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NCAA men Buete's late redirection sends Maryland past Clemson 1-0 in typical ACC struggle.
By Gary Davidson
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (Saturday, October 26, 2002) -- It is hard to find too many men's college games more intense that those between members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. And when such a meeting includes two teams residing in the nation's Top 10, the effort usually is stepped up a notch or two. That was certainly the case tonight when No. 8 Maryland (12-3, 4-1 in ACC) escaped with a 1-0 decision over fourth-ranked Clemson (10-2-2, 2-2-1) before 2,238 at Ludwig Field. For the entire 90 minutes, nearly every ball was challenged. It was hard to find a player on either side who didn't expend full effort almost all of the time. And the result was in doubt until Scott Buete redirected fellow junior midfielder' Sumed Ibrahim's rebound attempt into the net for his first goal of the season with four minutes remaining. "It doesn't get any better than this," said Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski. "The crowd was great. The sportsmanship of both teams was great. There's very few fouls. The teams played hard. They attacked each other. Nobody flinched. We both used attacking 4-3-3s. I would have paid to see this game. There's nothing better than when two teams come ready to play and you see this kind of effort. It was fun to be a part of." The game turned when sophomore central defender Clarence Goodson, a converted forward, ran onto a defensive clearance and used his first touch from 15 yards out to nail a 25-yarder against the right post. The ball spun across the face of the goal into the left side of the penalty area where Ibrahim drove his low shot back toward the right corner. Buete let the ball run through his legs, using the inside of his left lower leg to beat Clemson goalkeeper Doug Warren from two yards to make it 1-0 with 4:19 remaining. "I was coming one way and the ball was coming to my outside, so I let it go through my legs and kind of shoot it back," said Buete who comes from nearby Bowie. "It came to my left foot, kind of behind me and I kind of jumped and it caught the inside of my left. I'd say I was two or three yards out. It could have been (offside), but I was just going with the play. I couldn't really see, there were players around me. I just put it in." Whether Ibrahim would have broken his tie with striker Abe Thompson for the team lead with seven goals had Buete let the ball run is a question that will never be answered. The ball seemed headed for the net, but was also bending away from the post. "I wasn't sure whether the ball was going in or not," Ibrahim said. "I hit it perfectly, but it was good (Buete) was there to put it in. The game was too crucial to be looking at stats. All we needed was a victory. When the ball hit the post and was coming toward me, I was thinking, 'Thank God. I'm going to put it in." But unfortunately there was a guy behind me and I had to do what I could do to get the shot off." Clemson players immediately signaled their belief that Buete was offside. There was such a crowd of humanity in the box, it was hard to tell. "It was a typical (ACC) game -- intense battle, both teams took chances," Clemson coach Trevor Adair said. "It came down to a mistake, a ball skipping on the surface. The guys were complaining that it was offside. We'll take a look at it and see. I'm disappointed we lost the game. We had the better team. I thought we had more of the play." The match featured two of the nation's best goalkeepers. Maryland's Noah Palmer recorded six saves for his third shutout, lower his goals-against average to 1.03. Warren made seven stops and has a 0.94 goals-against average. "Clemson played a great game. They possessed the ball against us better than anybody," Cirovski said. "It was a shame somebody had to lose this ballgame and I say that sincerely. It took a goal like that to win. It was a very opportunistic goal, It was going to be an effort and opportunism and I really that's the way you have to go to beat Doug Warren. He's a great goalkeeper."
Gary Davidson is managing editor of SoccerTimes and can be e-mailed at
editor@soccertimes.com.. |
