Uncharacteristic error leads to Gamecocks' defeat
The Conference-USA opener ended in a defeat for South Carolina Friday night, as Marshall took a 1-0 win in overtime at Stone Stadium.
“We are very disappointed,” head coach Mark Berson said. “We feel like, in this game, we played very well in the attack. We had a number of good chances but again we didn’t capitalize. That’s a problem.”
Marshall’s team has historically given South Carolina problems. Their last meeting in October 2013 ended in a 1-1 tie.
South Carolina came out in an aggressive offense with a total of nine shots in the first half, none of which found the back of the net.
Junior midfielder Ryan Arambula was not shy taking his chances in the box with four attempts out of South Carolina's 19 total shots. Marshall goalkeeper Dominik Reining had six saves against these on the day.
With its lack of offensive production, South Carolina knew it was up for a fight.
“We had a number of shots and really clear opportunities and we hit them over or we missed the target," Berson said. "We’ve got to do better with that.”
With this game being the Conference-USA opener, both teams were eager to get off on the right foot. Marshall garnered the first foul of the game, showing its aggressive spirit from the start.
In the last minute of the first half, Marshall forward Daniel Jodah received a yellow card for a rough play against South Carolina junior forward Jeffrey Torda.
South Carolina put up a fight, taking the Thundering Herd back and forth across the field and gaining momentum that looked enough to pull off the win.
Jodah took four out of the team's nine shot attempts, eventually making the winning shot in overtime with no assist , the result of a critical error by senior defender Mahamoudou Kaba.
"They hung in and hung in and found a way to capitalize on a mistake and win the game.” Berson said, “We made one mistake and it cost us the game.”
But, with Friday's game being just one of many in the conference season, he draws a number of positives from the loss.
“It doesn’t diminish the fact a lot of good things happened tonight,” Coach Berson continued, “It certainly cost us the result and that’s unfortunate."