D’Agostino Claims First Win, Eagles Thrash Merrimack 4–0
By: Theodore Steinke
Boston College Men’s Soccer defeated a 10-men Merrimack team 4–0 on Thursday night. This was the first game in charge for newly appointed interim head coach Francesco D’Agostino. Conor Gibson, Mortitz Gundelach, and Christian Bejar all captained the side.
Per BC_MSoccer on X
Merrimack went down to 10 men in less than a minute, and it could be said that they felt that disparity very early on. The Eagles went up 3-0 before the end of the first half.
Ismail Dia opened his collegiate account, having transferred from Siena this offseason. He fired home from close range during some chaos in the box following a corner kick. Then, two goals from Russel Brown and Dylan Mafong in quick succession put this game out of reach for the Warriors.
BC controlled the majority of play, having 12 shots to Merrimack’s three, and four corners to Merrimack’s one.
Tactically, it’s hard to quite pin down exactly what D’Agostinos intentions were, considering BC played against 10 men for essentially the whole game. The formation, though fluid throughout, seemed to be a 4-4-2 Diamond with Mafong as a free roaming CAM, and Michael Asare and Charlie Pons as a fluid front two.
Mafong was given freedom to roam, mainly finding space on the left hand side of the field, consistently drifting to the wide space. His ability to find this space, and exploit it, allowed him to put the ball in the box for Russel Brown’s goal, and to take on a Merrimack defender before unleashing his own long range effort for BC’s third goal. However, he was also dropping in very deep and receiving the ball from the center backs and full backs.
Bryan Toro, who started the game as the left CM also ended up playing in a more free role. Toro and Mafong were switching between playing in a deeper role, playing as a more classic number 8, and playing as a left winger.
The fullbacks, Christian Bejar (LB) and Finn Henze (RB) both pushed high up the field both in narrow positions and in more inverted roles, allowing the midfielders to put more pressure on the defensive line.
For a very narrow formation, a lot of the Eagle’s attacks and creativity came from wide positions. It’s difficult to say that any of this would still happen in an 11 on 11 game. However, it does seem like Mafong’s role was always going to be a free-roaming attacking midfielder, with a lot of freedom.
A 4-4-2 Diamond relies heavily on all of the midfield players to dictate play and use their overload in the middle of the pitch to their advantage. The entire midfield seemed to be set up from the start with a lot of different dynamics available, including how they play with each other but also how they play with the attack. Michael Asare, for example, demonstrated very good hold up play, allowing midfielders to get forward, while also being able to run on to the ball and carry it forward after receiving it from the midfield.
Regardless of whether or not they’re playing against 11 players, this is a very dynamic soccer team. They’re built to do a lot of different things. It makes them unpredictable, a constant threat. It’s going to be an exciting season.