|
|
| |
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Playing before a partisan crowd of 4,661 at Armstrong Stadium, the Indiana Hoosiers men's soccer team dropped a 2-0 decision to the U-20 Mexican Youth National Team Tuesday night. This was the fourth-straight season that IU and Mexico have matched up in exhibition play, with Mexico winning three of the four meetings.
"I am very proud of the way we played tonight." said head coach Mike Freitag. "I do not think we played well the first 35 minutes. But I think the last 10 minutes of the first half and in the second half we got after it. I am happy with the way we went about our work. You are going to get better by playing opponents like this.
"We enjoy this game and we want to thank the crowd that came out. I am glad we can get the Hispanic community to come out and be a part of IU. It is a game we hope will continue and we know we will always get a quality opponent when we play them."
Mexico's goals were bookends to what was a competitive game, dominated in several stretches by the Hoosiers. The visitors took a 1-0 lead at 11:33 as Moises Herrera rolled around IU's Daniel Kelly on the left side and shoved the ball past Hoosier goalkeeper Chay Cain, slotting it into the lower right corner.
That seemed to spark the IU attack as they created several scoring threats but were unable to finish the play. At 29:50, Kevin Noschang had an open net in front of him but received the ball at a bad angle and sent his attempt wide. Just a few minutes later a neatly-played ball through the middle landed at the feet of Noschang but again the shot sailed wide.
Later in the half it was John Mellencamp who freed himself from the Mexico defense but put a hook on his attempt that curved the ball out of play. With just three minutes to play in the half, the Hoosiers put together a solid build up with Noschang playing the ball up to Billy Weaver, but Weaver was ruled offsides on the pass. The half ended with the teams tied at six shots apiece and one save each for Cain and Mexico goalkeeper Miguel Baez.
Cain was put to the test early in the second stanza as his reflexes were challenged on a shot from Arnold Martinez. A long ball was played from Baez in goal to Martinez, but Cain was ready for the line drive that shot his way. IU nearly came up with an equalizer as freshman Tyler McCarroll, who earned the start on the back line, crossed the ball in front of the net but was just a touch early for the streaking Mellencamp.
Another close call for the Hoosiers came at 58:49 as Noschang gave service to Neil Wilmarth right in front of the goal, but Baez managed to scramble for the ball on the ground and IU was not positioned to play the bobbled ball back into the net.
"My job as a forward is to take the chances and unfortunately I just couldn't get one to go tonight," Noschang said. "I do think we had the better of the chances in the first and second half, but they were very clinical."
Hoosier fans thought the game was as good as tied in the 65th minute when Weaver was taken down in the box and a penalty kick was awarded. With Baez dancing in front of the net looking to throw off Weaver, the IU junior hit a low, hard shot that Baez managed to deflect to keep Indiana off the scoreboard.
In all, Indiana finished with 13 shots compared to 14 for Mexico and tallied two corner kicks to Mexico's three. Noschang, Weaver and Eric Alexander led the Indiana attack with three attempts each.
Cain tacked on two more big saves with a deflection of a Luis Ochoa shot. On the ensuing corner kick, Antonio Castillo had a solid angle on the upper right before Cain got a hand up for the save. Cain finished the evening with five saves while Baez tallied four.
Mexico's second tally came in stoppage time as seven minutes were tacked on at the end of the match. Jesus Manzo broke free and kicked in another score in the lower right.
"Playing in front of a crowd like we had tonight gets you pumped no matter who they are cheering for," Cain said. "We got to see what other countries experience on an everyday basis with people cheering on one team and rooting against another. Very rarely do you get that in the United States. That environment is uplifting for everyone and it is something you have to get used to."
|
|
|
Latest Headlines
Resources
|
|
