Sasho Cirovski's outburst that prompted the Maryland men's soccer coach's ejection from yesterday's 2-1 loss to UCLA was likely motivated by a lot more than a second-half no-call when Domenic Mediate fell down in the box.
Not known for their physical play, the Terps and UCLA combined for 31 fouls in the NCAA semifinal. The Bruins had 19, and seemed to irritate Maryland with a couple of hard fouls, including two in a 30-second span of the first half.
The first came after Maryland defender Clarence Goodson and UCLA forward Cliff McKinley got tangled up and fell to the ground. The replays showed that McKinley kicked Goodson in the groin while the two were on the ground.
Goodson, who was writhing in pain for nearly a minute, received the yellow card. Ty Keough, who announced the game for ESPN2, said that McKinley deserved a red card, but the Bruin was unapologetic.
"Being physical is actually one of my strong suits," he said. "It gets me involved in the game."
On the next rush up the field, Terps junior midfielder Scott Buete was kicked in the head by the Bruins' Ryan Futagaki, who was given a card.
As for what got Cirovski ejected, nobody seemed to know, although an NCAA official said the coach used foul and abusive language to the assistant referee.
"I was sitting on the bench, and I didn't here any of it," said UCLA coach Tom Fitzgerald. "Probably in his situation, I would have said something as well."
Eye on the future
After the Terps' 1-0 overtime loss to Loyola last season, Cirovski raised eyebrows when he said: "Things happen for a reason. This will make us tougher. It will make us hungrier, and this team will be heard from in a very loud way. In the next two years, we will bring a national championship trophy to College Park. And if we don't, they can fire me."
He was at it again yesterday.
When asked to reflect on the season, he said: "We're going to get better, we're young, and we have no seniors. We're going to be back in the College Cup, and we're going to be playing two more games next time."
Homecoming headache
Mediate was under the microscope yesterday.
Not only did the midfielder score the game-winning goals in the Terps' NCAA victories over American, Saint Louis and Connecticut, but he was making his return to Texas, where he was a standout at Southlake Carroll.
He received a loud ovation in pregame introductions, but he was relatively quiet after that, aside from a couple of dangerous second-half runs.