On Sunday, Sept. 6, the American University men’s soccer team (1-4-3) welcomed Liberty University (2-4-2) to a raucous Reeves Field crowd of 293.
The Eagles entered the game on the back of a 0-0 draw at home versus Delaware and a 4-0 loss at Virginia. The Flames were also looking for their first win of the year after being defeated at home versus Florida Gulf Coast University and drawing away at Georgia Southern.
Entering the game, the Eagles looked to change the dry spell in front of goal. They soon found their spark in the ninth minute as graduate student midfielder Sebastian Garces found the back of the net off the rebound from junior midfielder Chris Sullivan’s blocked shot.
The opening goal sent the home crowd into a frenzy as Garces scored the first goal in five games for American. Following the goal, Liberty began to find rhythm in their game ball in the final third. The Eagles kept looking for an outlet to release the pressure by playing diagonal balls to junior midfielder Moad Ezzahir.
Ten minutes after the opener, the Flames responded with freshman forward Ronnie Gorman, who beat the keeper from outside the box, leveling the score at 1-1.
The Eagles had the chance to take the lead six minutes later through Garces, as he was played in on goal one-on-one with the keeper. Flames sophomore goalkeeper Dan Rose stood tall and got a slight hand on Garces’ chipped effort, sending it out for an Eagles corner.
Towards the end of the half, Liberty ramped up the pressure on American’s defense, and they were often able to bypass the Eagles’ press and midfield to spring attacks. Meanwhile, the physicality started to ramp up as each team drew four fouls. American picked up a yellow card — including one on Ezzahir in the eighth minute. During Liberty’s attack, after a loose pass, Ezzahir pulled on the shirt of Liberty’s freshman midfielder Pablo Matavele to stop the attack.
The decisive moment of the match occurred five minutes into the second half. At the end of an offensive attack from American, senior midfielder Reyes Parra was brought down in the box. While American asked for a penalty, Liberty went up the opposite end and sophomore Samson Kpardeh, a key player for the Flames, was on the receiving end of a challenge from junior midfielder Oliver Snowdon inside the penalty area.
After reviewing with the video assistant referee (VAR), the penalty for Liberty was upheld, and the shouts from the American bench were ignored. Sophomore goalkeeper Evan Tubbs was unable to deny Kpardeh, who slotted the penalty and celebrated in front of a booing Reeves crowd.
American had a chance to level the score later when Sullivan navigated his way through the Liberty defense, which forced Rose to come off his line and make the save.
American’s chances of equalizing got harder after senior defender Ian-Webb Johnson was sent off with 10 minutes left in the game. Johnson made a tackle on Liberty’s graduate student forward Pablo Ares, yet in the process of making the tackle, his elbow caught Ares in the head.
Initially, his foul was deemed to be only a yellow card, but after another VAR review, it was upgraded to a red card.
“What I was being told was that it wasn’t the tackle itself; it was the arm of Ian that got up and hit him in the head,” Eagles head coach Zach Samol said.
Kpardeh’s penalty proved to be the difference in a physical game in which American struggled to contain Liberty.
Despite the loss, Samol was proud of the team’s effort.
“I thought we created enough to score more than one goal,” Samol said. “I thought our performance was pretty good on the day, and I told the guys I think there’s some things we did well today.”
As the Eagles turned their focus to their upcoming match against Patriot League opponent Colgate, Samol alluded to the team’s offensive struggles in front of goal.
“We’re trying to create more danger and give the guys more confidence in the attacking third. Then we’ll also have to deal with the challenge of no Ian [Webb-Johnson] as well.”
American went on a two-game road trip in which the Eagles beat Colgate 1-0 on Sept. 11, before falling 2-0 to North Carolina on Sept. 15.
This article was edited by Matthias Jaylen, Jack Stashower and Gabrielle McNamee. Copy editing by Avery Grossman, Jaden Maitland Anderson, Mattie Lupo and Ryan Sieve.
