No elaborate intro this week, you all know what happened. What a Friday night in Evanston.
This game was many things. It was the game to end a three-game winless run. It was the most impressive win in the Russell Payne era and his second ranked win in his last two attempts. It marked the first time that Northwestern took down a top five team in a decade, and simultaneously was Maryland’s worst regular season loss since the turn of the decade.
None of those statistics really come close to doing it justice.
I’m only a sophomore. Purely based on expectations going into the game, I don’t think it’s absurd to say this is the most impressive regular season win from any Northwestern team (lacrosse and field hockey excluded) since I’ve been on campus.
When I wrote about this team’s schedule this season, I picked out games against high-level teams and labeled them “take the leap” matchups; games that no one really should expect the ’Cats to win except for the people in the building every single day. I picked out Michigan and No. 11 UCLA as the matches for that category.
“A place near the top of the B1G standings is there for the taking, and teams of that caliber aren’t satisfied with just competing or narrowly losing these kinds of fixtures, they go into them expecting to win, I said. ”If the ’Cats want to place themselves amongst the heavy hitters of the conference, these games will be where they do it.”
Even giving my most ambitious, optimistic look at the year ahead, I didn’t think this game was going to be a win. When Northwestern has never held a three goal lead over Maryland in any recorded game ever before this, you can understand why it’s hard to describe the feeling everyone had watching Ethan Nakolo perfectly place a header to make it 4-0 with more than twenty minutes left to play.
Forget about the approach, forget about the tactical setup, forget even about the actual objective performance that took place on the field. Put it to the side for just a little, it’ll get talked about later. This is a game that you feel before you analyze or think about. This is the game that makes everyone throw out those season previews I just made reference to. For as long as Payne stays as head coach of the ’Cats, he can look at his team, in whatever variation it may be in, and point to this game as a way of saying what is possible.
On Friday in Evanston this team broke through whatever ceiling anyone had for them going into the year. The dream is that soon the standard will resemble this ceiling.
But enough waxing lyrical, let’s talk about the on-field product now.
Payne’s Approach
I don’t know if Payne is a poker man, but if he isn’t he should really take up the hobby because the entire game plan was centered around calling Maryland’s bluff.
It mostly focused on the press. Against the Evansvilles and New Havens of the world NU can afford to be more unrelenting in its pursuit of the ball without truly being worried about a counter attack or being played through. That approach wasn’t going to cut it against the Terrapins, so the ’Cats had to be strategic and pick its spots to pounce. Here is an example to illustrate.
Nakolo starts the press here because the ’Cats have a numbers advantage on that side of the pitch, and there is a clear direction the ball can be forced.
When the ball gets moved, Marco Silva takes the next man. With the sideline squeezing him in, he has no other option but to send the ball forward.
When that happens Johnson and Fisher pounce fly to meet the ball and force a throw-in for NU.
But because the front line pressed less often, the team could fall back into a 4-4-2 shape out of possession. NU chose to essentially pack the middle and force Maryland to play through them.
The Terrapins tried, the Terrapins failed. The NU midfield and defense stayed extremely organized in its block and Maryland could never cut through. Any errant touch and multiple NU players swarmed on the mistake. This sped up the internal clock of the Maryland players. Pockets of space were so few and far between that they went quicker than really had to; attempting one-touch passes that resulted in errors.
The Terrapins really never found a way through. Even in the second half when they picked up their individual play, none of their efforts were real clear cut chances. Defenders were throwing themselves into blocks, Terrapin players were taking wild shots out of frustration at not being able to create.
It’s a decision that goes against how NU has set up all season long, but it makes sense. It would have made sense to expect to have less of the ball against this team.
The lineup changes are where this philosophy becomes even more clear. I don’t think Payne expected the team to create as many chances as it did, so he put in a starting lineup that was best equipped to make the most of the ones it did get.
O’Reilly-Nakolo-Riesz-Millar is the most direct front four that Payne could have put out, and it worked wonders. There was a specific chance in the first half where O’Reilly got the ball from Johnson on a counter, and just drove at his man, cut inside, and let off a shot that whistled past the post. For how good they are creatively, that’s just not what you would see out of Glassberg, Silva or Barrett.
