Coming off a well-played second half against No. 6 Indiana on Sunday, the Northwestern men’s soccer team should have been ready for Marquette.
But the defense fell down Wednesday, giving up three “soft” goals in the match.
“I’m disappointed,” coach Tim Lenahan said of the 3-0 defeat. “If we just work our butts off and compete, whether we lose 1-0, 2-0 or 3-0, I’ll live with that.
“But we didn’t do that today, and giving up soft goals is demoralizing. I’m a little frustrated.”
Lenahan wasn’t the only one frustrated with the loss to the Golden Eagles (7-4-1).
Freshman Matt Pyzyk, who hasn’t yet seen a victory at NU (0-10-2, 0-5 Big Ten), said the team needs to show more desire to win.
“We didn’t really come to play,” he said. “We have to decide when we want to win a game. In the past, we haven’t sacrificed enough.
“We need to sacrifice everything to win the game.”
Lenahan agreed that the team needs to develop a competitive spirit, regardless of statistics or final results.
“I don’t mind getting outshot 7-2, I don’t mind getting outshot 12-2 as long as there’s a fire in somebody’s belly,” Lenahan said. “How do you stoke that fire? I don’t have the answer for this team.”
In fact, the Wildcats were outshot 7-2 in the first half and 13-4 for the game, as they came out in a defensive frame of mind.
The Cats didn’t have an offensive possession for the first 8:25 of the game. Their best and only real scoring chance came with 11 minutes left in the first half on a breakaway by Jeremy Cook.
Marquette scored its first goal of the match at 42:01, when Zach McCallum knocked the ball in past goalie Ryan Pederson.
Pederson caught the ball in the air, but dropped it before making contact with a Marquette player. McCallum came from behind the play to get the score.
The Golden Eagles’ second tally came early in the second half on a header by freshman Chris Lee off of a throw-in by Brian Schnell.
Lee leads Marquette with five goals and four assists on the season.
“The first two goals were very suspect,” Lenahan said. “(On the first goal), Ryan’s got to catch that. The second goal, nobody marked up.”
McCallum came back and scored the Golden Eagles’ third goal of the match, on a rebound in front of the net. All season, Lenahan’s focus has been on defense and set pieces, but Wednesday’s match didn’t reflect that focus.
“Our set pieces were garbage. We worked for an hour and a half on set pieces yesterday, ” Lenahan said. “I’m very disappointed today, very disappointed.”
NU is expecting an improved performance after Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Indiana. The Cats played well after a 40-minute lightning delay, holding the Hoosiers scoreless in the second half.
But Wednesday’s 3-0 defeat looked nothing like Sunday’s.
“With a 3-0 loss, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about with Indiana,” Lenahan said. “(But) we can’t lose this game 3-0.”
One of the highlights from the Indiana game was Pederson’s play in net. He came in after the delay in relief of Adam Grossman, who had allowed all three goals.
Although Pederson started Wednesday’s match, the situation in goal is not settled for the Cats.
No matter how the goalkeeper situation works out, Lenahan said the team is eventually going to get that first victory, after 31 consecutive winless matches.
“I’m trying to find the combination to the lock and I have no idea what the numbers are,” he said. “So we just keep spinning and hopefully one of these times we’ll hear that little click.”
