Coming off our most complete performance of the season in the 6-1 victory over ACC foe Syracuse, No. 2 Clemson (10-2-2, 5-2-0) welcomes our last non-conference opponent of the regular season Wofford (6-5-2) to Historic Riggs Field on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
First, to put a bow on that magnificent performance against the Orange, man, everything just worked. Sure, it helped when Syracuse’s Michael Acquah and his five assists on the season went out with a straight red in the 15th minute, but we were already up 1-0.
Clemson had
Alex Meinhard’s breakaway from a brilliant pass from Joran Gerbet to open the scoring 108 seconds into the game. Then, as the Tigers have been want to do, they scored in bunches.
Wahabu Musah finished another great cross from Remi Okunlola to double the lead and then Clemson added three more goals in the next 11-minutes, 26-seconds.
The brace and
hat trick from Meinhard made it 4-0 before a PK from Cuse made it 4-1 in the 36th minute.
Goals from Tyler Trimnal and Antonio Illuminato capped the scoring.
We have scored 12 goals in the last two games with 10 different goal scorers, while getting 23 players into each game for some minutes. Gerbet and Okunlola each have had three assists the last two games as well.
We are rolling right in time for the postseason. We are now 5th in the country in goal differential at +25, which is third in the ACC behind Duke and Pitt. During our five-game win streak, we are +15 in goal differential.
Prick(s) of the Game is going – and I mean no offense to them – the broadcast booth. Yes, it was a blowout, and it can be hard to fill dead air – I’ve been there. But goodness, quit trying to make fetch happen by insisting Cuse could get back in the game. Also, I don’t think they were in the booth – they were doing it remotely, which is even harder.
IMHO, play by play person in soccer should be doing a majority of the talking explaining who has the ball. Color commentator should pipe in occasionally. We don’t need 90+ minutes of constant talking.
So, now Wofford comes to town. The Terriers did draw 0-0 at Wake on Oct. 8, but also lost to ETSU, Longwood and Furman since then with wins against UNCG and Mercer. Just need to TCB and move on to the regular season finale at Virginia Tech.
The Terriers have only scored 11 goals in 13 games with Thaddeus Dennis, Magnus Kjoller and Declan Mettee each with two goals. Jakob Andersson has four assists.
Looking at the final week of ACC regular season play, the Tigers are well positioned, but the job isn’t done yet. Pitt is the only team that has clinched a top 4 seed and is locked into a top 2 seed. We are the only team that can knock them from the perch, but would need some help.
The Panthers sit with 18 points and a +10 goal differential (second tiebreaker behind head-to-head). Clemson is second with 15 points (+7), UNC at 13 (+3) and at 12 points are Stanford (+2) and Duke (+2). A draw at VT would clinch the second seed.
There are still nine teams that are still mathematically eligible for a top 4 seed. But Clemson could also finish 5th with a loss at VT and wins from UNC (v. BC), Stanford (v. Cal) and Duke (v. ND) on Friday. As long as one of those teams doesn’t win, we will be a top 4 seed no matter the result in Blacksburg.
I’ll save some of the RPI stuff for Thursday and what it looks like for the national tournament at the moment.
On Tuesday, Clemson’s Jackson Wrobel will be going up against his old teammates after transferring in from Wofford before last season. He scored six goals and had seven assists as a sophomore at Wofford in 2022 in 17 games – that will get you some attention, making the First Team All-Southern Conference.
At Clemson, the senior from Madison, Ala., kept up his prowess for scoring and assisting with four goals and three assists in just 23 games and six starts. He’s averaging 1.63 points per 90 minutes in his career at Clemson – which is even higher than those big numbers he had his sophomore year at Wofford.
Go Tigers! Beat Wofford!
theacc.com
