{"id":51687,"date":"2011-12-05T08:42:15","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T13:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=51687"},"modified":"2011-12-07T08:41:39","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T13:41:39","slug":"deja-vu-men%e2%80%99s-soccer-season-ends-after-penalty-kicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/12\/deja-vu-men%e2%80%99s-soccer-season-ends-after-penalty-kicks\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu: Men\u2019s Soccer Season Ends After Penalty Kicks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sold<\/a>
Morrone Stadium was sold out for Sunday's NCAA quarterfinal match, when UConn played UNC Charlotte. (Steve Slade for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The landmark sports anthology television show \u201cWide World of Sports\u201d would begin by telling viewers they would see athletes experience \u201cthe thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.\u201d Perhaps no sporting event provides such extreme feelings as a hard-fought soccer match that is tied at the end of regulation, goes into two overtime periods, and is decided by penalty kicks.<\/p>\n

For men\u2019s soccer head coach Ray Reid, Sunday\u2019s NCAA quarterfinal match at sold out Joseph J. Morrone Stadium against UNC Charlotte was a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu experience of the agony of defeat, as the 2011 season ended for Huskies in a game determined by penalty kicks for the third consecutive year.<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/a>
Tony Cascio '12 (CLAS) celebrates his goal, with nine minutes to go in regulation time. (Steve Slade for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Charlotte won the penalty shootout 4-2 after the Huskies missed their first two penalty shots. Further frustrating Reid was the fact that UConn scored the first goal of the game at 81:13, when senior forward Tony Cascio \u201912 (CLAS) shot the ball past 49ers goalkeeper Klay Davis. The Huskies gave up a goal less than three minutes later, when a mishandled attempt to clear the ball in front of the UConn goal was pushed past Huskies goalkeeper Andre Blake \u201915 (CLAS) by Charlotte\u2019s leading scorer, Giuseppe Gentile. The game was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave up a really bad restart goal,\u201d Reid said. \u201cI think Nick Blake tried to clear it. Somebody crossed it, somebody scored. We were asleep at the wheel. We had eight minutes to go to get the Final Four at home. You can\u2019t let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gentile said he did not recall exactly what happened on the goal until his team celebrated the score.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt went that fast. I saw the ball, when it left [Tyler Gibson\u2019s] head and then our team celebrated,\u201d he said. \u201cThe feeling was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/a>
Carlos Alvarez '13 (CLAS) battles Thomas Allen of Charlotte. (Steve Slade for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two teams battled all over the pitch, with the physical pace of the game picking up in the second period, when six yellow cards were issued, three to each side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were winning a lot of second balls,\u201d Cascio said. \u201cYou could tell they wanted it a lot. They kept pushing and it was physical.\u201d<\/p>\n

The penalty kicks began after two scoreless overtime periods, with Charlotte taking the first shot, when Gibson scored. Mamadou Doudou Diouf \u201914 (CLAS) missed the Huskies\u2019 first shot, hitting the top of the goalpost, and Blake stopped a shot by the 49ers\u2019 Evan James. Michael Mercado \u201914 (ED) missed UConn\u2019s second penalty kick wide, before Carlos Alvarez \u201913 (CLAS) and Colin Bradley \u201914 (CLAS) each scored for the Huskies. Then Donnie Smith and Isaac Cowles each scored for Charlotte.<\/p>\n

With the penalty kicks at 3-2 in favor of Charlotte and one kick left for each team, Charles Rodriguez put the ball past Blake into the left corner of the goal, to win the match and send the 49ers to its second College Cup Final Four next weekend in Hoover, Ala., where they will face Creighton in one semifinal. In the other semifinal, North Carolina will face UCLA.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 12 yards, you\u2019re not supposed to miss a PK,\u201d Blake said. \u201cYou have different strategies to approach when you\u2019re trying to save a PK. Once the kicker places the ball well enough, with enough pace, there\u2019s no chance the goalie can get to it unless you move before he takes the kick. I didn\u2019t move. I stood there and watched the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colin<\/a>
Colin Bradley '14 (CLAS) beats two defenders to the ball. (Steve Slade for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Charlotte head coach Jeremy Gunn credited the 49ers\u2019 defensive effort for his team\u2019s success in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll through the playoffs our team has done an unbelievable job of just being really tight and really dogged and determined defensively,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you think of defending, sometimes you think of chasing and checking. I think the great part about our players is how composed they were defensively, because they\u2019re coming up against very good players all of these rounds in the NCAAs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reid said he was particularly disappointed with not reaching the Final Four \u2013 his primary objective for the team in 2011 \u2013 following a game determined by penalty kicks. He said he had gone so far as to have noted British sports psychologist Bill Beswick \u2013 who has consulted with England\u2019s top soccer teams \u2013 work with the Huskies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been knocked out of four competitions in the last five years on penalties. I\u2019ve tried everything known to mankind. I have no idea what to say,\u201d Reid said. \u201cIt\u2019s about handling pressure, really, is what it is. These guys worked hard all year, they really did. They grew up, were mature, made great strides. We lose Nick Blake [\u201912 (CLAS)] and Tony Cascio [to graduation], but we get everybody else back. We obviously have a lot of unfinished business with this group because we didn\u2019t hit any of the goals we set for the team. Maybe this is the best way to learn with this group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a hard-fought match, with two scoreless overtime periods, the Huskies lost to the Charlotte 49ers on penalty kicks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":51712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-51687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 11:55:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51687"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51836,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51687\/revisions\/51836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/51712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51687"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=51687"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=51687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}