The Boston University men’s soccer team will be looking for its third straight victory when it travels to New Jersey to face Princeton University on Friday.
The Terriers (2-1) will be looking to notch their first away win of the season following two home wins versus the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Northeastern University. The Tigers (1-2), on the other hand, come into the contest following their first win of the season against No. 22 Rider University.
BU head coach Neil Roberts’ team has looked impressive in its last two outings, most recently in its 3-0 shutout of the Huskies (1-4) on Tuesday night.
Roberts said he hopes the Terriers can bring some of the positive takeaways from the Northeastern game into Friday’s matchup.
“We’re hoping to bring in that ball movement from the first half,” Roberts said. “I’m hoping that this is the start of what is going to be our identity as a team. I think that’s our take away from the Northeastern game.”
The Patriot League Midfielder of the Week, junior midfielder Anthony Viteri, has impressed thus far. The Flushing, New York native has scored in each of the Terriers’ three games this season, one of which was a game-winner.
However, Roberts doesn’t view the way his team has been playing as a result of individualistic efforts, but rather a cohesive, team-oriented style of play.
“Anthony and [sophomore midfielder] Magnus [Benediktsson] are our center midfielders. They are going to be involved in any of our attack,” Roberts said. “No more than any of our other players. We’re never going to say ‘Anthony, go do this, go do that.’ It’s always a collective thing.”
Princeton will not go down without a fight, though. After losing two contests against unranked opponents, Western Virginia University and St. John’s University, the Tigers were able to pull away late against Rider (4-1).
The Terriers have to force their calculated ball movement upon the Tigers, but Roberts knows that this will be no easy feat.
“They’re a good team,” Roberts said. “They had a rough start, but I think beating a top 25 team Tuesday night put them back on track. They are a difficult team. What we need to do is impose our style on them.”
Princeton senior Greg Seifert was clutch against Rider, tallying two of the team’s three goals. The Terriers will look to stop him from building off this performance on Friday.
Though Seifert has been a force for the Tigers thus far, they are without their standout forward, Thomas Sanner, who totaled 31 points over the course of his senior season. Sanner received accolades last year, as he was unanimously named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Ivy League.
The Tigers also lost last year’s starting goalkeeper Ben Hummel, who graduated. While senior Josh Haberman now mans net for Princeton, Roberts made it clear that regardless of the goalkeeper, the game plan is the same.
“The difficult part of soccer is getting to the goalkeeper,” Roberts said. “We need to make him make decisions. We need to make him make saves. The trick is getting to that point.”
Roberts said he expects this game to be similar to BU’s first game of the season against No. 15 Boston College.
“It’s going to be a little more of a chess match like the game against the Eagles [4-1],” Roberts said. “I think it’s going to come down to going into their home and imposing our game on them, while they try to do the same thing to us.”
