Team travels to No. 12 Coastal Carolina Tuesday night
South Carolina men’s soccer will face perhaps its toughest test of the season so far today as the team hits the road to take on No. 12 Coastal Carolina.
“They’re just a good team,” coach Mark Berson said. “I mean they’re a very good overall team.”
The Gamecocks (2-1-0) will kick off a three-game road trip when they travel to Myrtle Beach to play the Chanticleers.
On the surface, Coastal Carolina’s 1-2-0 record is far less impressive than their No. 12 ranking, but the team’s two losses have come against the likes of 15th-ranked Charlotte and the nation’s current No. 1 team, North Carolina.
The Chanticleers’ lone win came against No. 21 Wake Forest on the road.
“A lot of people don’t know, but Coastal is actually a really good team,” senior midfielder J.P. Rafferty said. “And going out there and beating them would definitely help get us some recognition.”
Rafferty found the net twice in South Carolina’s decisive 5-2 win over High Point Friday.
Friday’s contest was the first in which the Gamecocks were able to open the floodgates on offense, having scored one goal in each of their previous two matches. This offensive output helped ease the mind of Berson as he prepares for the Chanticleers, as he has been imploring his team to capitalize on scoring opportunities throughout the season.
“We work on finishing in practice. We spend a good bit of time working on finishing,” Berson said. “Obviously against better teams, you’re going to create less chances, but we need to finish them.”
On its way to its 2-1-0 record, South Carolina has outscored its opponents 7-4, but those seven goals have come on a combined total of 32 shots.
Unlike many other sports, each collegiate soccer team’s field varies from stadium to stadium, so Berson said a lengthy road trip like the one his team is about to embark on can present a measure of adversity that his young team will have to adjust to.
“Soccer is a unique game,” Berson said. “Our fields are different dimensions and the surfaces are different. So when we play these games in different environments, it’s a really, really different challenge to our players to have to rise to.”
Aside from the field conditions at an opposing venue, the atmosphere of an away game in division-I soccer can add another daunting element to the equation, Rafferty said.
“We have a young team, so it’s kind of new for everybody going on the road,” Rafferty said. “Our first [away] game was definitely a test – playing at Clemson — because you’re not really going to find anymore environments throughout the country as tough to play in as theirs.”
As South Carolina prepares to take on No. 12 Coastal Carolina and No. 23 St. John’s a couple of days later, Berson doesn’t see the upcoming road trip as a make-or-break point in the season, but as an opportunity for his team to gain the national recognition they’ve sought from the start of the season.
“That’s what our players come to South Carolina for, to play in games of this level,” Berson said. “And they’ll truly look forward to it.”