When it comes to athletics, culture can play a huge role in any given team's successes or failures.
Sometimes it can take a while for a team to translate culture into on-paper results, but when the team does, the record often speak for itself, and that's what's happening to the South Carolina men’s soccer team this season.
After winning five games in his first and second season, and six last year, South Carolina men’s soccer coach Tony Annan has the Gamecocks sitting at 4-1-2 through 7 games, the team's best start to a season since 2003.
Annan was named head coach of the Gamecocks in 2021 and is currently in his fourth season with the soccer team, after previously spending time with the Major League Soccer Club, Atlanta United.
Senior forward Harrison Myring joined the team in 2021 as well , and despite the team having a 16-26-9 record in his first three years, there has been a desire to win, Myring said.
“You can’t really see from the outside what the program is like on the inside, and we’ve seen how the culture slowly adapted and changed.” Myring said. “I’ve been a part of it for four years, and now when we're winning I feel you can see that passion."
The signs that the culture was changing was evident last season, as South Carolina made program history by defeating No. 1 UCF in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, 2-1, the first win over a No. 1 team in the history of the program. Its season ended in the semi finals when they lost to West Virginia, 2-0.
Gamecocks start season strong
To start the 2024 season, South Carolina defeated Winthrop 7-1, before drawing even at 2-2 to North Florida in the following game.
The next match was against in-state rival No.1 Clemson in the first matchup of the Palmetto Series. The Palmetto Series is the yearly competition between South Carolina and Clemson crossing all sports with a point given to the winner of each sporting event. The school with the most points earns bragging rights for the year.
After Clemson took the lead early, Myring answered with a goal of his own just 33 seconds later. Then, 28 seconds into the second half, freshman forward Gabe Nickerson scored his first career goal to help the Gamecocks take a 2-1 lead. Clemson would answer later on as the game ended in a 2-2 draw.
“I think one of the most important things that we had this season was just the extreme amounts of optimism going into games.” Myring said. “When we would go into a big game like Clemson, we don’t think, ‘Oh Clemson is the No. 1 team in the country’, it's ‘Let’s go in and smash it.'”
The Gamecocks' next game against Jacksonville would be suspended in the 50th minute due to inclement weather, however at the time South Carolina led 3-0. Following this, South Carolina earned wins over Belmont 2-1, USC Upstate 4-0 and East Tennessee State 2-0.
In both the USC Upstate and East Tennessee State wins, the Gamecocks were forced to play with just 10 men after a red card was shown in each game.
A view of the stands at Eugene E. Stone III Stadium during halftime on Aug. 22, 2024. Stone Stadium, located on the southeast edge of campus, is the home of the South Carolina men's and women's soccer teams.
South Carolina’s first loss of the season came on Friday night against No. 10 Marshall. Junior midfielder Ethan Ballek scored the first goal of the game to put South Carolina ahead, but the Thundering Herd came back to score goals in the 23rd and 58th minute to ultimately win the game 2-1.
Offensive play remains domiant
Up to this point in the season, South Carolina has had nine different goal scorers totaling 20 goals. Last season the team had eight members score across the entire season for 20 goals as well.
Annan knows his squad is talented but even he is surprised at some performances from his players this year.
“We have a lot of talent, and some days surprise us, to be honest.” Annan said. “You just don’t know how people are going to come in and what they're gonna do, some people have come in and lit it up that we didn’t expect them to and vice versa.”
Myring and Ballek are tied for most goals on the team, with each of them scoring five up to this point on the season, accounting for half of the team's total goals.
Right behind them with three goals is freshman midfielder Alejandro Velazquez-Lopez . In just his first season wearing garnet and black, Lopez has learned to trust his teammates, knowing that they are a deep squad with lots of players to rely on.
“Trust is the most important thing in our team, so being able to trust the guys to do their job is great," Lopez said.
Amongst other multiple goal scorers is graduate student Martin Yahia, who has tallied up two goals this season, doubling his total from the 2023 campaign.
With all the goals scored this season, South Carolina is statically one of the elite offenses in the sport. Before the matchup against Marshall, it had the highest ranked goal differential in the country as well as being ranked fifth in total goals scored.
In the Sun Belt Conference, the Gamecocks currently rank first in goals scored, average goals per match and goal differential. In the 2023 season, the team was in the bottom half of the conference in each of these categories.
The Gamecocks have improved greatly this season, in large part to Annan and the new players. Myring believes that the passion displayed by Annan has contributed to the team and its overall unity this season.
“It takes a lot of cohesion in the group to actually be successful at that and I think Tony honestly helped a lot with that team mentality, that passion and wanting to win.” Myring said. “It's definitely something that has been bred into us and it's what we want to continue doing for the rest of the season.”
South Carolina will match up against Queens University on Sept. 24, 2024 before then moving onto the rest of its conference schedule.