The night arrived soggy and slick, and it remained that way as misting rain ushered in a terse second half, a wet field glistening beneath the lights. Then No. 2 Stanford, stymied the whole slip-sliding night, finally skidded past Virginia.
This was a proper conference battle, in proper soccer weather. The goal that broke the deadlock sent a stream of gleeful players tearing off toward the corner, toward a whooping convergence with a horde of substitutes. Half of them knee slided. The other half belly slided.
It seemed the only acceptable celebration after the goal that delivered the Cardinal (8-1-1, 3-0-1 ACC) a 1-0 victory over the Cavaliers (2-3-3, 0-2-2 ACC) Friday at Klöckner Stadium, vaulting it to first in the ACC.
The result would, in a vacuum, be quite acceptable for Virginia, coming as it did against a team that has bludgeoned all comers in its first ACC season. Virginia, though, needed a win. It has needed a win for 29 days now, having accumulated four draws and two losses in a winless period that will stretch to 32 days before the next game.
“We gotta figure it out,” senior defender Paul Wiese said. “The season, we’re about halfway through, almost, so it’s time to figure it out.”
After the final whistle, after the obligatory handshakes, some players sprawled on their backs. Sophomore midfielder Brendan Lambe kneeled and rested his weight on an arm. Senior goalkeeper Joey Batrouni dropped his soaked towel and retired to the dugout, where he sat, leaning his head back, closing his eyes, perhaps replaying the goal in his mind.
It had been a stunner. But it had only arrived after a dreadful sequence.
“A mistake,” Coach George Gelnovatch said. “Actually, two mistakes, and a pretty good free kick.”
It started with senior defender Austin Rome playing a head-scratching pass that deflected off a pressing forward, leaving the ball drifting outside the box. That was the first mistake. A Stanford forward charged onto the ball first, and junior midfielder Albin Gashi dragged him down just outside the penalty area.
The tackle prevented an obvious scoring opportunity. It also drew a yellow card that, after video review, became a red, leaving Virginia with 10 players for the final 17 minutes.
Batrouni, perhaps scarred by a free kick against Wake Forest that looped over the wall a couple weeks ago, positioned himself too close to the far post. That was the second mistake.
Stanford dummied one player, then sent junior midfielder Zach Bohane, who ripped a shot low and around the wall to the goal’s unprotected side. Batrouni dove, but the ball smacked the post and went in. Cue knee and belly slides and a sopping mass in the corner of an eerily quiet Klöckner.
Cue a familiar story for Virginia, trying to rescue a point from a game that demanded three.
“Lately we get those shots,” Wiese said. “That was in the post, in the goal.”
World-class goals have, indeed, arrived with unfair frequency. The Cavaliers have now conceded five goals this season in the run of play. Three have visited the post on their way in.
Virginia had its opportunities to equalize but never forced a real save. This was the kind of game that sent the home fans jumping indignantly to their feet one moment, then gasping collectively the next, then screaming involuntarily a breath later, then rattling the bleachers. Boos showered down like so many drops of rain — at the ref and at the visitors.
Sophomore goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly whipped a goal kick into the stands as time expired, maybe intentionally, a message to the spirited fans who had screamed and jeered and shrieked all night long.
They had paid witness, those fans, to their team embarking on an interesting tactical experiment. Gelnovatch scrambled the starting lineup, partially in response to junior midfielder and team captain Umberto Pela sustaining a minor injury in the warmup that put him out of the game.
“That also threw us out of whack a little bit, just not having him in there, one of our captains and leaders,” Gelnovatch said. “Two minutes before the game. That was a little funky for us.”
So sophomore Brendan Lambe, who played in the midfield last season but moved to left back this year, moved up, and sophomore defender Victor Akoum, who has totaled three minutes in his college career, started at left back. Then freshman midfielder Luke Burns made his first career start.
More adjustments arrived at halftime.
“Excellent second half,” Gelnovatch said. “We put ourselves in control of the game in the second half, and with more and more control as the second half went on, to win.”
Sophomore forward AJ Smith, who returned against California after dealing with injury for the season’s first month, played valuable minutes. He is a lively player, wily at choosing when to step, adept at maneuvering his large frame into the right spots.
But the goals remain elusive. Virginia has just two of them in its four conference games. It will need to score some against UNC Greensboro, which will visit for a game Monday at 7 p.m.
“Last couple games on the unlucky side,” Wiese said. “Gotta keep working. Gotta keep sticking together.”
And so the search for solutions, for those elusive three points, continues.
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