Missed opportunities plague No. 6 UNC men's soccer in home opener draw to Cal Baptist

In the 58th minute of Sunday's match against California Baptist, senior midfielder Matthew Acosta drove into the final third, shrugged off a defender, then laid the ball off to senior forward Luke Hille. 

Acosta continued his run, received the ball right back and crossed it low into the feet of graduate forward Martin Vician. Vician held his defender off, then passed to Hille. Hille fired a shot...

Straight at the keeper.

This was a common sequence for the No. 6 North Carolina men’s soccer team against Cal Baptist on Sunday: a fluid buildup of play resulting in shots on goal, but barely testing the Lancer goalkeeper. The Tar Heels took 25 shots, but none found the back of the net.

It had head coach Carlos Somoano reminiscing about one of his top goalscorers from last year, Quenzi Huerman.

“You just could see the difference when he took a shot,” Somoano said. "It was, like, so smooth and looked effortless.”

But that wasn't the case on Sunday. Shots sprayed high above the goal, wizzed wide past the posts or landed directly in the path of a Lancer defender.  

However, North Carolina’s 0-0 tie with Cal Baptist had positives. Twenty five shots is just under double the shots the Tar Heels averaged per game last season. Twenty five shots was over quadruple their total in their last game against Alabama Birmingham. 

The Tar Heels are still looking for someone with, as Somoano put it, the “magic touch” that Huerman used to bag 10 goals in 2023 for UNC. And, as Somoano acknowledged, soccer isn’t a sport where the most shots wins.

“We didn't play as well against UAB, but we found a way to get the result,” Somoano said. “All the good play was clearly in parts of the game that were insignificant. The significant parts of the game are scoring goals.”

In fairness, the parts of the game in which UNC performed well showed significant chemistry between its attackers.

Take, for example, the many times senior midfielder Juan Caffaro spotted Vician making a run in behind Cal Baptist’s center backs. Often from near the halfway line, Caffaro cut onto his left foot and floated a ball near the penalty box for the Slovakia native to run onto.

Caffaro said that’s a pass he and Vician practice a lot. Now in year two together, the senior midfielder from Argentina knows Vician well — the two bonded over both being international students and the challenge of learning a new language and culture.

“We understand how much sacrifice we [made] when we came here, leaving behind family, friends and other things,” Caffaro said. “So I think that we have a lot of chemistry because of that.”

But chemistry alone doesn't score goals. On one such floated ball from Caffaro to Vician, Vician used his heel to flick the ball to senior defender Andrew Czech. The shot? Scuffed. Cal Baptist clearance, no goal.

Czech said the team talked about being a little too fast to get a shot off, and that an extra lay-off to a teammate would help sometimes. But they also discussed not going at the Lancers fast enough.

These aren’t conflicting goals. Somoano said his players must find the right balance between being aggressive and being smart. Part of that, Somoano said, can be trained — and Czech is hopeful on the team’s potential to become more clinical.

“We [have] the guys to do it, and it's just about flipping that switch,” Czech said. “We're not peaking too early, which is a good thing.”

But Somoano knows that being clinical like Huerman “is a bit of a gift.” Perhaps that’s why he chuckled when he recounted how smooth and effortless his former talisman’s finishing was.

And now, all the Tar Heels need is to convert their chances, and their preseason bout with Campbell showed their ability to.

“We may not have a guy like that, but I think we can maybe do five or six guys that can each contribute maybe a little bit,” Somoano said. "So maybe that'll be the formula this year.”

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