Catch of the Week: Men’s Football, the ‘Other’ Football, Is About to Surpass the Blue Devils Football Team

It’s been over a week now since the Duke football team won against then-No. 9 Clemson in an epic – and resounding – victory. Since then, football has become a very popular topic of conversation among students, and with good reason. It’s not every year that students take the field by storm, especially after the first game of the season. Despite the Blue Devils’ success thus far, I’m here to say that students should talk less about the football team and more about the “other” football team, or as most people call it , the Duke men’s soccer team.

Of course, it’s been well over 30 years since the men’s soccer team won the Blue Devils’ only national championship in 1986. To put that into perspective, that was when current head coach John Kerr played as team captain. Since then, the program has suffered tough losses in crucial games during disappointing but promising seasons. However, before drawing any conclusions, it is first worth examining Duke’s recent performance.

Last year, the Blue Devils lost a total of just two games out of 19, finishing with an impressive 13-2-4 record. Even more promising, the team finished the regular season undefeated for the first time since 1999. Sure, Duke lost players, including goalkeeper Eliot Hamill and midfielder Peter Stroud, but it also lost players. added players. Among them is freshman Ulfur Bjornsson, who earned National Team of the Week honors on Sept. 12 after scoring two goals and providing an assist. This gives a very good impression of Duke’s new starting forward.

Not only are veteran players like Nick Pariano – also named to the National Team of the Week on August 29 – and Forster Ajago playing at a consistently high level, but the team itself hasn’t lost a game in almost ‘a month. This could be an early indicator of the start of a new winning streak for the Blue Devils. Even if things go south and the team loses a few more points during the regular season, there’s still no good reason to believe they won’t be able to advance in the national tournament this year.

A characteristic of football is that the final score provides poor standards for defining how a match actually went, even though most people only care about how it ended. In this case, looking at the important games the team lost and tied this season and last should make students feel even more excited about the team this year.

Take, for example, No. 8 Duke’s only tie this season against Wofford. Even though both teams scored two goals, the Blue Devils clearly dominated the attack. They made more than four times as many shots as the Terriers all game — 18 to Wofford’s four. Even when Duke lost 3-2 last year in the NCAA Tournament to Creighton, the stats show the Blue Devils dominated the game. On the one hand, they took 22 corner kicks, the most in a game since September 5, 2017, compared to just three taken by the Blue Jays. Additionally, Duke made 19 total shots to Creighton’s eight. It’s true that these stats can’t undo what happened during the match, but they do show how dominant the team is generally against their opponents.

There has been a lot of noise around football recently. This could finally be the season where the Blue Devils manage to win the ACC, but the odds for the men’s soccer team to win are higher, considering the team’s success last year and their consistency these last years. Even if the season seems to be going in the right direction for the football team this year, don’t be surprised if the “other” football team ends up being more successful in the long run.