Men's soccer team follows Friday losses with Sunday wins

Failure to Finish ‘Em Fridays and Soarin’ to Success Sundays could be two ways to define the IU men’s soccer team’s weekend results this season.

Then again, IU coach Todd Yeagley is OK with the three straight Friday losses.

“We’re aware of the results on the Fridays,” Yeagley said. “Our performances have been certainly pretty good, some very good and others not up to standard. ...We’ve all been there on Friday. It just hasn’t gone our way on those nights with results.

“There’s no story to it in the sense of the guys are prepared. They’re ready. It just happens to be that we’re 3-3, and it just happened to play out that way.”

So, maybe Friday games could be defined as learning games, and Sunday contests could be taking what was learned on Friday and applying it  — at least that’s what
history shows.

In their first game of the season on Sept. 3, the Hoosiers lost to California, 2-1, on a golden goal score in overtime. The following Sunday, IU beat then-No. 5 UCLA, 5-1, with a hat trick by junior forward Will Bruin.

The next Friday, Sept. 10, IU played like a can of pop that lost its fizz in a 1-0 loss to Cal Poly with the lone goal coming in the 83rd minute. Two days later, the Hoosiers shut out Drake, 2-0.

This past weekend, IU dropped below .500 with a loss to Brown when a goal with less than eight minutes remaining put the Bears ahead. The cream and crimson turned around for a 2-1 win against Massachusetts on Sunday.

“It’s not a very good habit to get into,” Adlard said. “It has happened. This is the third time. Fortunately, we have been able to bounce back on Sunday and win.”

The Hoosiers now will have to deal with midweek matches as they have no more Friday-and-Sunday weekend series for the rest of the season.

“I told the team we very easily could be 6-0 now,” Yeagley said. “Performance wise we’ve been the better or equal against every opponent we’ve played in the way you measure the game — possession, quality, quality of chances, chances given up. ...We’re still learning. The adversity that we’ve faced in different ways, whether it be in a result or how we’re playing is going to help us as we still make the journey this season.”