IU soccer faces off with Mexican Youth National Team in pre-season

The United States-Mexico soccer rivalry hits Bloomington tonight when the IU men's soccer team plays host to the Mexican Youth National Team in an pre-season game at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nIU soccer, in partnership with the Indiana Youth Soccer Association, will donate the proceeds from tonight's match to benefit Latino soccer programs in Indiana.\nThis match caps IU's spring soccer season, and the team is looking to secure its sixth straight win. IU has outscored its opponents in the spring 14-2. IU's games in the spring are all exhibition matches, but the team has won every match it has played since Nov. 23 when it beat Michigan 1-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.\nEven though the rivalry between the two countries' international teams increased drastically after the Mexican fans chanted "Osama! Osama!" in February 2004 at an Olympic qualifying match at Azteca -- the national soccer stadium in Mexico City -- IU coach Mike Freitag and the soccer team doesn't see tonight's match as a rivalry, but as a chance to just win another game.\n"I hope we just play to our potential," Freitag said. "I think as a coach that's what I strive for is for guys to play their potential and then see what the hell happens from there. No matter how good the opponent is, sometimes you can play to your potential and the other team is just better."\nFreitag greeted the Mexican team at the Indianapolis International Airport Monday and said the team 'just has the look' of good soccer players.\nThe last international match played at Armstrong Stadium was in May 1992 when the U.S. U-20 national team played host to the Canadian U-20 team in an Olympic qualifying match.\nMexico is preparing for the final round of qualifying in the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championships. Mexico advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2003 Youth Championships in which the team lost to Argentina 2-0.\nIn IU's last match Friday night in Indianapolis, the Hoosiers defeated Dayton 2-1, but all of the match's goals came in the final 12 minutes of play. IU junior Brian Plotkin scored in the 78th minute, but the Flyers quickly answered with an equalizer in the 84th minute. Plotkin netted the game-winner off the crossbar in the match's 90th minute.\n"I haven't gotten a goal in the spring so it was nice to get those two on Friday," Plotkin said. "For this week, it's just status quo and we just want to try to come out and win."\nSophomore Jacob Peterson is the only current player on IU's roster that is a pool player for one of the U.S. Soccer national teams. Peterson is currently in Europe playing with the U.S. U-20 National Team and will miss tonight's match.\nSophomore Jed Zayner tried out for a couple of professional teams in France during the winter break -- and is expected to sit out five to six games in the fall as IU awaits the penalty from the NCAA -- and was a member of the U-20 pool in 2003.\n"(The Mexican team is) a tricky team," Zayner said. "They're skilled and they're good thinkers off the ball so we really have to be aware of not only the person on the ball, but everybody on the field because they make good runs and it helps to expand your knowledge of thinking off the ball."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.