Men's soccer offense silenced by Louisville

For much of the 2014 season, the North Carolina men's soccer team has been praised as an elite offensive unit.

That might have been part of the problem.

"Maybe everybody keeps saying, 'Oh, you're a good attacking team. You're so good, you're so good,"' coach Carlos Somoano said. "Maybe we just come inside too soon thinking that it's going to be easy." 

In their 1-0 loss to Louisville in the ACC Championship quarterfinals, scoring was anything but easy for the Tar Heel forwards.

"I felt like I was getting stretched out a little bit in the first half," said UNC's leading scorer Andy Craven. "Kind of felt a little disconnected from midfielders and defenders."

While the Tar Heels averaged 16.2 shots per game coming into their game against the Cardinals, the first half ended with the team managing just three shots — none of them on target.

During halftime, Somoano tried to change his players' mentality. The first half showed a team that was too passive, playing not to lose the game rather than trying to win it.

"We just really tried to come at 'em hard and try to dictate the tempo ourselves," Craven said of the team's second half game plan.

And for much of the half, that mentality showed. UNC saw more chances at goal, and looked more active with the ball on Louisville's side of the field. With six shots, the Tar Heels doubled their shot total from the first period.

"I think the second half, we just said, 'Ok let's give it a shot, let's play to win,'" Somoano said.

Still, North Carolina never could find the back of the net, leaving players and coaches disappointed after the game — disappointed with two straight years of short bids in the ACC tournament.

"It’s frustrating," senior captain Boyd Okwuonu said on the sidelines after the game. "I mean, regardless of how we lost, it’s frustrating."

Much of that disappointment stems from that fact that the Tar Heels weren't able to give a stout Louisville back line different looks within the game.

"Probably our biggest lesson is that we're going to have to do a better job of mixing up the attack," Somoano said. "We never got around the corners. I mean we were never able to penetrate them in wide areas. We kept bringing the ball inside and they have eight guys in there.

"The way to soften that up is to get around the corners, and we just never did that."

Somoano did credit his players with attempting to go out wide, but pointed to the fact that Louisville's players routinely shut them down and cut out their runs.

"We had chances to play guys in behind," he said. "We just didn't quite execute. 

"It was just not good enough."

sports@dailytarheel.com