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Analysis: Staying with the process, Pitt men’s soccer overcome obstacles in NCAA tournament run

Photo courtesy Pitt Athletics

With a 3-2 extra time victory against Kansas City on Sunday, Pitt men’s soccer reached the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight for the fourth time in five seasons. Actually, if you want to get super technical —  due to COVID-19 extended season in 2020 — they’ve reached the quarterfinal round for the fourth time within the last four calendar years (twice in 2021, 2022 and 2024).

This coming Saturday, the Panthers will now host another unseeded foe, Vermont Catamounts, who defeated San Diego on Sunday night, 1-0, on a penalty kick conversion in extra time — with a trip to another College Cup on the line.

In its win before a packed house on a cold Sunday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field, the Panthers broke through with three quality scores that erased concerns — for the time being — about their ability to execute in the final third despite almost always being dominant in possession and dictating terms of matches all season long.

The three goals were the first in the run of play since the Panthers’ dominant 4-1 win against Virginia on October 25.

“If you stay with the process.  You keep doing things right, the goals will come,” Jay Vidovich, Pitt’s veteran Head Coach said after the win on Sunday.

In their previous match against Cornell in the second round, Pitt persevered in a 1-0 win playing with 10 men for more than 50 minutes, finding a goal on a penalty kick conversion shortly after junior defender Jackson Gilman was sent off with a red card.

Following a victory when the Panthers were in a rare position — playing on their heels for stretches of the second half — Vidovich was relieved, as pointed out in last week’s NCAA Tournament Notebook, because he was looking forward to his talented group being able to show what they can do on the ball.

Once again, it wouldn’t be easy against their next unseeded opponent, playing without one of its leaders, junior All-ACC third team honoree, Jackson Gilman, who was sitting out the match due to previous match red card.

Rough Start vs KC

The Panthers didn’t have the dream start that they envisioned against the Roos  after allowing an early sixth minute goal to the opportunistic Roos, when Le Bourdoulous sent a ball to the edge of the box, brought down by Elie Kisoka.

Galluccio came crashing in and let a right-footed attempt rip, sending it to the lower-left corner for the first score of the night.

For Pitt, Kansas City’s first goal was a preventable. Galluccio was surrounded by white shirts, but among the wall of Panthers defenders were not able to close down the space, allowing the Roos’ midfielder to unleash a low, skimming shot that somehow skirted its way through and inside the left post.

Just like that, a team that had to fight and claw its way to a hard-earned battle against Cornell, knew once again, this would not be an easy match and they would have to click their game into a higher gear.

One thing we’ve learned in the NCAA tournament — especially in watching Pitt play on this stage in the past six years, is that no opponent can ever be underestimated.

“Hats off to Kansas City. A tremendous performance they gave us. It was a tremendous test,” Vidovich said.

As PSN’s Griffin Floyd, who was covering the match at Ambrose Urbanic Field pointed out, the Panthers entered Sunday evening with a 2-5 record in matches in which their opponent scored first, with each of the five losses coming via shutout.  In keeping with that trend, Pitt has claimed victory in every game they’ve scored in this season.

As Vidovich stated, his team was put to the test by Kansas City, but finding a goal in the run of play would be key in reversing their fortunes.

Panthers Respond By Playing To Strengths

Despite trailing by a goal early on, the Panthers did step things up by playing to their strengths, letting their wide attackers and outside backs be the catalysts for the attack.

Bringing pressure from both sides, with five shots in the next 14 minutes, Pitt took control of the match. Eventually they would cap their efforts off in the 20th minute when they regained possession — with Casper Svenby fallen to the ground on the right edge of the box, poked ball wide to Albert Thorsen, who played a one-two with Guilherme Feitosa.  Thorsen took his return touch from Feitosa and sent a cross from the right end line, forcing Roos’ keeper Brandon McGaugh to slap the ball away.

Crashing toward the net, Casper Grening slipped away from his defender and knocked the redirect home.

The Panthers came close as few more times.

A great chance came in the 61st minute, when a kick from Lasse Dahl rolled to the left of the net. Luis Sahmkow attempted to slide for it, but timed it a moment too late (hold that thought).

Another prime chance came less than two minutes later when a pass trickled across the box. Dahl got there first, but not before he had pressure in his face, helping McGaugh make the stop.

Pitt broke through in the 70th minute.

Feitosa, as his coach had envisioned for his team to have the opportunity to show what they could do on the ball, did some clever work at the top of the box with a pair of defenders in front of him.  The Brazilian maintained possession with a slippery spin move, then found room to his right, lifting a shot that McGaugh managed to leap up and knock away.

Just as Grening did in the first half, Arnau Vilamitjana found the ball at his feet with room to shoot.  The former FC Barcelona Academy product showed plenty of composure with defenders closing in, finding a way to corral the awkward deflection, then fire a shot that hit the under part of the bar and into the net to give Pitt a 2-1 lead.

Vilamitjana described what goes into his knack for scoring in big games.

“Don’t think about it, you don’t focus on it, just try to play, try to do your best for the team and then they [the goals] come,” Vilamitjana said, echoing his coach’s comments.

