by Bryan Rose | October 29th, 2009
The Wisconsin Badgers men’s soccer team can be excused if they looked past Northern Illinois Wednesday night at home. The Badgers have bigger fish to fry this weekend, when they hook up with Penn State in the Big Ten season finale and a shot at the Big Ten crown on their minds.
With that in their sights, the Badgers came out and played a lackluster game on senior night, falling to the Huskies on a late goal.
“It was a game where we couldn’t find any rhythm, we were slow in transition, not sharp offensively and certainly didn’t get many scoring chances,” Wisconsin coach Todd Yeagley said in a post game report prepared by the University. “I just thought we didn’t bring the game we have been bringing for the last five or six games.”
Over the last five games prior to Wednesday’s contest, Wisconsin went 4-1 and outscored their opponents 8-3. That streak included wins over Northwestern and Michigan State and propelled the Badgers to the top of the Big Ten standings.
Wednesday, Wisconsin found little offense as the Badgers were out-shot by Northern Illinois 14-6 in the game and the Huskies’ goalie did not need to make a save to earn the win which means the Badgers had no shots on the net.
Northern Illinois found the net late in the game scoring with less than five minutes to play. Juan Hoyos scored the goal for the Huskies as he knocked the ball off the leg of a Wisconsin defender and the ball found its way into the net.
“Our team has been doing a really good job about being really sound in the back,” Yeagley said. “I still believe we’re learning and tonight, (Northern Illinois) capitalized on a mistake.”
Wisconsin will have to put this game behind them quickly as they will face off with Penn State on the road on Saturday.
The Badgers currently hold a two-point lead atop the Big Ten standings with nine points. Penn State and Northwestern are tied with seven points apiece. Teams get three points for a win and one point for a tie.
Both Penn State and Northwestern have two games left to play, while the Badgers will close out their season with the Nittany Lions. A win by Wisconsin and they can clinch at least a tie for second place in the regular season conference standings.
Wisconsin needs a win and at least one loss by Northwestern in its last two games to secure the conference title outright and give the Badgers the top seed heading into the conference tournament beginning Nov. 12.
Bryan Rose is a contributing writer to BadgerChatters.com. View Bryan's original work on the Wisconsin Badger Examiner website.
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