After picking up a win and a loss in each of the season’s first three weekends, the Wisconsin men’s soccer team is looking to push its record above the .500 mark for the first time in 2004 when they play host to the IUPUI Jaguars tonight at 7 p.m. All students will receive free admission to the match with a valid UW ID.
Once again, keys for the Badgers will be starting off aggressively and finishing chances in the box, a recurring theme this season.
“We’re continually stressing the movement within our guys, the combinations, the ability for guys to get good services in the box and quality runs,” Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman said. “But, it does take a little bit of time. I thought we started out the year well with some nice goals, but we just have to continue that, continue with our concentration in the box and putting things on goal. I think there have been some games where we haven’t quite had that. We’ve had some opportunities, but we haven’t made their keeper make a whole lot of saves. So, we’ve got to do a little bit better there.”
In IUPUI, Wisconsin will face one of the nation’s most improved teams. Coming off of a disastrous 2-14-3 season a year ago, the Jaguars have rebounded with a young core of players to post a 5-1-0 record thus far in 2004. IUPUI is coming off of a 3-2 defeat against Butler, but are ranked seventh in the Great Lakes Region by NCSAA/Adidas. Wisconsin, in comparison, is tabbed tenth at the moment.
The Jaguars are led by a pair of Crown Point, Ind. natives: goalkeeper Peter Brasovan and midfielder Vangel Nacovski. Brasovan, who last year as a freshman stopped 10 shots in a 1-0 loss to eventual national champion Indiana, has recorded a pair of shutouts in 2004 to go along with a 1.32 goals against average. Nacovski enters Friday’s match as the nation’s leading goalscorer, tallying 11 goals in just six matches.
“[Nacovski]’s a good player,” Rohrman said. “He was a little bit under the radar coming out, growing up in northwest Indiana. He’s obviously finishing his chances well, and they’re finding him, so he’s had a good start. He’s going to have to be someone that we are concerned about and know where he’s at all times and all of that.”
Wisconsin is hoping to build some momentum in the next couple of matches before Big Ten play begins on Oct. 3, when the Badgers travel to Columbus for a fixture with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
“We do have to get on a bit of a run, and start getting over the hump a little bit,” Rohrman said. “IUPUI, they’re going to be a formidable opponent. They’ve really turned some things around; they’ve got some good wins this year. They played Butler tough over the weekend … they played them well. And right now they’re ranked a few places higher than we are in the region.”
For the Badgers, a win over a regional opponent like IUPUI could be the beginning of such a run.
“It’s really important (to beat a ranked team in our region),” Rohrman said. “I think we all felt we let one get away with Creighton, but we’re going to have other Creightons out there. There are a lot of good teams still left on our schedule that we can go out and put in a good performance, and hopefully come out on top of those games.”
