Men's Soccer Gets Defensive in '01

The Tar Heel defense, which allowed just 18 goals in 24 games, went largely unheralded as Carrieri, Michael Bucy, Caleb Norkus and Logan Pause paced a squad that scored more goals than any other in school history.

Since then, Bucy graduated, Carrieri and Norkus were drafted into Major League Soccer, and Pause tore the meniscus in his left knee.

The Tar Heels lost 78 percent of their goals from a 2000 squad that lost to Indiana in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. Newcomers will likely play at key offensive positions. Yet the team was still picked as the ACC's preseason No. 1 and was ranked No. 5 nationally in the preseason.

And the defensive unit that is often forgotten is a large reason why UNC has a chance of repeating as the conference's top team.

"Last year, we won differently than I think we're going to win this year," senior defender Chris Leitch said. "Hopefully it'll be the same mentality. Hopefully we'll find a way to win just like we did last year.

"Hopefully that'll be one thing that we carry over to this year, but we're going to have to do it a little differently."

The Tar Heels will again have defenders Leitch, Danny Jackson and David Stokes and goalkeeper Michael Ueltschey guarding the back third. They will lend the team much-needed stability after the loss of such a large chunk of last year's offense.

With Pause, an attacking midfielder, out until at least October, UNC coach Elmar Bolowich will continue to shuffle the lineup around, trying to find the right mix in the center of the field.

Senior Noz Yamauchi will play on the left flank, while Matt Crawford, Mike Gell, Sean McGinty, Tim Merritt and Grant Porter will all share time filling the attacking midfielder, defending midfielder and right flank slots.

"At right flank, right now, it would be Crawford, (and) perhaps McGinty could play there," Bolowich said. "If McGinty could play there, or Mike Gell, then that could be a solution and we could leave Crawford in the middle.

"If that is not viable, then perhaps Crawford will play wide and we may move Tim Merritt or somebody else to the center."

Aside from the questions in the midfield, Bolowich must address the inexperienced group of forwards, which includes the 6-foot-3 Ryan Kneipper, junior transfer David Testo and freshmen Jonathan Davis and Marcus Storey.

"We will play a similar style because the personnel is somewhat similar," Bolowich said. "You look at Marcus Storey and Jonathan Davis, and I think the two add a tremendous amount of speed in our front line."

But even last year, when the Tar Heels had a full complement of offensive weapons, they struggled to score goals early in the season, forcing the defense to hold a one-goal margin.

This year, UNC can ill afford to squander one-goal leads as it did in losses to UAB and Virginia in 2000, especially in a conference like the ACC. UVa., Clemson and Duke were all ranked in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America preseason poll.

"The games we lost last year, we were very disappointed in them," Jackson said. "Virginia, it was 1-0 at the half. We were dominating the game. I don't even know if we allowed a shot on goal in the first half, and then we made a couple of errors."

And while Bolowich understands the need for his defense to be at its best every game, he also learned from last year's season-ending loss to Indiana.

"They didn't come here to hang on. They came to win," Bolowich said of the Hoosiers. "They came with a belief that they could win here, and they got it done, one way or another. Were they the better team? No, and everybody would agree with that who saw the game, but it doesn't matter.

"They knew they could do it, one way or another. And they did. And that's confidence."

And that's something the Tar Heels will need on their side this season.

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.