The first goal was Payne’s dream manifest. NU forces a throw in from timely pressure, and off that throw in three separate Wildcats pounce on the player receiving the ball and eliminate his options. From then on the ball is moved quickly forward and the front three are racing in transition. From then on it is all about technical skill from the forwards. O’Reilly’s run drags a defender with him because he’s so dangerous in front of the net. And Peter Riesz is able to slow down and use the extra time to smash it into the top corner. Northwestern’s front three ran at the number two team in the nation and outclassed them to open the scoring.
Honestly, all three open play goals were basically carbon copies of each other, just with the ball being won further up the pitch each time.
The key to it all was Northwestern winning basically every aerial duel. Volmar and Johnson especially were cutting out nearly every long ball, which forced the Terrapins to have to play through NU, just like Payne dared them to.
This was a performance that doesn’t happen without a lot of faith, and honestly confidence, coming from the man in charge. Payne may not be a betting man, but he struck gold with his approach to this game.
MOTM: Evrit Fisher [2x MOTM, 3x total Top 5]
Picking a defensive midfielder as the MOTM in a game where the attack scored four goals should be a laughable idea, but Fisher was that good today. He was the key reason why NU’s defense suffocated the Terrapins, he covered so much ground and it felt like he won the ball back a million times in this match. His workrate allowed the ball to get to the attackers and allow them to do their thing. The fourth goal is as much of a highlight for him as it is for Nakolo.
Top 5 Performers
Andrew Johnson [1x MOTM, 4x total top 5]
Industrious as always, cut out a million long balls it felt like and did well getting the ball up to O’Reilly in the first half with well placed through balls.
Peter Riesz x2
Was the MOTM of the first half. Scored a goal of the season contender and continued to be dangerous throughout the half both in build up and with his shots on goal. Cooled off a bit in the second half but still worthy of a top five finish.
Fritz Volmar x2
Is always very good dealing with long balls towards him, this was another game where he didn’t put a foot wrong.
Ethan Nakolo
was consistently a threat running at defenders with the ball at his feet, took his goal extremely well, added an assist, and was a narrow offside away from a brace. He’s fully arrived now.
A performance like this warrants honorable mentions. Gabriel Smyth was also very good defensively alongside Fisher in the middle of the park. Found himself in some advanced positions which I would like to see more of. Aaron O’Reilly was a top 5 performer in the first half where he was just relentlessly running at his man at every opportunity. Bryant Mayer was stout defensively, and Andrew Millar was very good out of possession with his pressing, while also getting on the score sheet. He’s had his two best games as Wildcat in back to back fixtures. I’m probably being harsh on Millar by not having him in the top 5, but there were too many quality performances to choose from.
Looking Forward
Two obvious questions.
The first: can NU play like this consistently? If you want my honest answer, I believe it potentially could. I’ve been on record saying that most of the goals conceded this year have been of the unforced error variety, whether that be from poor giveaways or goalkeeping woes. I think a smart, defensively sound game like this is possible.
The second question is should they play like this more often, and abandon the possession-based, ambitious style Payne opened up with. Honestly I don’t think Payne has a choice in this regard. If you look at the upcoming schedule, this week features another game against a top 10 team in the country, this time on the road. Given the success the squad just had playing on the counter, I don’t think Payne would really want to go into East Lansing and try to dominate the Spartans in the possession category. Especially considering there was a notable drop off in chance creation in this game when the front four of Glassberg-Penders-Addimandi-Silva instead of the starters.
As for what can be expected from the rest of the schedule, there are still trips to Bloomington and Columbus that have to be dealt with, two teams that are currently top five in the nation. No. 11 UCLA pays a visit, as well as the Wolverines who have two losses on the season; one of which to ranked Indiana (by one goal) and the other to the same Notre Dame team NU played off the pitch for 45 minutes.
Any points from those away trips should be massive, and like I said about a month ago, UCLA and Michigan are games where the ’Cats have opportunities to take that next step into elite status.
But regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, they took a massive step already on Friday. It’s Payne’s job to keep the squad focused on the weeks ahead. But for all of us watching, we’ll spend a long time talking about how the brightest stars on that Friday in Evanston weren’t the ones in the sky, but rather the ten men in purple who gave us a night we’ll never forget.
Rest in Power, Ronnie Bouemboue.
