IU men’s soccer leads the all-time series with Evansville (26-4-3), with the last Evansville victory coming in the 1990 NCAA tournament.
Given the historical and current success, one might think IU will enter Wednesday’s match with a complacent attitude. IU Coach Todd Yeagley is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“As a group the coaches do a good job of translating that there’s no easy games in college soccer,” IU senior Jamie Vollmer said. “There’s upsets every day.”
Yeagley also said he believes Evansville is better than what their sub-.500 record might suggest.
“They’re better than their record,” Yeagley said. “That’s not just to color it up for the heck of doing it. I would maybe do that but they really are.”
One area where Evansville might be more talented than their record is going forward. In its ?final match, Evansville defeated ?Drake 4-1.
Yeagley said he believes that score line was not a fluke, and Evansville has no problems putting the ball into the back of the net.
“They’re very good going forward, so our team again will be tested defensively,” Yeagley said. “We’ll get some chances, no doubt about that, but I do feel that they’re very dynamic going forward.”
One area in particular where IU might be tested defensively is in one-on-one situations.
Yeagley said all of Evansville’s forwards are athletic and skilled technically on the ball. They are also able to create for themselves easily.
If one IU defender gets beat one-on-one that forces another to shift over and cover the ground his teammate just lost.
That causes more space to be created for the attackers in the freshly vacated area, creating a domino effect of defenders trying to cover open space, always leaving more space open behind them.
“We have to be good one v. one,” Yeagley said. “If we can do that then we’ll be able to help keep things in front of us and keep things ?predictable.”
While Evansville’s attack has scored 22 goals this season, it has allowed 25. Combine that with IU having scored 20 of its 24 goals in its last nine matches, and there might be a lot of goals being scored against Evansville on Wednesday.
“We’ve been working ?together, pushing it and not letting up against teams,” IU junior Femi Hollinger-Janzen said. “Our defensive pressure is really what’s created those chances for us and allowed us to score.”
IU has also received scoring from a variety of sources. Ten IU players have scored this year, five of whom have scored three or more times.
“It’s great for our team,” Hollinger-Janzen said. “The other team just can’t focus on one single player, and everybody can go up and score.”
IU is in the middle of a stretch where it plays three of its last four matches on the road. While that may seem daunting for most, IU is a perfect 4-0 on the road, and 6-0 once neutral site matches are included.
These matches away from home also serve as preparation for what lies ahead: the postseason.
“It’s a different challenge,” Yeagley said. “Every time you go in another environment it’s good for learning. The most important thing is we get a result, but it’ll test us once again.”
