After breaking a nearly three-week scoring drought Friday against Boston College, No. 15 Duke appeared to have fallen back into a rut Tuesday.
Despite a strong offensive performance by the Blue Devils—holding possession for the majority of the game and outshooting George Washington 30-4—they were not able to capitalize. The game remained scoreless through double overtime, ending in a 0-0 draw.
Duke controlled the field for the first and second half, but could not finish any of its shots in the final third.
“The final pass at times was waning, and we didn’t have enough aggressiveness toward the goal in the final cross,” head coach John Kerr said. “Our approach play to the final third and into the box was pretty good, but we have to do better in front of goal if we’re going to win games.”
The Blue Devil offense appeared stagnant at times in the first half, with little movement on passes and no aggressive drives to the goal. Even when Duke was able to get within the box, the Blue Devils were unable to find the back of the net.
In the 13th minute, Issa Rayyan missed on a ball from Max Moser. Rayyan had another shot on goal 15 minutes later, but Colonial goalie Thor Arne Hofs caught it head-on. In the 19th minute, Daniele Proch had a similar outcome when he couldn’t find the back of the net off Moser’s cross.
Duke goalie Will Pulisic had a great save around the 30th minute after a George Washington breakaway culminated in a shot from right outside the goal box. Pulisic laid out to keep the Colonials (4-3-1) from scoring a goal. George Washington had very little possession for the majority of the first half.
In the final 10 minutes of the first half, the Blue Devils (4-2-1) saw two shots soar above the cross bar, one off a corner kick and the other from outside the box.
“We told them at halftime to be aggressive, get towards the box, create havoc, and make them commit themselves and figure out little openings from there,” Kerr said. “And we did a good job of that, we just didn’t finish. Sometimes games go like that but it’s happening too much for us, so we need to step that up…. If we’re going to win big games we have to score.”
The second half had more energy, but more of the same missed opportunities and inability to finish. Ian Murphy headed the ball straight at the goalie off a cross to open up the second half with some Blue Devil momentum.
Rayyan missed wide left, placing the ball right at the left side of the goal after dribbling it in, but had no one there to finish off the run. Ciaran McKenna sent one flying towards the goalie after dribbling it down from midfield.
In the 65th minute, the Blue Devils saw another almost-goal, after a cross from Rayyan to Proche ended with a header wide right. On the other end of the field, Pulisic blocked a ball that would have resulted in a Colonial goal, tipping it right over the cross bar.
Along with their trouble finishing plays with goals, the Blue Devils seemed to struggle with positioning off crosses. Rayyan crossed the ball in the latter part of the second half, and had someone been at the opposite goal post, the Blue Devils could have seen a different outcome.
“Making our runs at the back post, at times we were there and we had some opportunities…” Kerr said. “But at other times, we miss that back post run and if we make that run there’s a lot of reward there.”
One of Duke’s closest attempts came off a free kick with less than five minutes to go in regulation, with Moser sending the ball just wide right. Minutes later the Blue Devils got another chance, with Kris Gardarsson rocketing one over the bar—less than 15 feet from the goal.
After regulation ended in a scoreless tie, the Blue Devils went into the first overtime. Proch had a free kick just outside the box to the top right corner of the goal, which was just tipped by the Colonial goalie. Proch ended the game with eight shots, four of which were on goal.
The second overtime saw more shots, but with no reward.
The Blue Devils will continue conference play on the road Saturday evening against Wake Forest.
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