The heat was both in the air and on the field Sept. 15 as the Thunder men’s soccer team took on the Durham Lords, resulting in a 2-2 tie.
The Thunder played a very heavy offensive, showing off some impressive passing skills. They struggled, however, to put the ball past the Lords’ goalie.
A weakness in their defense resulted in the Lords stealing two goals, one halfway through the first half and another at the beginning of the second half.
“I think it’s obvious, to put the ball in the back of the net has kind of been our issue so far this year,” said Thunder coach Mike Gagliano. “We need to work on some tacking patterns, trying to get guys comfortable with certain roles and making sure that we’re executing on the game plans that we put in place. I think that’s really what the main focus is. We’ve had some unlucky breaks and differences in perspective, but other than that it’s been mostly a stalemate going forward.”
Differences in perspective were a big issue, especially for the Thunder, as there were many angry comments directed towards the referee resulting in four yellow cards to players through the game.
“It was just that I don’t think we wanted it as much as the other team,” said Gagliano. “A little lackluster. Sometimes you’ve got to go through your bumps before you can get to where you want to be so that’s just part of the process, but we have a little bit of work to do on the training ground and hopefully we can turn things around a little bit.”