The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Fighting Phoenix (0-1-1), come to McClimon Soccer Complex tonight to take on the Badgers (2-2-0) in the teams’ first meeting of the season.
Both UW and UW-GB are coming off disappointing Sunday losses. After a 3-2 come-from-behind victory against UNLV Friday, UW lost 1-0 to Mount St. Mary (2-2-0) at the UNLV tournament. The Phoenix also came up short in their game against Bowling Green, losing 3-0. Both teams can be measured by their play against Northern Illinois earlier season. UW earned their first win of the season against NIU, while UW-GB played them to a 2-2 tie.
UW-GB is one of three in-state rivals that UW will face this season (Marquette and UW-Milwaukee are the other two). The in-state competition has typically resulted in intense and exciting action.
“Certainly there is the tradition, history and the rivalry. So it does not take much to get the guys motivated and inspired to play against one of the other state schools,” head coach Jeff Rohrman said.
UW junior forward/midfielder, Nick Van Sicklen commented on the distinction of playing another University of Wisconsin team: “I think the rivalry definitely is larger for in-state competition compared to the out-of-state solely because the in-state guys have played against most of these guys in the past, and it’s kind of like, ‘who’s turf is it?'”
Tradition aside, UW has unfinished business to take care of, dating back to its match last fall against UW-GB.
Although the Badgers out-shot the Phoenix 20-8, they were unable to put any of their shots in the back of the net as UW-GB eventually gained the victory on a sudden-death overtime goal in the 95th minute. Last year’s tough loss is still in the minds of many UW players as they prepare for the rematch.
“I think emotionally definitely [last year’s game] will be a huge factor,” said Van Sicklen. “We want to come out fast and come out hard. I think that is going to probably be a big change from last year where I thought we played them a little soft.”
Head coach Jeff Rohrman described his players’ emotions after last season’s loss, “They remember how lonely and long that bus ride felt from Green Bay, especially when we felt we had outplayed them for a majority of that game but could not do enough in the final third to get the goal. There is going to be an extra hop in their step Wednesday when it comes time to play.”
In preparation for Wednesday’s match, UW will be looking to tune up their offense.
“We are mainly looking at making some changes in our attack because we have struggled, aside from the three goals against UNLV,” Rohrman said. “We are still one goal [away] in those three other games and haven’t really put it together on the attack as well as we should. So we may make some changes there. If our backs can play as strong as they have shown they can play, I think we are going to be just fine. We have too many good players here to not score goals.”
Van Sicklen will be keying in on offense as well.
“I look to be the one who creates the offense and get other guys involved and put some points on the board,” the UW junior said.
The Badgers will have to match the intensity of the Fighting Phoenix if they hope to come away with a victory.
“They’re going to be well organized. They definitely are going to be an inspired group; they are going to work hard and fight for each other and have a lot of high team spirit.” Rohrman said. “I think they are a team we are capable of doing pretty well against. We just have to match that intensity, that team spirit and energy, right from the start.”
UW hopes a year of training and experience will set them apart from UW-GB from the opening kickoff to the final whistle.
“As a team, I think, compared to last year, we are a lot deeper. We are a lot stronger on the ball, we keep [the ball] better and play better soccer overall.”
