By Haley O’Shaughnessy
Louisville’s men’s soccer team beat Duke 5-0 in Lynn Stadium on Saturday night in the squad’s first ever Atlantic Coast Conference game. The win improves U of L’s record to 2-1-1 overall.
After two quick goals within the first five minutes, it was clear the Cardinals wanted to make a good first impression. Coming off of a loss to St. Louis, and, prior to that, a tie with Cornell, the Cardinals appeared to be refocused for conference play.
Senior midfielder Will Vitalis scored the first goal of the game, and his personal first goal since returning from the injury that sidelined him all of last season. A pivotal leader on this team, Vitalis helped set the tone in the preparation that led to this explosive bounce back.
“During practice, we had a lot more intent this week … I think we went out there and did what we needed to do,” Vitalis said.
Midfielder Ben Strong says the concentration behind the intent was all in the offensive pressure.
“We pressured them hard all game. We talked about making hard runs and getting behind them … Our main goal was to come out the first ten minutes and get a quick goal. We did a great job of that, coming out hard.”
Strong had two of the five goals of the night, the latter of which was a result of exactly what the team discussed all week prior to the game: making sharp runs to the goal. Moving forward, Strong predicts the focus to stay the same.
“[We need to work on] just moving the ball, moving the ball and finding the spaces. Like I said before, we got behind them a lot today and put them under pressure, and we need to continue to do that.” Head Coach Ken Lola agrees.
“It was the intent in front of the goal of just being more focused and finishing off plays. The last two games, we did everything but finish off the plays.”
Although the offensive effort shined, the defense created little to no opportunity for the Blue Devils to get inside the box. Duke had ten shots total, only four of which Louisville keeper, Joachim Ball, had to save. Coach Lola’s defensive strategy going into the game was, once again, all about putting on the necessary heat.
“For us, it centers all on pressure. If we can get around the ball and re-pressure, especially once the ball is turned over, then we have a good chance to get it back early. I felt we did a good job of that again. I thought in the first half, once we got up a couple of goals, there were moments when we allowed them free service, and because the guys were athletic and big up top, it caused some pressure for us.”
The 5-0 victory was certainly an encouraging first glimpse into ACC play, and only the season will tell if the first impression will be a lasting one.
Photo By Austin Lassell / The Louisville Cardinal
