Spartans Drop Home Finale, 1-0

On an overcast November afternoon in East Lansing, soccer fans gathered at DeMartin Stadium to watch the home finale for the No. 22 Michigan State men’s soccer team.

The Spartans welcomed the No. 2 Akron Zips to East Lansing in this non-conference contest, with the Green & White needing a win to stay in the hunt for an NCAA tournament bid. After 90 minutes of action, MSU came up short against the 2009 national finalists, 1-0.

“We wanted to take this as an NCAA tournament game,” MSU head coach Damon Rensing said. “We used it as a barometer and I think it made sense. Basically what happened was that I thought a lot of our guys showed up to play and we had a couple guys that did not quite give the effort that we expect in this program, and that was the difference.”

The Spartans (11-6-0) were without two key starters in senior midfielder Jeff Ricondo and sophomore defender Kevin Cope. Still, they managed to keep the potent offense of Akron (15-1-1) in-check for most of the game.

The first half saw a minimal amount of chances between the two squads. For the Spartans, junior forward Dominic Barone’s strike inside the Zips’ box in the 11^th minute was the best look for MSU. Akron’s best opportunity came in the 23^rd minute off a corner kick when midfielder Darlington Nagbe’s header sailed just over the bar and into the top netting.

“The first half was a little rough…” Barone said. “I think everyone was a little nervous. But once we got settled in and we realized everything was going to be alright, we played with them. It just took us a little longer than usual to get comfortable.”

Akron got the afternoon’s only goal in the early stages of the second half on a 52^nd minute finish from forward Darren Mattocks.

The build-up to the Zips’ goal started on a streaking run out of the back by defender Zarek Valentin off an MSU turnover, who played a ball to forward Darlington Nagbe. Nagbe then cut it over to Mattocks who was unmarked near the Spartans penalty spot, and the forward wasted no time putting it into the upper-right corner of the net.

MSU pushed to get the crucial equalizer, and almost did in the game’s final five minutes.

Senior midfielder Spencer Thompson hit a shot from just outside of the 18-yard box that curved wide left of the post in the 85^th minute. Then, with under a minute to play, the Spartans won a corner and pushed everyone up to the Akron goal. But the resulting corner was saved by the Zips, handing MSU its third-straight loss.

“We played them last year, so we were familiar with all their movement on the ball,” senior defender Colin Givens said. “We did a good job keeping the play in front of us and letting them take long shots. We were just a little unlucky in the end.”

“This program is at a point where there is not a good loss—we expect to win these games,” Rensing said. “I expect to win every game when we focus and come in, execute and give a good effort. This team is good enough—we just did not do a couple things to win.”