One is a towering newcomer from Germany who sports a mohawk during games. The other is an articulate junior from Northern Virginia who led the Cavaliers in scoring with nine goals in 2004 and was named to the 2004 ACC All-Tournament team. Apart, Yannick Reyering and Adam Cristman are very talented soccer players. Together, they have the potential to become an explosive scoring tandem at the forward position and change the nature of a Virginia offense that has become more reliant on excellent midfield play in recent years.
In the second half of Saturday night's 2-0 victory over Charlotte, Reyering and Cristman played together as attacking forwards for the first time. They responded by each notching a goal to secure the win for the Cavaliers.
"It was interesting to see them play together as forwards," coach George Gelnovatch said.
Cristman explained the benefits of the halftime strategy shift Virginia employed in that game.
"It benefited us because their backline was playing very high and disorganized," he said. "With Yannick being tall and able to flick stuff and me being able to run behind and make good runs, we got at them a lot better."
When asked if he would use the same set-up in tonight's matchup against Longwood University, Gelnovatch was non-committal.
"We'll see," he said. "One of things I think we'll be able to do is make an adjustment. Either during halftime or during the game, we can go from one forward to two forwards and be flexible."
Under Gelnovatch, Virginia has utilized an attacking midfield system with one high-center forward, two wide attacking midfielders and a withdrawn forward. This system creates scoring opportunities for the attacking midfielders as well as the forwards, leading to a more evenly distributed goals scored total for individual players. The fact that Cristman led the team with only nine goals in 2004 is a testament to the effects of this system.
The addition of Reyering will take some defensive pressure off of Cristman. Teams can no longer focus solely on containing Cristman, because there will be a 6-foot-5 offensive catalyst lurking in the neighborhood.
"There are now two people out there looking to score, and we have two or three guys that are really going to be dangerous," Cristman said. "Other teams won't be able to focus on one person and take him out. Our talent is more spread out now, and that makes it more difficult for opponents' defenses."
Following Saturday's victory, Cristman described the assets Reyering brings to the playing field.
"He's very good with his back to the goal," Cristman said. "With his height, he is able to get over and flick balls to help us get forward. He does very good getting forward, and he's a great finisher."
The Cavaliers should have the opportunity to test out different alignments tonight. Longwood comes in with a pithy 0-3-1 record, although the team did hang tough in a 3-1 road loss to Clemson. That game was tied 1-1 until the 60th minute of play.
"We know a little bit of what to expect based on last year," Gelnovatch said. "It's going to be an exercise in trying to be more direct and scoring an early goal."
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