“Obviously have been good moments, very important times… but you just have to stay calm, play for the team.”

Roos Kick Back

While Vilamitjana’s goal for a moment felt like that was the straw that Pitt needed to break its unseeded opponent, the Roos had different ideas.

Kansas City responded immediately, finding the opportunity on a set piece — a corner kick.

It was Roos’ Guille Munoz who silenced Ambrose Urbanic Field crowd by rising above the fray at the near post area, heading the ball toward the unprotected far post side to level the match at 2-2.

To their credit, the Panthers — echoing Vilamitjana’s words and previous actions — didn’t panic.

Instead, Pitt responded with more pressure, creating chances including a flurry of shots on goal in the 82nd minute, with each deflected by a Roos’ defender or a helpful goalpost. at one point, the referees initiated a replay review to check if any of the shots broke across the goal line, but the Panthers came up empty handed once again.

As play in regulation came to a close Pitt held a 64-36 possession advantage and outshot the Roos by 22-5 margin.

The match nearly ended at the death of regulation.

Pitt quickly accelerated through the final seconds to get into position for one last push at goal — when Casper Svenby advanced into the right side of the box, then delivered a perfect ball across for Luis Sahmkow, who delivered a clinical finish that appeared (for a second or two) to be the game-winner with just one second left on the countdown clock used in NCAA soccer.

The goal was immediately waved off — and the officials went to VAR to confirm the call on the field.

What could have been the most dramatic match ending in the tournament to this point (and there have been some good ones already), was wiped away as Sahmkow, who struggled to get on the end of a few other balls earlier in the match, this time was already behind the defender before Svenby’s pass attempt.

Extra Time was Albert Thorsen’s Time to Shine

‘The most important thing, is we stay together, the entire game. It’s what we’ve been talking about the past two weeks, is to stay together,” Vilamitjana stated when asked about how the team was feeling heading into extra time.

“I think we are unstoppable when we play together.”

 

In the extra time period, Pitt began with caution.

In fact, things tilted for a few moments in Kansas City’s favor, as they generated a couple advances into the final third, while Pitt was feeling things out.

One of the concerns that came to the surface on the broadcast and by those of us closely watching the match, was both teams started to tire — losing some crispness in passes and first touches.  Pitt used just one sub the entire match (Dahl), while Kansas City, a squad that had 19 different goal scorers this season, went a bit deeper.

Despite the lack of subs, primarily going with the same rotation of 11 plus Dahl, the Panthers’ ability to control possession forced KC to chase the match, so Head Coach Jay Vidovich appeared to be very confident that his players would get to the finish line quickly if they continued to stay on the front foot.

Sure enough, in the 98th minute, Vilamitjana went into play making mode, going to the well with through ball that Pitt’s midfielders often can thread when they stretch opposing back lines just enough.

This time the high degree of difficulty pass connected with Thorsen, who has been dynamic coming in from the wing this season, as the team’s second leading goal scorer.

With the Roos’ five men across the back line stretched just enough — Vilamitjana thread the needle — and Thorsen made a perfectly timed run, then turned to his right foot, calmly slotting the ball through for the winner.

I could find Albert through those patterns,” Vilamitjana said.

“It’s what we work on — and it came together.”

The Panthers were once again pushed the limit — but their overall composure, quality and ability to find different ways to score have provided the recipe to advancing on home turf in the first two NCAA tournament matches.

“So proud of the guys. The way they responded to the goals. The quality of football they played was just really fantastic,” Vidovich shared.

They created some tremendous opportunities. They were there until the very end. It was another challenge going to overtime. Just a great goal. We had some really good looks, so I am very happy for the guys and for the program.”

There are some things to clean up including a few defensive miscues which will be addressed and with the addition of Gilman back in the lineup, can be reinforced.

By overcoming adversity already, they can only build confidence moving forward as the competition gets tougher.

Of the remaining eight teams in the tournament, Pitt already has wins against Denver and SMU.  Now they’ll face a Vermont team that stands in the way of a third College Cup appearance.  Vermont has shown they belong — with impressive result this season against Hofstra, UMass, San Diego.

Crazy as it sounds, but this squad is still learning how to play together. Now, they have an opportunity to take their game to another level as the stakes get higher.

Look for more coverage to come this week on Pitt’s Elite Eight match-up with Vermont from Griffin Floyd and yours truly.
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John Krysinsky has covered soccer and other sports for many years for various publications and media outlets. He is also author of 'Miracle on the Mon' -- a book about the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, which chronicles the club, particularly the early years of Highmark Stadium with the narrative leading up to and centered around a remarkable match that helped provide a spark for the franchise. John has covered sports for Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, DK Pittsburgh Sports, Pittsburgh Sports Report, has served as color commentator on Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC broadcasts, and worked with OPTA Stats and broadcast teams for US Open Cup and International Champions Cup matches held in the US. Krysinsky also served as the Head Men’s Soccer Coach at his alma mater, Point Park University, where he led the Pioneers to the first-ever winning seasons and playoff berths (1996-98); head coach of North Catholic boys (2007-08), associate head coach of Shady Side Academy boys (2009-2014).

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