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Chat live with men's soccer head coach Sasho Cirovski on Wednesday, August 24 at 1:30 p.m.
Welcome to the umterps.com live chat with Sasho Cirovski. The chat will begin on Wednesday, August 24 at 1:30 p.m. Coach will take 30 minutes to take answer your questions about the 2005 season. Coach is bringing back seven starters from last year's College Cup team in addition to newcomers that were deemed the second-best crop in the nation.
Coach Cirovski is in his 13th season at Maryland. He has guided Maryland to four College Cup appearances (1998, 2002, 2003, 2004) and one ACC Tournament title (2002). The Terps have been to the NCAA Tournament 10 times during Cirovski's tenure and have 11 straight winning seasons.
The chat will not begin until Wednesday, August 24 at 1:30, but please feel free to submit questions now and we'll save them for when he arrives.
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Moderator: Thank you very much for participating in today's live chat. Coach will be here in a few minutes and we'll begin. We have a good bank of questions so far, but please keep submitting as the chat is going on. |
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Sasho Cirovski: Thanks everyone for participating today. I'm excited for this season. Let's start answering a few of your questions. |
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| Teddy (Silver Spring): Coach,
Can you talk about probable Player of the Year candidate Jason Garey returning for his senior season and how you think he will lead the team this year. |
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Sasho Cirovski: Jason is a special player and a special young man. He will lead us both through his incredible ability to score goals and his blue collar work ethic. He has become a consummate leader and role model for the rest of his teammates. |
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| Larry (Philadelphia): Sasho
If you were to pick a specific area the country, which you would consider THE hotbed of talent (for HS players), where would that be? |
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Sasho Cirovski: It's very difficult to pin point a hotbed for recruiting since there are quality players coming from all parts of the country. For example, Jason Garey out of Louisiana. However, we continually try to find the best players in Maryland which I feel has exceptional talent. In addition we try to look at all of our states within a few hundred miles. That's why you see our roster sprinkled with players from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia as well. |
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| Mike -- College Park: Mind if I ask about one of your former pupils? I am thinking this is the time that Taylor Twellman makes the U.S. National Team for the next World Cup. What do you think his chances are? It is nice to seem him healthy and playing well. |
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Sasho Cirovski: Mike I agree with you. I think it is time for Taylor to make his mark with our men's national team. Taylor's progression is amazing since he was a gifted player when he left here. His incredible work ethic and ability to finish chances has been proven at all levels and I have no doubt that he can and will do the same for our full national team very soon. In the last game against T&T he showed his worth by scoring on his first chance. Unfortunately, a bad call eliminated his first international goal. We will see Taylor scoring for the U.S. very soon. |
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| Fairmont, WV: Which graduating player from last year's team will be the hardest to replace & why? |
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Sasho Cirovski: All of the graduating players will be difficult to replace, whether it's Abe's continual scoring presence, Domenic's dynamic ability to change a game, Ian Rodway's steadiness and resiliency in the midfield or Noah's leadership and big play ability. Combined they were a special group and I miss them every day. However, I am very impressed with both our returning players and newcomers and we'll try to replace those four by committee. |
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| Matt (Richmond): Over the last four years attendance has increased considerably and Ludwig field has received numerous upgrades (scoreboard, temporary seating, etc.). Are there any long-term plans for the soccer teams to have their own soccer specific facility in the style of Creighton's? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Matt, ever since I arrived at Maryland I have tried to make a slight upgrade of our facility on an annual basis to get it to the point where we now have one of the most intimate facilities in the country. I have purposefully avoided permanent capital improvements to Ludwig Field with the hope that one day we will have a facility comprable to the Creighton facility. We do have plans for either a complete upgrade to Ludwig or a stand-alone soccer facility. We have all of the drawings and blueprints, we are in the process of trying to secure some funding to begin the final phase of the planning process. It has always been my dream to have a permanent home for our soccer team where the fans will be treated in a first-class basis in addition to watching a first-class team. |
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| Trent (Owings Mills): Not to look too far ahead, coach, but what are your thoughts on the Indiana game in late October? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Trent, you are right, we should not look too far ahead since we have an incredible challenging schedule in front of us. However, the matchup with Indiana does get the juices flowing even now. My hope is that we break the UCLA record from a couple of years ago and overflow Ludwig so that the fire marshall has to shut people out again. It should truly be the best atmosphere of the year. I hope you're there -- please get there early. |
