Hoosiers hope to repeat as champs

In different environments, IU won both games of last weekend’s Billiken Classic. Its record is unblemished in two matches, but IU Coach Todd Yeagley said his team needed to learn from their 3-0 victory Sunday against Cincinnati.

The team was not sufficiently aggressive in the final pass during the first half Sunday, Yeagley said.

The Hoosiers open the home portion of their 2012 regular season schedule on Friday  against Clemson. Senior forward Tim Wylie said one lesson from last weekend will be to minimize the role the environment plays.

“Friday night, we’re going to have a great atmosphere,” Wylie said. “Sunday afternoon games, neutral sites, only a couple hundred people, it’s a lot different than playing on a Friday night. It’s tougher to get going.

“That’s one thing we’ve had to learn to adjust to, to not worry about the atmosphere. You gotta play the same way as if you’re playing in front of 10,000 people.”

Last season, the Hoosiers won the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic for the first time since 2005.

“We want to come out on Sunday night with a 4-0 record, but we gotta focus on Friday first.” he said. “We gotta go one game at a time, which is important to us this season. From there, go focus on Sunday.”

In the Hoosiers’ four contests this season, three players have started at left back.

In exhibition contests against the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Chivas de Guadalajara U23 team, sophomore defender Patrick Doody earned the start. Against Saint Louis on Aug. 24, sophomore defender Drew Schall got the starting nod. In a pre-game change, sophomore midfielder Dylan Lax started there Sunday against Cincinnati.

“We’ve felt that we needed to have depth in our back line,” Yeagley said. “We found out we have it... Maybe it’s committee until someone really takes full control of that position. We’ll decide as the week progresses on what we’ll go with Friday. I’m excited that all three can step in and do really well.”

However, graduate student forward T.J. Popolizio will be on the opposite sideline from his former coach at Brown. Mike Noonan is in his third season as the Clemson head coach.

Popolizio said that to him, this isn’t just another other game because he started his career playing for Noonan.

“Coach Noonan kind of instilled what it took to be a D1 college soccer player in me,” he said. “He’s one of the people that I’ve really tried to convince I can play at this level. He’s been huge in my development as a player. Playing for him was something special. It’s kind of come full circle now, getting to play them in our home opener.”