shaffer for updates tonight.

Jonas Shaffer is The Diamondback’s men’s soccer beat writer. He can be reached at shaffer@umdbk.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jonas_shaffer. (more…)

Three days after an exhausting double-overtime road trip to Raleigh, N.C., there are some new and new-ish faces in the starting lineup tonight. Here’s the initial eleven:

—————————Swaim——————————
——Lee——White——Tangney——Kemp——
—————————Kassel——————————
—Cortes—————Yates—————Forbess—
—————Oduaran—————Herrick—————

The savvy Terp soccer fan might notice that a certain Mr. Townsend is missing up top. (In his place is forward Matt Oduaran, making his first career start). He went down late in Saturday night’s game, missed practice yesterday and, as of a few minutes ago, was hanging out with suspended midfielder Doug Rodkey on the bench. If there was one game he could get away with missing, though, this is probably it.

Goalkeeper Zac MacMath played Saturday, but had a wrap around his shoulder after the game. I’d guess his spot on the bench is for precautionary measures and gives him just another day off before arguably the season’s biggest test Friday against No. 2 UNC.

More later.

What’s tougher than evaluating players in a game where there wasn’t a definitive outcome? How about doing so when 10 of them did the job of 11 for more than 70 minutes? Without further ado, my best try:

MacMath: 7. Finished with his best effort in goal all year, organizing a depleted and fatigued defense and coming up clutch several times to snare some dangerous crosses.
Lee: 6. A profane outburst transferred the coaching staff’s vitriol onto him for a moment, but otherwise held strong on the Rodkey-less right side.
White: 9. Kept the dynamic Ronnie Bouemboue invisible when the sides were even, and held him in check even when they weren’t.
Tangney: 6.5. Missed midfield lunge led to the Wolfpack’s lone goal and a last-minute stumble nearly broke the Terps’ hearts. Aside from those two gaffes, was a rock in the middle.
Kemp: 7. Coach Sasho Cirovski said he’s learning more and more each game, and it’s obvious. Had good positioning all game, though N.C. State’s athleticism neutralized some of his own.

(more…)

There was so much that happened in Saturday night’s epic 1-1 tie against N.C. State that some of it couldn’t make the Monday game recap. Here’s the best of the rest:

Sasho Cirovski

– On discipline: “We have to make sure that we’re smarter with our discipline. We have a very disciplined team. We have the most shots and the least fouls. I think we’ll learn to make sure that we don’t put anything into the discretion of the referee again. We will learn from it.”

(more…)

Terrapin men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski isn’t messing with a good thing. His starting 11 is the same as it’s been the last two games. Here’s a refresher:

——————-Macmath—————-
—Lee—-White—-Tangney—–Kemp—
——————–Kassel——————
–Rodkey——–Yates———-Forbess–
———–Townsend—-Herrick————-

More later on the blog.

Jonas Shaffer is The Diamondback’s men’s soccer beat writer. He can be reached at shaffer@umdbk.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jonas_shaffer.