In a sport where so few goals are scored, a single goal can oftentimes make the difference. Unfortunately for the Wisconsin men’s soccer team, goals have been hard to come by.
This season, the Badgers have a whopping 50 less shots than their opponents. Comparatively, they are the only team in the Big Ten to have fewer shots per game than their opponents, averaging just over three less shots.
In Big Ten play, the Badgers have sometimes struggled to even get a handful of chances against opponents, taking only 3 shots in a 1-0 loss to Northwestern.
“We talk about it all the time, and it is something we are working on,” head coach John Trask said. “But last year we would never have gotten 20 shots against that Ohio State team. I like that; that is improvement. … Still, we’re not going to get where we want to get, which is the NCAA tournament in a week and a half, if we don’t find some goals.”
Still, the coaches and players are quick to argue that shots aren’t everything. Unlike many other sports, soccer is best judged from a more holistic view; the overall play of the game can tell more about how a team is doing than any single statistic.
“The game has an ebb and a flow to it,” Trask said. “Of course you wish you could start smacking balls at the goal from the first minute. Unfortunately, that definitely doesn’t happen in the Big Ten; it’s not the nature of the beast here. … There is a fine line. If you go for it early in a game and try to get a lot of shots, there is the chance that you get exposed at the back.”
Up until the last few weeks, this game plan largely led to success. The number of shots did not seem to be a cause for concern for the Badgers, and they were still managing to win games despite being outshot. Against Michigan Oct. 9, Wisconsin was outshot 23-6 but still outlasted the Wolverines to pull off a 2-1 win.
On the other hand, more shots will not necessarily fix their scoring woes. Against Ohio State Sunday, the Badgers mustered 20 shots but were still unable to mount a comeback and score, losing 2-0.
In NCAA soccer, a good team shooting percentage usually hovers around the ten percent mark, which means that a team that is regularly getting only a few shots per game is bound to go through dry spells where the goals seem few and far between.
Unfortunately for the Badgers, they have hit their dry spell at the wrong time of the season.
In four games over the last two weeks, the Badgers have been shutout three times and have only managed to score two goals, leading them to only one win in their last four tries. As the offense falters, the defense has been forced to pick up the slack in hopes that the offense might be able to snag just one.
“We have always felt that as long as we can do our job, no matter what the offense does, we have to stay strong and not give up any goals,” sophomore defender Paul Yonga said. “Yeah, it’s tough that were not getting goals, but we just gotta do our job, and hopefully we can keep our team in the game.”
Coming into their final game of the season, the Badgers, who have yet to come back from a deficit to win a game, will need to score early if they are to win a game against a Penn State squad that is still looking for its first conference win. Even if they do go down a goal, Trask believes it would be the perfect time to prove what this Badger team is truly capable of.
“We’ve talked about if we do go down a goal, how do we get that goal back,” Trask said. “Hopefully we won’t be down, but if we are, I hope that we are able to find it within ourselves that resolve to get a goal and turn the game around.”
