A lot of teams would love to have the shaky start to the season Northwestern is having. To the Wildcats, the season isn’t going to plan.
NU is ranked No. 25 in the country, and junior striker Matt Eliason managed an unheard-of seven goals in the team’s first four games and leads the Big Ten in scoring.
“We got off to a bit of a rough start,” sophomore midfielder Peter O’Neill said. “But we’re discovering who we are as a team, and things should look up in the future.”
NU has reason for high expectations: The team entered the season ranked ninth in the country after a season that saw the Cats win three tournament games to reach the NCAA quarterfinals. But while the 2008 team started off the season on a 13-game undefeated streak, the 2009 Cats got off to a dismal start by allowing three second-half goals in a tie at Green Bay and then losing to DePaul 2-1 at home.
The team chalks up their underwhelming early performance to the loss of five of last year’s starters.
“Some teams have a system and put players into the system,” coach Tim Lenahan said. “We’re a team that adapts a system to our players. And we lost all four midfielders and a central defender.”
Since the loss to DePaul, NU has looked like its former self. A trip to the NIU/Adidas Invitational ended with two NU victories. Eliason scored two goals in a 2-1 win against Oakland and notched two more, including an overtime winner, in a 3-2 victory against No. 21 Tulsa.
Eliason’s performance was enough to earn him honors as the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week and Top Drawer Soccer National Soccer Player of the Week. After scoring 12 goals last year – one short of NU’s all-time record – Eliason is more than halfway there with 11 regular season games to go.
As the focal point of the NU offense, Eliason gives credit to his teammates for his success.
“My teammates are doing a great job with service,” Eliason said. “I’m just capitalizing on my opportunities.”
Despite Eliason’s prodigious scoring this year, offense hasn’t typically been NU’s calling card.
Senior goalkeeper Misha Rosenthal allowed only 0.48 goals per game last season, good for the fourth-best mark in the country. He uncharacteristically gave up three goals in his first game, which only happened once last year.
But the team returned to form this past weekend, allowing only one goal in the two-game Lakeside Classic. It held South Carolina to a scoreless tie on Friday, and defeated Lafayette 2-1 on Sunday.
“We’re starting to gel as a back line,” senior left back Mark Blades said. “You’re going to see us be one of the better defensive teams in the country for the rest of the season.”
Blades is the Big Ten’s only representative on the watch list for the Hermann Award, given to the best collegiate soccer player in the country. He is the shortest player on the team, but has emerged as the rock of the defensive unit and also finished second on the team in scoring last year.
“He’s a tough guy,” Lenahan said. “He gives you everything he has in that 5-foot-6 body, and just crashes and bashes.”
If Blades and Rosenthal play like they did last year, the team’s defense should make everybody forget about their early season struggles.
“It took us four or five games,” Lenahan said. “But hopefully we’re going to start seeing a lot of zeroes soon.”
