This weekend the UW men’s soccer team will try to reverse its recent string of bad luck and bad results as they head to East Lansing, MI, Sunday to face Big Ten rival Michigan State.
The Badgers have lost four straight games including games against Big Ten opponents Indiana and Michigan. The team’s record currently stands at 7-8-0 in overall play and 1-3-0 in Big Ten play this season.
The Spartans are in the midst of a great season. They are currently in second place in the Big Ten standings as they have posted a 9-5-0 overall record and a 3-2-0 record in Big Ten play. The Spartans also recently defeated the Michigan 2-1, after the Wolverines lost to UW last weekend 3-2. The Spartans are currently ranked No. 5 by the National College Soccer Coaches Assosciation in the Great Lakes region.
This match will have a major effect on how the teams are seeded in the upcoming Big Ten tournament.
A win for the Spartans would improve their chances for a second place finish in the league, thus avoiding a potential clash with perennial power Indiana University, the No. 1 seed, in the second round of the tournament.
A strong finish to the Big Ten season, followed by a run in the tournament, would boost the Spartans’ likelihood of receiving an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament to be held in December.
Likewise, for the Badgers this game also has a great deal of importance. The team currently stands with a 1-3 Big Ten record, tied with Michigan and one game ahead of conference cellar-dwellers, 0-3 Northwestern.
A win against Michigan State will guarantee that the Badgers will not receive the lowest seed in the conference tournament. A loss, however, sets the Badgers up for match the following week against Northwestern. This game will likely decide which team will get the bottom seed for the tournament and earn a first round date with national juggernaut Indiana.
The Badgers have plenty of problems to worry about this weekend. The emergence of freshman Pat Cronan, who last weekend showed he is a serious offensive force, has helped the Badgers with their recent scoring woes.
“He looks so confident out there,” says head coach Jeff Rohrman. “He just likes to go out there and have fun, and he has shown that he can be productive, both scoring goals and helping other guys get goals too.”
It was the combination of Cronan and senior co-captain Valentine Anozie that looked the most dangerous for the Badgers last weekend and who put an end to the Badgers’ three-game scoreless streak.
“Valentine is just so dangerous,” says Rohrman. “He is an outstanding talent, a great athlete, and he sees the game so well”.
The duo works well together because they are opposites of one another. Cronan is tall, a great defending attacker, and feisty, a bulldog on the field. Anozie is short, he has great skill and footwork, and his explosiveness makes him a hard player to defend.
For the Badgers to win this weekend, these two need to find the rhythm that they had working together in the second half against Michigan last weekend, when they combined for two goals in a ten-minute span.
“We don’t like to put too much pressure on ourselves for any particular game,” said Rohrman. “We don’t like to put [the] importance of one game over any other so that we don’t let ourselves down, we take one game at a time”.
But in the back of their heads, the Badgers know that this Sunday is a must-win. To regain their footing in the Big Ten and to get a respectable seed for the tournament, their path goes through East Lansing.
