Men's soccer falls to Tigers

On a night when a record 6,892 fans turned out to see the 23rd-ranked Gamecocks take on the 3rd-ranked Tigers, it was Clemson that was able to wreck the historic night and come away with the 2-1 victory.

This game was high-paced from the minute that the first whistle blew. Supported by their raucous home crowd, the Gamecocks set the tone early and forced the Tigers into many uncharacteristic mistakes during the opening minutes. However, the Gamecocks were unable to capitalize on this early advantage.

This became extremely apparent when, just 13 minutes into the game, South Carolina had Clemson entirely on their heels. The Gamecocks were taking advantage of the Tigers' inability to maintain possession and had made a strong attack up the left wing that eventually led to a corner. In the matter of the next minute, the Gamecocks would get two more corner kicks and a free kick from just outside the box, all of which amounted to nothing.

Eventually, Clemson was able to shake the nerves and jitters and punish the Gamecocks for the early chances missed. In the 14th minute of the game, the Tigers sent a through ball into forward Austin Burnikel. The ball was first touched by a South Carolina defender, who attempted to clear the ball out of bounds, only to shank it into the open space in front of Burnikel and set him up for the easy goal.

South Carolina was able to respond quickly, though, with forward Kevin Walker breaking through the Clemson back line and getting enough of a touch on the ball to just get it into the goal past a sliding defender and diving goalkeeper, which knotted the score at one goal a piece. Walker came up limping after the goal, and while he tried to continue to play through it, he was forced to come out of the game on the next dead ball. He would not return.

Clemson would respond with one more goal before the half — a free kick by Aaron Jones that he was able to bend over the wall of defenders and into the bottom left corner of the goal.

From there on out, the score would remain 2-1 but not due to lack of effort or chances by the Gamecocks. Midway through the second half, the Gamecocks missed out on what would eventually be their best opportunity to tie the score with the Tigers, a one-on-one try by Walker’s replacement Bjorn Gudjonsson that went right into the stomach of Clemson's goalkeeper Ximo Miralles.

The loss of Kevin Walker was huge

Coming into this game, Gamecock players spoke of a major advantage that they felt they had over the Tigers.

Forward Koty Millard said, “We’re going to be looking to make runs in behind because they are pretty susceptible to that apparently. With me and Kev (Walker) and some of the other guys, we’ve got speed up front too. I’m not sure if they will be able to hang with us.”

And for the first part of the game, this advantage seemed to hold true. Countless through balls were sent in, with most of them being in Walker’s direction. The Clemson defenders seemed unable to stick with Walker’s speed, as was best demonstrated by his goal. But with his injury, and the subsequent substitution of the much-slower Gudjonsson, South Carolina seemed to shy away from the over the top through balls, losing the major advantage they had had early on in the game.

Coach Mark Berson was very honest after the game on the effect that losing Walker had saying, “Yeah, [his injury] hurt a lot … When we lost Kevin, he’s obviously one of our top scorers, that was difficult and it also kind of sets your whole depth thing off a little bit.”

Clemson was able to capitalize on errors, while the Gamecocks could not

This game was not one dominated by the orange and white. They were outshot 13-6, and were awarded less corner kicks, with just 5 corners as compared to Carolina’s 8. But it was their ability to capitalize on South Carolina’s defensive errors, and South Carolina’s inability to respond likewise, that was the difference in this one.

The Gamecocks do walk away with the loss but can at least hold their heads high. They dominated the middle of the field, controlling the speed of the game and controlling possession throughout. Their midfield was fabulous at creating opportunities for through balls to the forwards. Carolina was just unable to finish, something that could easily change in the upcoming matches, especially with Walker’s return being likely.

The atmosphere was amazing

The previous record of 6,157 was smashed tonight as fans poured into the stadium to see this highly anticipated matchup. The stadium was loud much before the opening whistle was even blown, and it seemed that the largely garnet crowd may have shaken the Clemson players a little bit at the get go, and seemed to provide the Carolina players with life from the very start.

Coach Berson spoke to this, saying, “In my time here at South Carolina, that's the most active, vibrant, into it crowd that I have ever experienced … I think our players and I think the Clemson guys, I think they gave them something to be excited about during the course of the game.”

Hopefully, this turnout continues in the upcoming games, as it was obvious the advantage it awarded South Carolina throughout the night.