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| Chris (Westminster): What light can you shed on the starting goalie position for the upcoming year? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Chris, this will be my toughest decision of the preseason and early season since we have two very talented goalkeepers. Craig has tremendous experience and leadership qualities and Chris is supremely talented. I expect that both will play an integral role throughout the year. They have already formed a great friendship and I am equally confident in both of them. They both played well this past weekend in Akron. |
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| Kelly (College Park): Hey Coach, good luck this season! i was wondering how home field advantage has helped your team over the past few seasons? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Kelly, the transformation in Ludwig over the past three years has really given us tremendous home field advantage. The enthusiasm of our fans and their incredible support is an inspiration for our players to perform for them. The coaches and players look forward to these games and know how much our fans appreciate their effort. I don't know the statistics off the top of my head, but I know we win most of our games at home. This year we may have the most difficult home schedule ever and we will need yours and all of our fans support throughout the year. See you at Ludwig! |
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| Samuel (Laurel): What do you think your got out of the preseason tournament in Akron? Anyone in particular stand out? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Samuel, the Akron tournament was very beneficial from the standpoint of getting some players game fitness as well as taking a look at all of our new players in a highly competitve situation. Though we want to win every game, the results became secondary to some individual observations and team building activities. I was very impressed with the progress of our young players our team shape. We had some solid performances from a number of our returning players including Stephen King, Maurice Edu and Kenney Bertz. |
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| jeff towson: expectations are high,when will the terps be natl.champs ?were the last two seasons the best terps team ? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Jeff, expectations are high every year at Maryland. We will aim to win the ACC championship and return to the College Cup. However, our overall success will not be measured in pure results, since there are many sub-goals we have set and there are many obstacles to overcome throughout the year, such as injuries. Though the last two years we had tremendous teams, it is very difficult to say that they were the two best teams. Our results indicicated that we should hold a special place in our heart for the accomplishments of the last three years, however, I believe the best of Maryland soccer is yet to come. |
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| timmy/ mexico city: Can this finally be the year that this soccer program actually takes home the championship? Each year we are close but do we have the tools to do it this year? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Timmy it is my genuine hope that this is the year that we can bring home the championship trophy. However that will not be as easy since there are many great teams competing for the same prize. We have earned the right to have a big bullseye on our back and we know that we will get everyone's best shot. If we can stay healthy and continue our development, we have the chance to be as good as any team I have ever coached. We have a very hungry core group senior players who have had unparalled commitment through the summer months and I know that they will lead us to great things this year. Hopefully, that means we will be the last team standing. |
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Moderator: Just two more questions... |
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| Mark (Lanham): How is the ACC looking this year as a conference and where do you think you guys stack up? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Mark, very good question. If you have noticed we have been ranked anywhere from 2-4 in the country but are ranked third in our own conference. That alone tells you about the strength and the unpredictability of the ACC. With the addition of Boston College and improved Virginia Tech program now you have nine teams that will beat each other up throughout the season and it will become a survival contest. Once again, if we stay healthy we feel we have as good a shot as anybody at finishing in the top echelon. It's been gratifying to have played in the championship game the last two years but equally disappointing to not claim the championship. Our team has not forgotten that and will be highly motivated this year to finish on top. |
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| Jill (Fairmont): Do you see a difference in integrating new players into the team this year from last year when you had the pre-season European trip? How do you feel the team is progressing in getting to know one another on & off the field? |
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Sasho Cirovski: Jill, no I don't see any real difficulty integrating this year' group because we have developed a culture of equality and closeness that has made it very easy for the team to come together. The trip to Akron served as a good team-building opportunity, but much of the relationship development between the newcomers and the returning players was already in place throughout the past year. I know that all of our newcomers have great appreciation for the way that the returning players have cared for them already and that has become a staple of our program. We are a very close and connected group. |
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Sasho Cirovski: Thank you everyone for participating today. I apologize if I did not get to your question since we had such a great response. I look forward to doing this again in the future and hope to see you supporting the Terps throughout the year. Go Terps! |
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Moderator: That concludes today's chat. Thanks to everyone for participating and submitting questions. If you would like to receive e-mails on this year's team, contact Adam Zundell at azundell@umd.edu with the title "Men's Soccer Info" in the subject. |
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