For Freitag and gang, 1 goal to go

One goal.\nIt sounds rather cliche, but no phrase better summarizes the IU men's soccer team at this point in the season.\nThe team has already reclaimed the Big Ten regular season championship and the conference tournament title, two feathers that never made it in their cap last year. They brought home the hardware, despite losing six of 11 starters from a year ago and being the lowest-scoring team in the 34-year history of the program. If that doesn't typify how dominant IU soccer has been over the years, I don't know what does. Goals? We don't need no stinkin' goals.\nSince stumbling out of the gate at 3-3-1 early in the season, the Hoosiers have dropped just one match en route to a 14-win season. Now with the NCAA tournament bracket set, they have just one goal remaining: Bring home the College Cup.\nOne goal will also most likely be the difference in score during the Hoosiers' march to an eighth national championship. Goals this fall have been harder to come by for the Hoosiers than positive political ad campaigns during prime-time TV. Fifteen of IU's 20 matches have been decided by one goal with the Hoosiers posting an 11-4 record in those matches. The score of IU's last three wins: 1-0. Whether playing a season's worth of tight matches will help the Hoosiers in tournament play is debatable, but this team has proven it can win with a one-goal lead.\nAs the No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament, IU will host the winner of the Northern Illinois University vs. Loyola University-Chicago match next Wednesday. To make it to Robert R. Hermann Stadium in St. Louis, the site of this year's College Cup, the Hoosiers must emerge from a region that includes No. 2 seed Wake Forest University.\nIt will be the first taste of postseason action for several Hoosier starters, including Big Ten Freshman of the Year Darren Yeagle and second team All-Big Ten selections Eric Alexander and Ofori Sarkodie. Going into the season, it appeared youth would play a large role in the Hoosiers' return to the top of the Big Ten. When you have the recruiting ability of a program like IU, however, winning with youth is a lot easier. Yeagle and sophomore Brian Ackley provided most of the offense firepower, while Sarkodi and sophomore goalkeeper Chay Cain solidified a smothering defense, shutting out five Big Ten opponents on the year.\nCome tournament time, however, it's the guys who have been there before who usually lead, and that means guys like Big Ten Player of the Year Josh Tudela and senior John Michael Hayden, both of whom were members of the 2004 national championship team. Hayden scored one of the most dramatic goals in IU history during that tournament run, a header in double-overtime that lifted the Hoosiers past the University of Maryland and into the championship game. This year's squad will probably need some of that overtime magic to get to the championship match.\nOne goal may be the \ndifference.