The University of Wisconsin men's soccer team faced off against Big Ten rival Michigan Sunday in Ann Arbor. The Badgers beat the Wolverines by a score of 2-1, handing Michigan its eighth loss by just one goal this season.
As the game started the Wolverines immediately started to pressure but were called offsides in just the third minute. The turnover would lead to an eventual shot by Wisconsin sophomore midfielder Trevor Wheeler, only to be saved by Michigan goalie Adam Grinwis. UW's pressure, however, would payoff in the eighth minute when junior midfielder Tomislav Zadro poked in an early goal. Sophomore midfielder Joey Tennyson crossed the ball into the box and Zadro, being much taller than his Michigan counterparts on defense, headed the ball out of the air past Grinwis and into the goal.
Over the next 25 minutes of the game Michigan would get shots from senior midfielder Adam Shaw, freshman forward Matthew Rickard, and junior defender Kofi Opare, whose shots were high, wide, and saved by Wisconsin sophomore goal keeper Max Jentsch, respectively. In this span, the Badgers recorded no shots, and the UW defense had to hold tough to withstand all of the shots by the Wolverines. Not only were they tough, but also aggressive as Wisconsin committed 11 fouls in the first half alone and 18 for the game.
Wisconsin would strike again, however. In the 41st minute Zadro would ""pay it forward"", giving senior forward Josh Thiermann a cross into the box. The ball hit the back of the mesh off Thiermann's head to give the Badgers a two to nil lead to end the first half.
The second half started much like the first half did, an offsides call against Michigan followed by a foul against the Badgers. Michigan would get another five shots in the first ten minutes of the second half, racking them up as they went along until finally all their work payed off. Fabio Pereira, the Wolverines' stud sophomore midfielder, took the corner awarded to UM in the 60th minute. His corner yielded a reward, as Kofi Opare would head the ball past Jentsch for his first goal of the season.
Michigan continued to test more as the game went along, recording more shots, but few on goal. The Wolverines are struggling with their accuracy, shooting 8.3 percent this seasn, and that statistic didn't improve after this game as UM managed only one goal on 23 shots.
Michigan's weakness this season has been their inability to score on a large volume of shots. While the Badgers improve to 2-0 in the Big Ten and strengthen their chances at a Big Ten title run, the Wolverines fall to 1-2.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
