Brooklyn College men’s soccer team lost 2-1 to Baruch College on Saturday, Oct. 5, after scoring first and dominating much of the game.
The Bulldogs fought extremely hard and did not seem overly discouraged by the loss.
Miguel De Anda started at left back for the Bulldogs and had himself a very strong performance. “We need to improve on our physicality; we need to be stronger and more dedicated to the game to be able to win. We have an awesome team, and I believe if we all play well we have enough to be champions,” De Anda said after the game.
Both teams had chances early on, but the game was at a stalemate going into the half.
The Bulldogs had good interplay between players, such as give-and-go’s between midfielders and overlaps by fullbacks over their wingers. These plays kept the defense guessing and allowed the team to get out of tight spaces.
The lineup was also very clearly different from when the season began. After many losses, the coaching staff probably wanted to get new faces out there on the field, and change other star players’ positions to see what would work. The team looked strong, fresh, and invigorated. “We were playing more like a team, we kept possession of the game, and that helped us a lot,” said De Anda.
Bulldogs central midfielder, Alex Sosa, also played well, showing his crafty ability in tight spaces. In the 38th minute, he was fouled inside the box, awarding a penalty. Sosa calmly stepped up to the spot and powerfully slotted the ball right down the middle of the net.
Although the Bulldogs had struck first, players on the field and bench loudly exclaimed to their teammates, “It’s 0-0!” to maintain their calm, focus, and restrain from getting comfortable with the lead.
Unfortunately, less than five minutes later, Baruch scored on a breakaway and then scored one more time before the final whistle. The final score was 2-1, the Bulldogs suffering another crushing defeat.
“We have a few bad habits of not shooting on goal of the opposite team, and I believe if we shoot more we’ll have the advantage,” De Anda noted.
The team has struggled as of late with putting the ball on net, scoring only 14 goals on 74 shots while their opponents have scored 31 times on total of 111 shots on goal.
The Bulldogs have a “shots on goal” ratio of 0.497, meaning that when they shoot the ball, it is a quality shot nearly half-the-time.
There are still games left this season for the Bulldogs to secure some more wins. They managed to pick up their second win of the season just days later, for example, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, beating City College 2-1.
In their next game, John Jay defeated the Bulldogs 2-1 on Saturday, Oct. 12, bringing the team to an overall 2-11 on the season.
Going forward, the Bulldogs have three games to go and the playoffs are far out of reach, but momentum is a real thing, even going into next season. This team has to stay motivated and determined to grabbing some positive results in order to feel confident going into next fall.