MEN’S SOCCER NCAA TOURNAMENT ELITE EIGHT
MARYLAND at UK
NOV. 30, 2018
THE BELL – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Head Coach Johan Cedergren
Opening statement …
“As you can see on my guys to my left and my right (Tanner Hummel and JJ Williams), very disappointed to be here. I thought we played an OK game. When you get to this level, when you get to an Elite Eight, the teams that you play are going to be pretty special and I think that we gave them one chance in the first half and, again, a good team is going to take care of their chances. We go in 1-0 at halftime and then we talk, make some adjustments and I think we were all over them in the second half. But it’s just one of those where that final product, final touch, losing your marker, whatever you want to say, quality of the cross, we just weren’t able to produce today. There’s been lots people talking this week and I think we had over 3,200 here at the Bell, which that’s the second time we’ve had more than 3,000 people. Really, really proud of what the guys have done, what we produced this year and to be able to get 3,200 people to come out on a Friday night is a very, very special feeling, But I think also for us it’s just – with all that, with the season that we’ve had, getting that many people to come out on a Friday night, I just wanted to make sure that we performed up to our level. Even though we battle – you can see on JJ, you can see on Tanner, they have nothing left in the tank. They worked their tails off today. The whole team did, but I just don’t think we produced that last five percent that we needed to get from an Elite Eight to a Final Four. Incredibly disappointed, but at the same time very proud of the season that we’ve had.”
On Maryland and whether he was surprised by the Terrapins …
“I think nowadays with video, and we make sure that we watch three to five games of the next opponent – having been in the college game now for 11 years, Maryland is a program that’s had a lot of success. Sasho’s (Cirovski) been there for 26 years. Three national titles. You’re not going to go in and have an easy game against Maryland. But as I said the other day when I look at the two squads, which one would I pick if I got to pick? I still would pick mine. I think, again, incredibly successful program. I wish them all the best in California, but I would love to get another chance to play them.”
On the reason for fouls and yellow cards …
“I don’t think you can discount that we had nine underclassmen starting today and all of us had never been in an Elite Eight before. I think that at times it got very competitive, but I don’t think that there was anything that was over line or frustration or bad behavior. I just think that we’re pushing as hard as we can to get back in the game. They’re trying to make sure that they get the result they want and sometimes you’re going to get, when it’s a tight called game like that, there’s going to be a lot of fouls. I thought it was an OK game.”
On the importance of this experience for the growth of UK’s program …
“I think that every time you don’t perform at 100 percent, you try to learn from it. We had a pretty long video session after Lipscomb where we tried to pick up some things that we didn’t do so well and I thought that we played much, much better today than we did last weekend, but we still didn’t get a result. I think now, you see on Tanner and JJ, they’re destroyed. This is everything to them. They give up so much. They sacrifice so many things to put in what the team needs. I think for us it’s, those guys that are all coming back, is let’s harness this feeling. We don’t ever want to be here again. If we’re fortunate enough to get back to postseason play next year, can we make sure that – the result, I don’t care so much about – I just want to make sure that we play up to our level. And again, I thought we were at least five percent off today.”
On the season …
“Magical. Inspiring. Incredibly fun. One of the things when we looked back, last season wasn’t a great season and we looked and we made some changes in the roster, we made some changes in how we played. I had to make some changes as a coach and as a person to try to be a little more positive. If you go all the way back to January when we started working on this to get to this point today, it’s just been an incredible journey and these guys have given 100 percent every step of the way. They’ve never been perfect, but they’ve always worked as hard as they can and we’ve learned and we’ve gotten better. Someone asked me to reflect the other day and it’s just hard when you’re in the middle of it. So now it’s just gone like that. We go six days a week and all of a sudden now it’s just gone. Usually I clean my basement my first off day and that’s kind of how the process starts. So I think that last offseason we had so many things that we had to change. There are so many guys that we had to begin to improve the squad. I think we’re in a very different spot now, but it’s also one of those where an Elite Eight is not enough. I don’t work at Kentucky – Kevin (Saal) and Mitch (Barnhart) didn’t hire me at Kentucky to make an Elite Eight. With as many guys as we have coming back, the goal is can we do even better next year?”
On how this season sets the stage for the future …
“It just shows that we know what we’re doing and it shows we had a really good team. I think it’s one of those where with JJ scoring 18 goals and Kalil (ElMedkhar) scoring 11 goals, the way we played very, very dynamic attacking soccer is very effective for the players we have. So we might have to replace one or two guys and we might probably need two or three guys to step up a little bit more so when teams really are teeing off on our best player you need No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 to find a way. I thought against Lipscomb we did that with Jason (Reyes) and Bailey (Rouse) scoring, but today when JJ didn’t, when he was just a little off, we didn’t have anybody else to step up.”
Kentucky Student-Athletes
#7, JJ Williams, Jr., F
On how he would describe the matchup between him and Donovan Pines …
“Yeah, I mean, with how the year has gone for me I expected it. I knew it was coming. It’s a battle I was looking forward to all week. He’s a great player. That’s just what I’ve been looking for. I’ve been looking for somebody who’s going to push me, who’s going to make me work the extra two yards for it, who’s going to track me the entire game. Whenever you consider yourself a good player, that’s what you look for is another good player like that to go against, to battle against. He just won the battle tonight.”
