Maryland men’s soccer asserts itself in 3-0 defeat of No. 8 Wisconsin

On multiple occasions, Maryland men’s soccer head coach Sasho Cirovski has said that his program views its 2024 campaign as a “revenge season” for its historically bad 2023 season.

Friday night, the Terps delivered a dominating win over a top-10 conference opponent, and Cirovski’s claims rang true.

Maryland opened conference play with a 3-0 victory against previously unbeaten No. 8 Wisconsin, getting goals from Chris Steinleitner, Bjarne Thiesen and Colin Griffith.

“Absolutely delighted with the effort, that was our best performance of the year,” Cirovski said. “It was a complete effort from beginning to end and it’s something we’ve been building to.”

If you didn’t have any background information, you certainly wouldn’t have known Maryland was the underdog after watching the first 20 minutes of the match. Almost instantaneously after kickoff, Bjarne Thiesen got free for a header that was cleared off the line.

That chance set the tone for the game’s first half, as Maryland threatened in Wisconsin’s final third much more than it was being threatened in its own.

All these chances seemed to come to a head when Max Rogers pressured Wisconsin’s goalkeeper into a botched clearance straight to Griffith. Griffith played it straight back into Rogers, who turned and fired a low-driven shot that looked like it might find the bottom corner until it stung the post.

For a moment, it seemed Maryland had squandered its chance and were destined for another half of strong play without anything to show for it.

Then, on the ensuing corner, he ball fell in front of Steinleitner right around the penalty spot. He put his laces through it before it could hit the ground and drove it right into the bottom-right corner.

“Finally we had that [offensive effectiveness that we wanted,” Steinleitner said. “We had like a lot of shots before in every game, but we didn’t translate that into goals.”

The goal remained the difference at the end of the first 45 minutes and the Terps went to the locker room protecting a one-goal lead over the nation’s No. 8 team.

While it may have seemed natural for the Terps to exit their halftime recess by playing conservatively and defending their lead, they came out of the locker room like they were the team trailing.

Early in the half, the Terps won a free kick from near the right touch line. Rogers stood over the ball and delivered a fantastic ball into the penalty area that Steinleitner flicked into the path of a streaking Thiesen, who headed it into the back of Wisconsin’s net, doubling Maryland’s lead.

Maryland wasn’t done there, either. Just over five minutes later and for the second game in a row, Griffith displayed some amazing skill as he curled the ball into the top right corner.

“He had a very difficult injury prone year last year and we challenged him to put in the work this summer…” Cirovski said, “…. goal scorers build a lot of confidence when they score so he looks like a confident player at the moment.”

There the game remained as Maryland’s defense stood tall and held its first clean sheet of the season against an offense averaging over three goals per game.

Three things to know

1. Different formation produced offensive results. With forward Luke Van Heukelum out with a shoulder injury, Cirovski was forced to make a change to his normal lineup and formation. He shifted to a 4-3-3 and brought Steinleitner into the midfield, who rewarded him with a goal.

2. Ranking on the way? Far from usual expectations, the first month of the season passed without Maryland sniffing the weekly top 20 rankings. After a win of this magnitude, one might assume it will be close to if not in the next edition.

3. Maryland has become a set piece threat. Steinletner’s goal from the corner and Thiesen’s off the free kick marked Maryland’s fifth and sixth goals from some form of set piece this season. The ability to manufacture goals from these situations will be invaluable in conference play.

“Max [Rogers] is serving a great ball,” Thiesen said, “So it’s more about us just getting in there and getting our head on something.”