Well, it wasn’t pretty, but the Maryland men’s soccer team got a goal midway through the second half and held on to grind out a 1-0 victory over North Carolina to win the national championship. GO TERPS!

Graham Zusi scored the game’s only goal after Jeremy Hall’s shot bounced off the UNC goalkeeper and went right to him. He collected the carom and rolled it into the corner of the net. Sweet. Zusi has to be the tourney MVP — he scored the only goal against St. John’s, too.

Both teams were clearly gassed after having just played on Friday, and stiff winds hampered the ball movement. So it was definitely a, uh, defensive struggle. But that seemed to play into the Terps’ hands…they were on the Tar Heels like glue. UNC didn’t even get a shot off in the first half and never really threatened. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Terps, with the ”let’s go Maryland” chants raining down from the opening seconds. It was awesome to see our fans out in force like that.

No comment yet from Maryland head coach Joseph Tribbiani, but I imagine it will be something regarding Italian food and sexual conquests, in keeping with his unique brand of happy-go-lucky misogynism. In the meantime, HUGE congratulations to the entire team. Football may not have gone the way we wanted, and the basketball team is anybody’s guess, but between this and field hockey, the Terps have two titles so far this year. Not too shabby. GO TERPS!!!

(Photo credit: UMTerps.com)