November marks the time of year when college soccer games bear greater intensity and go down to the wire as each game rises in importance.
Friday afternoon, those things will come together at Nickerson Field when the Boston University men’s soccer team battles the United States Military Academy in the semifinal round of the Patriot League tournament.
At stake will be a berth to the final round of the Patriot League Tournament, from which the victor will be guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament. Due to the magnitude of the games and what is at stake, the buzzword surrounding the Terriers’ (11-3-4, 6-0-3 Patriot League) training sessions is excitement as the team is rearing to get back at it out on the pitch.
“This is what we try to train for all season long,” said BU coach Neil Roberts. “The intensity, importance and urgency of every play is what you try and get during the regular season. We’ve had it at times, and we haven’t had it at times.”
The Terriers are coming off one of their best regular seasons in recent history, as the team was crowned regular season champions of the Patriot League, and earned the rights to host the Patriot League Tournament.
Although hosting the tournament this weekend is a great honor and the Terriers have received numerous accolades as the season is winding down, the team is not complacent.
BU’s regular-season title does not guarantee an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, and no team wants its postseason fate to be decided by records like RPI ranking, strength of schedule and key victories. Roberts said his team is well aware of the job at hand and that there is still much to be accomplished.
“I don’t think that it is good enough for our guys just to possibly get into the tournament,” Roberts said. “We’re definitely a bubble team, and we’ve been on the wrong side of the bubble before. I don’t think anybody is confident on where we stand right now. With our RPI, I don’t think that anybody feels our spot is guaranteed, so we have to put everything we have into our next game.”
Another key element for the Terriers will be getting their best 11 players back out on the pitch. The second half of the season was largely defined by injuries to players such as senior forward Dominique Badji, freshman midfielder David Amirani and senior defender Kelvin Madzongwe.
This caused the Terriers’ form to ebb and flow, but Roberts acknowledged that most of his team will be ready to compete out on the pitch Friday afternoon.
“Dominique [Badji] seems to be good, and [David] Amirani seems to be good,” Roberts said. “Everybody at this time of year is banged up a little bit, so it’s just the way it is. It’s a short season with a lot of games in a short period of time. Everyone gets a little nicked up, but I think we’re as good as we’re gonna be right now, so we’re happy about that.”
As for Army (6-7-6, 3-4-2 Patriot League), the Terriers have become familiar with the Black Knights’ style of play. On Oct. 4, the two conference foes met, with the Terriers confidently earning a 2-0 victory.
In the quarterfinals of the Patriot League Tournament, the Black Knights were set up against three-seed American University on Tuesday. Army relied on the strong goalkeeping of Winston Boldt to a 4-3 penalty shootout victory and earned the right to play the Terriers Friday.
Boldt, who has allowed 0.83 goals per game this season, undoubtedly is the most vital player for Army. His play has brought the Black Knights this far, and Roberts expects to see the same Friday.
“Boldt is definitely the key part of their team, and they are in this pattern right now of keeping games close,” he said. “It seems like they’re going to jump on his back and let him take them as far as they can.”
With all of this in mind, much is at stake when BU battles Army. BU’s body of work across the last two months has been impressive, but there is always the risk of it amounting to nothing if they don’t defeat the Black Knights.
“Our training has been good, and the preparation has been good,” Roberts said. “The guys are ready to play, and it should be fun.”
Jonathan's a New Englander who writes about sports, features and politics. He currently covers men's hockey at BU, worked as Sports Editor during the spring 2016 semester and is on the FreeP's Board of Directors. Toss him a follow on Twitter at @jonathansigal.
