The Wisconsin men's soccer team finished 1-1-0 in the Middleton Sports & Fitness Invitational hosted at the McClimon Soccer Complex this weekend.
Friday evening, the Badgers fell to Tulsa in their first match of the tournament with a score of 3-1. However, on Sunday, the Badgers regained their focus and trumped Western Michigan 1-0.
I thought we possessed the ball a little bit better [against Western Michigan],"" said Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman. ""In the past we have been a little impatient and we maybe lost some composure, but [Sunday] we did a great job of sustaining our composure, confidence and determination and we got the goal and won it.""
Wisconsin had several shots on goal against Western Michigan's defense, but it was not until the 76:05 mark that sophomore forward Brian Bultman scored off a pass from sophomore midfielder Scott Lorenz. This was Bultman's second goal of the tournament, which helped him earn All-Tournament honors along with two teammates: sophomore midfielder/forward Pablo Delgado and junior defender Andy Miller.
Rohrman was very impressed with his team's performance Sunday; however, the three All-Tournament honorees displayed fantastic gamesmanship throughout the entire weekend.
""Andy Miller is just a very tenacious, hard-nosed defender that is tough to beat,"" Rohrman said. ""He is our rock out there on defense. I just think Pablo Diaz is one of those special players that is extremely talented and gifted and is capable of creating very good things for us. Brian Bultman is extremely athletic and fast. He has impressed us a lot the past few years.""
Wisconsin's sophomore goalkeeper Alex Horwath had eight total saves on the weekend, four from each game. Horwath also gave up three goals, all against Tulsa.
Rohrman said, ""[The game against Tulsa] was the tale of two halves. The first half we did okay and created pretty good chances and in some ways I thought we were a little unfortunate not to have gotten a second goal in the first half. However, the longer the game went on, the more I felt that they were able to open up and find more space on some of those counter attacks which cost us at the end of the game.""
Within the first 10 minutes of play, Wisconsin's Bultman scored a goal off a pass from junior forward Victor Diaz, flicking the ball over Tulsa's goalkeeper.
Tulsa fought back in the second half, scoring three unanswered goals to pull ahead of Wisconsin. The first Tulsa goal was registered by sophomore midfielder Hunter Christiansen, and the final two goals were scored with under eight minutes left in play, both by senior forward Todd Goddard. All three goals were assisted by senior midfielder Burkholder.
""When they got the second goal, we kind of had to push some bodies forward, which set them up for their third, but we had to take some chances and take a few risks there,"" Rohrman said.
""I think our main objective is always to put up a shutout,"" said senior defender Nick Caronna. ""The way we look at things is, if we defend well and we shut them down, we are going to get a goal, and we didn't do that [against Tulsa].""
""We had some mental and physical breakdowns on Friday that we took care of on Sunday,"" Rohrman added. ""[Tulsa] was just one game, it's obviously very, very early in the season, and we can't make too much of this loss at this point.""
Rohrman also believes his team will continue to improve and learn from its mistakes over the course of the season.
""[The senior leadership] for this team should be very good,"" he said. ""These guys are very experienced and they have played prominent roles for us. I think the seniors, along with the juniors, we've got 13 guys who will certainly be able to carry us over the course of the year. I have no doubt that they will do a good job.""
Wisconsin's next game will be held Friday, Sept. 7 at Stanford. This will be the Badger's first road game of the season.
