With a five game road trip on the horizon, the Wisconsin men’s soccer team on Sunday made sure they gave fans at the McClimon Memorial Track/Soccer Complex enough drama to last for the duration of their absence in the 3-2 overtime victory over DePaul.
After giving up a pair of goals early, the Badgers found themselves trailing 2-1 at the half.
“I walked into the locker room at half,” head coach John Trask said, “I told them, ‘Guys, the game is there for the taking, you’re fresher than you’ve ever been because we’ve been cycling guys in and out.’ There’s a lot of good pieces and depth where we can overcome a deficit when we’re tired like we were today.”
Taking coach’s words to heart, the Badgers went on the attack for the majority of the second half as they recorded 13 of their 19 shots and six of their eight corner kicks in the second 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the Cardinal and White could not capitalize on any of these opportunities until the waning moments of the game.
Thanks to a 60th-minute red card given to Koray Yesilli of DePaul, the Badgers found themselves at the luxury of a man-up advantage.
“Being down to 10-men, it’s not always the case that one team dominates,” Trask said. “It’s not like hockey where there’s a power play, but we made it a power play because of how we were pushing the ball and how focused we were. I think we just wore on [DePaul] psychologically and physically throughout that second half.”
Despite dominating time of possession and the pace of play throughout the majority of the second half, the Badgers still found themselves without a goal with just 10 seconds remaining in regulation. As the clock counted down, freshman goalkeeper Casey Beyers launched a goal kick three-quarters of the way down the field where the ball made its way to sophomore midfielder Anders Kristensen, and then freshman forward Nick Jones for a cross to the right side of the box where redshirt senior midfielder Tomislav Zadro sent a strike into the back of the net with just one second remaining on the game clock.
“It was a great team play and I just happened to be at the end of it,” Zadro said of his second goal in the past two games. “I think that we were the better team on the day and we deserved to win this game so the ball going into the back of the net on the last play of regulation was everything finally coming together for us.”
For many, the sequence looked as if it was a set play with the level of perfection that it was run to, but senior captain Paul Yonga implied luck had a little bit to do with it.
“I don’t think it was a set play,” Yonga said with a smile on his face. “We were just trying to get the ball down the field as fast as we could, keep fighting, and we won the slip ball in order to get a good cross where Zadro was waiting on the far side of the post.”
Whether luck had anything to do with it or not, the Badgers took advantage in the overtime period as Zadro was again involved, but this time as the facilitator to sophomore Jacob Brindle for a header to give Wisconsin the 3-2 victory.
Wisconsin travels south for a Florida two-step as they take on two NCAA tournament teams from last season in South Florida (Thursday) and Florida Gulf Coast (Saturday). The Badgers are ready for the challenge as they are loaded with confidence and nothing but good vibes as they are off to a 2-0-1 start to their 2013 season.
“I told the guys that this club has gotten to the point where I would love to play on the team,” Trask said. “From a coaching standpoint that’s the ultimate compliment because I’m a former player, and now I’m beginning to wish that I had some years of eligibility remaining.”
Junior defender JunHo Seok injured his left foot after colliding with DePaul goalkeeper Eric Sorby late in the second half. Seok left the field in a walking boot and crutches and will go for an X-Ray on Monday.
