The Gamecocks' Men's Soccer are taking their 5-5 record down south to Miami, Florida tonight, as they take on Florida International in a Conference USA bout.
After a three-game losing streak, South Carolina won two of its next four matches, but is coming off a 3-0 loss to conference rival Charlotte.
In their meeting last season, the match ended in a 0-0 draw after two overtimes. FIU is 3-5-1 under first year head coach, Scott Calabrese.
Head coach Mark Berson alluded that the team has to improve heading into their first conference road game.
“I think we have to work on everything. I wasn’t happy with a lot of this from the loss to Charlotte; I think we can play a lot better,” he said. “That’ll be our focus; just improving, and that’s all we can do at this point. Work on getting better.”
This is a critical match for the Gamecocks, as they look to get their first conference win of the season, and avoid staying in last place.
South Carolina will continue to look upon sophomores Kurtis Turner and Ive Burnett for strong production, as both players are tied for the team lead with two goals apiece.
With a win tonight, Berson will tie former Kean University head coach Tony Ochrimenko for the 16 th spot on the all-time coaching wins list with 468 victories.
Besides being a pivotal conference game for the Gamecocks, South Carolina will also want to keep its unbeaten record against FIU alive as they have a career 11-0-4 record against them, with a 5-0-2 road record.
South Carolina will have to play strong defense as FIU has outshot their opponents 123-108 on the season, while also taking more corner kicks (48-31) as well.
FIU has been shut out three times on the season, twice against nationally ranked foes, Michigan State and New Mexico.
Although the Gamecocks might not have been playing the way they would have hoped to on the pitch so far this season, the team has been shining in the classroom as they have a total of 30 SEC Academic Honor Roll certificates and 31 Conference USA Academic Honor roll notations between them.
This is the 10th year in Conference USA for South Carolina, and a win tonight could help put them in the right direction to capture their first regular season conference title since 2011.
Goalie Marco Velez has recorded four wins on the season, to go along with two shutouts, and he also took home Conference USA Defensive Players of the Week and the Disney Soccer/NSCAA Player of the Week over his play from September 8 to 9.
After the team returns from Miami, they return back to Stone Stadium for another pivotal match on Saturday to take on conference foe UAB. If the Gamecocks want to make any noise in conference play, they’re going to have to pick up their production with the rest of their remaining schedule.
Game time for tomorrow night is set for 7:30p.m. at FIU Soccer Stadium.