The men’s soccer team was drastically outshot in this weekend’s 1-0 loss on the road to Ohio State in its Big Ten opener.
The Spartans (2-4-0) were only able to rattle off eight shots — compared to the Buckeyes’ 19. But the Green and White still almost found a way to get the win against the Buckeyes, who were only able to capitalize once with eight minutes left in the game.
MSU head coach Joe Baum knows the game was much closer than the stats made it seem.
“I felt that game was dead even,” Baum said. “We went into the 15th ranked team’s stadium and played in front of a big crowd and we played them dead even.”
Baum’s continued defensive emphasis carried into the game, as the majority of Ohio State’s 19 shots weren’t threatening the Spartans’ goal.
“Most of their shots were from outside the 18-yard box and at a nondangerous angle,” senior defender David Hertel said. “We are willing to give them those shots and I know they show up on the stat sheet, but a lot of their shots weren’t quality.”
The MSU defense has only allowed one goal in the last 180 minutes, and Baum feels the defense is finally on the same page.
“I think we are back to playing Spartan soccer now,” Baum said. “We are playing great defense and moving the ball and generating chances. I think this team is back now to the level of play that we expect.”
“No moral victories”
Despite keeping last year’s national runner-up off the scoresheet until the last eight minutes of the game, the Spartans weren’t satisfied taking the loss.
“The team was really disappointed that they didn’t get a win,” Baum said. “I think that’s good because that’s saying they still have a lot of confidence in themselves and they still think they are a good side. If you come out of there being happy, something is wrong.”
Offensively, senior forward Doug DeMartin was held without a point in the game for only the third time this season.
“It was frustrating,” DeMartin said. “We played better than we had been playing and we wanted to get the result, but didn’t.”
The Buckeyes’ lone goal came when sophomore goalkeeper Avery Steinlage gave up a rebound that found the foot of an Ohio State forward.
Baum described the goal as a “blunder,” but he was impressed by the maturity showed by his keeper, who was only in his second collegiate game.
“He will tell you that was a routine play for him,” Baum said. “But the thing that impressed me was that he took responsibility. He came up to me after the game and told me it was his fault. I like that because, hey, we all make mistakes.”
Senior defender Josh Rogers knows bad bounces will happen throughout the season and he recognizes it’s something the team just needs to push aside and move past.
“During the game (fluke goals) demoralize you,” Rogers said. “You just have to pick your head up and keep playing. But that seems to be happening to us a lot lately.”
Up next: Western Michigan
The Spartans are hoping to get the bad taste out of their mouth coming into tonight’s game at Western Michigan.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Baum recognizes the Broncos are a better team than their 1-6-1 record indicates and he knows they will have extra motivation to leave everything on the field.
“If Western wins this game they can have a bad season and this (win) will make their season,” Baum said. “Some of their players we didn’t recruit and they are a little upset about that. So they have a lot of emotion and pump going into this game.”
Rogers said a win tonight will be a good stepping stone leading into Sunday’s second Big Ten game at Penn State (2-4-2).
“We really need a win tonight,” Rogers said. “It will pick us up from that tough loss and we will have some good momentum heading into the Penn State game.”
