The NC State men’s soccer team fell 3-0 to Louisville in its first ACC game of the spring on Thursday, March 4, at Dail Soccer Field. 

The Wolfpack (2-7-1, 0-6-1 ACC) was the better of the two teams in the first half, holding 57% of the possession and outshooting the Cardinals (2-6-1, 2-4-1 ACC) 5-3 but a calamity of errors to start the second half ruined the Wolfpack’s chances of picking up its first conference win of 2020-21.

“A baffling situation,” said head coach George Kiefer. “I thought we were pretty good in the first half. We created some good chances. Our possession was good. Couple of things we needed to clean up with balls in our half of the field. We gave a few away in bad spots.”

The Cardinals came out of the break with urgency, opening the scoring just two minutes into the second half and the early goal seemed to take the wind out of the Wolfpack’s sails after a solid first half. Just minutes later, Louisville doubled its advantage, converting from 12-yards out after junior defender Alex Bautista handled the ball inside the box.

Four minutes later, things went from bad to worse for the Wolfpack as junior midfielder Aidan Foster was shown a straight red card. Kiefer said after the game that he did not see the incident but he spoke with Foster after the game and Foster told him he kicked the Louisville player after losing his head a bit. Louisville truly ended any hopes of a Wolfpack comeback, adding a third goal in the 63rd minute.

“I walked out of the locker room to the second half really looking forward to it,” Kiefer said. “To be fair, I thought their first goal was a good goal. The ball popping up on Alex, I didn’t think he had his hand in a different position, but fair enough the ref called a handball…Then, lack of discipline to go down a man. He should be thrown off for what he did. It is a red card. Now you are chasing the game. I don’t think that is a good way to help your team.”

Even before the red card, the game was a chippy affair with the two teams combining for 34 fouls and four yellow cards across the 90. 

“Ten minutes after the game, losing 3-0, I think it is easy to point fingers at each other and say, ‘you did that wrong…’” said senior goalkeeper Leon Krapf. “It would be very ill advised if we did that. We have to be honest. There was a lot of immaturity in the second half today. We faced some adversity after the first goal and I think we, as a team, lost our head a little bit. More than just one situation. A couple of things where we have to grow up a little bit, be a little bit smarter, make better decisions that keep us in the game a bit longer.”

The Wolfpack had two excellent goal-scoring opportunities in the first half that could have change the game’s trajectory as junior forward Kuda Muskwe and senior midfielder George Asomani both got the ball on the edge of the six but Muskwe put his header right at the keeper and Asomani was not able to keep his shot under the bar.

Over the first three games of the spring portion of the Wolfpack’s season, Kiefer has made just one change to his starting XI, starting freshman forward Pau Palacin in the spring opener against UAB and Asomani in his place the next two games.

“I thought we were doing well,” Kiefer said. “From game one to game two, much improvement. Game two to the first half, again I thought some of the first half stuff, once we started pushing out midfielders a little bit higher, we created two excellent chances… I can’t allow the emotions of the second half to throw us off track.”

The Pack will continue its spring slate of ACC games on Saturday, March 13, as it travels to Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest, a team that beat the Wolfpack twice in the fall.