On if thinks the communication was there with Kalil Elmedkhar tonight …
“It’s tough because we go in to these games, especially Kalil, starting to score more, be on top of things more and people start to realize that he’s not someone to mess around with either. Whenever it’s just one of those things if we didn’t get going tonight, we created chances we always do and we didn’t put them in the back of the net. I take ownership for that. It doesn’t matter how much you want to say it was the communication between me, Kalil, anybody. I get the praise whenever we score goals out there, and that’s how it’s been. At the same time, we’re in a big game on a big stage, big players are supposed to step up and I didn’t do that tonight.”
#22, Tanner Hummel, Sr., D
On what the thought process was on them having to play behind for the first time at home …
“It’s not the easiest to go down 1-0 in the first half at home, but it’s part of the game. Things are going to happen. We knew that we still had a full second half to get back into it and in a game like this, the Elite Eight. You’re going to only get so many opportunities and they had their one chance and they put it away. In the second half we had multiple (chances). Some days it’s just not your day to score and it just happened to be that way today.”
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Maryland Head Coach Sasho Cirovski
Opening statement …
“First of all, congrats to Johan (Cedergren), his staff and the University of Kentucky on a fantastic season in soccer. A great environment to play in. I know our guys enjoyed it. I’m really proud of our team’s performance today. This was always going to be a real tough game. Kentucky plays very direct. They have some great players. And we were forced to really be at our best on the defensive side of the ball after we scored our goal in the first half. We said before the game that we will need a big-time save and we’ll need to find a way to get a goal. These two guys here (Sebastian Elney and Dayne St. Clair) were pivotal tonight. Sebastian had a beautiful goal on a drift-away run and Dayne made what might become one of the saves of the year on the reaction save there. It was fantastic. That’s what you need to do in these big games. You need to have big players step up in big moments and find a way to win. I also want to say that for our program this is a big moment. We struggled the last couple of years in the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament and we challenged this team to reset the culture and the identity and bring back the Maryland quality, and this has done that. You saw tonight a team that was battle tested through a tough schedule, that understood the challenge that met it, and as a result we have a chance to keep playing. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
On where he thought they would be in August …
“Our goal every year is to be the last team standing and that didn’t change when we were 0-2-2. It didn’t change when we lost early in the playoffs last year. We’re a very proud program and right now I couldn’t be prouder of a group of guys. We’re used to playing in these big games. We’ve missed it the last couple of years. The guys were so excited for this challenge. We knew we would come in to a great environment that Kentucky has provided here for its team here with a beautiful facility, a terrific team, and really one of the top teams attacking and defending in the country. So it was a double challenge here. We knew it would take an effort like we put out tonight – a gritty, gutsy, high-quality, professional effort to get this result tonight. As I’ve said now from the last game, we’re not done yet. We’re ready for the next challenge. And we know what’s possible on the other side of the bracket. As soon as that gets finalized, we’ll be ready for that challenged.”
On if this was one of Donovan Pines’ best performance after holding Kentucky’s JJ Williams without a shot on goal …
“Yeah, I mean, he has had so many great performances that it’s hard to rank them. Donovan is really emerging as the best center back in the country. I’m not sure any forwards want to match up against him. He plays with so much pride and so much tenacity and he just loves to defend. He loved the challenge of going up against JJ and (Jason) Reyes and Khalil (ElMedkhar) and this Kentucky team. But, I thought today was a great effort defensively not only just from Donovan but the whole team. I thought the entire back line certainly had a great game. Dayne (St. Clair) made a great save, but I thought the effort from all of our midfielders and forwards was terrific. There was a sense of pride and commitment that you have to have in these big moments on the road in a big stage in the quarterfinals if you want to win. We put up more than necessary.”
On if he felt like they frustrated Kentucky’s attack in the second half …
“I think our guys just competed on every play. They competed on every play. I think when you play at that kind of level, it can frustrate any team.”
On the difference between now and the regular season with being able to score early in the game …
“As I said to you earlier when we weren’t scoring goals, we’re doing all the right things. We’re working on the relationships and sometimes it just takes a little while to find that rhythm and that feel. Sebastian has scored two goals now in the last three games. In 2005, Mark Burch barely score anything and then he scored almost every game and led us to a national title. So we believe in our players. We continue to believe in the process that has made Maryland soccer great, and I knew it was only a matter of time before the goals would start coming. They’re very timely right now.”
Maryland Student-Athletes
#99, Dayne St. Clair, R-Jr., GK
On his save and quick reaction …
“Yeah, so that ball came from a wide area and it went across, so I was actually shuffling across to get the ball because I didn’t think Andrew (Samuels) would get there. Then, in the last moment he just got his toe on it and unfortunately went towards the goal, but I just tried to react and thankfully I blocked it.”
On defending against a top-ranked scoring team …
“I mean, they’re a good team, but going into the game we knew that if we kept a clean sheet like we have done the last couple of games then we would have a good chance of coming out with the win. As soon as we saw Sebastion’s (Elney) goal, the backline just looked at each other and said this is our time to shine.”
On if he agreed with Elney that the team thought they would make it to the Final Four …
“A hundred percent.”
#9, Sebastian Elney, Sr., F
On his first wave of emotions …
“Just straight joy. Those last 10 seconds, just knowing that we were right there, that we’re headed to California, it was a feeling like no other. Never felt it before. We’re super excited going forward.”
On his goal …
“Yeah, we do it all the time in practice. Amar (Sejdic) is a great player. He had a great play there. I knew exactly where to go when he got the ball. He played it perfectly. I just took my touch and let it go far post and it went in and we celebrated like it was the national championship.”
On where he thought he would be now back in August …
“Right here. Right here.”
