As Eric Martinez watched Ryan Arambula’s corner kick sail toward him in front of the Clemson goal, the USC junior knew he was going to make a play. And when Martinez cleanly headed the ball into the net in the 65th minute, he delivered the Gamecocks a 1-0 victory Tuesday night at Stone Stadium.
“It’s hard to miss from there, really,” said Martinez, a 6-foot-1 defender
.
Clemson coach Mike Noonan knew that Martinez could be a dangerous player on the set pieces.
“You’ve got to do a job,” Noonan said. “They did better than we did to get on the end of it.”That proved to be the difference, as USC goalkeeper Alex Long and a solid back line kept the Tigers (1-5-2) from breaking through, as the Gamecocks (3-3-1) recorded their fourth shutout of the season.
“We were exceptionally tight defensively tonight. We were really well-organized,” USC coach Mark Berson said. “Obviously, it’s a rivalry game so there’s going to be some mistakes. You want to try to play through those. But I thought our guys were tough. They did a great job end-to-end."The Tigers lead the all-time series 23-16-1, but the Gamecocks have won five of the past six matches, with the five victories all being shutouts. After record-breaking crowds on each other’s fields each of the last two seasons, the all-day threat of rain meant just 1,764 showed up at the Graveyard this time around.
But the fans got to see a taut match that ended scoreless in the first half, although the Gamecocks had their share of chances. They outshot Clemson 6-2 but couldn’t score, thanks to the play of Clemson goalkeeper Cody Mizell. And Long made a strong save on Preston Gayton’s free kick in the first half as well. “That’s what you need,” Berson said. “You need your goalkeeper to come through and make big saves. Their goalkeeper made three tremendous saves. You expect that at this level.”
Martinez felt good about the Gamecocks being able to take advantage in the second half.
“We went into the locker room at halftime, and everyone was really confident. We knew we were going to come back out, and we were all pretty sure we were going to win this game,” he said. “We fixed some things at halftime, put a little more pressure on them, and everything just came together. It was a real team effort.”
The Tigers, who haven’t won since their opener against USC Upstate on Aug. 24, had their fair share of chances in the second half, too, but they could not convert. That continued a season-long lament for Clemson, which has scored three goals in eight matches.
“We were fortunate to get out of the half even,” Noonan said. “I thought we were on the front foot a little bit more in the second half. But we just don’t threaten in front of the goal enough.” The Gamecocks rebounded from last week’s 3-2 double-overtime loss to No. 5 Charlotte on the road. Berson was looking to regain some momentum after playing a difficult pre-conference schedule.
Conference USA play begins Friday night, when USC travels to Tulsa.
“We worked very, very hard (in practice) coming back from Charlotte the last four days,” he said. “It was the only time in the schedule where we had some time we could work.” Martinez made the practice pay off with his header.
“Great job on that,” Berson said, “(with) a very solid exclamation-point type of goal.”
link: http://www.gogamecocks.com/2012/09/18/282922/ggf-practice-makes-perfect-as.html
“It’s hard to miss from there, really,” said Martinez, a 6-foot-1 defender
.
Clemson coach Mike Noonan knew that Martinez could be a dangerous player on the set pieces.
“You’ve got to do a job,” Noonan said. “They did better than we did to get on the end of it.”That proved to be the difference, as USC goalkeeper Alex Long and a solid back line kept the Tigers (1-5-2) from breaking through, as the Gamecocks (3-3-1) recorded their fourth shutout of the season.
“We were exceptionally tight defensively tonight. We were really well-organized,” USC coach Mark Berson said. “Obviously, it’s a rivalry game so there’s going to be some mistakes. You want to try to play through those. But I thought our guys were tough. They did a great job end-to-end."The Tigers lead the all-time series 23-16-1, but the Gamecocks have won five of the past six matches, with the five victories all being shutouts. After record-breaking crowds on each other’s fields each of the last two seasons, the all-day threat of rain meant just 1,764 showed up at the Graveyard this time around.
But the fans got to see a taut match that ended scoreless in the first half, although the Gamecocks had their share of chances. They outshot Clemson 6-2 but couldn’t score, thanks to the play of Clemson goalkeeper Cody Mizell. And Long made a strong save on Preston Gayton’s free kick in the first half as well. “That’s what you need,” Berson said. “You need your goalkeeper to come through and make big saves. Their goalkeeper made three tremendous saves. You expect that at this level.”
Martinez felt good about the Gamecocks being able to take advantage in the second half.
“We went into the locker room at halftime, and everyone was really confident. We knew we were going to come back out, and we were all pretty sure we were going to win this game,” he said. “We fixed some things at halftime, put a little more pressure on them, and everything just came together. It was a real team effort.”
The Tigers, who haven’t won since their opener against USC Upstate on Aug. 24, had their fair share of chances in the second half, too, but they could not convert. That continued a season-long lament for Clemson, which has scored three goals in eight matches.
“We were fortunate to get out of the half even,” Noonan said. “I thought we were on the front foot a little bit more in the second half. But we just don’t threaten in front of the goal enough.” The Gamecocks rebounded from last week’s 3-2 double-overtime loss to No. 5 Charlotte on the road. Berson was looking to regain some momentum after playing a difficult pre-conference schedule.
Conference USA play begins Friday night, when USC travels to Tulsa.
“We worked very, very hard (in practice) coming back from Charlotte the last four days,” he said. “It was the only time in the schedule where we had some time we could work.” Martinez made the practice pay off with his header.
“Great job on that,” Berson said, “(with) a very solid exclamation-point type of goal.”
link: http://www.gogamecocks.com/2012/09/18/282922/ggf-practice-makes-perfect-as.html
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