Players and coaches from the men’s soccer team comment on upcoming games against Marquette and Notre Dame, and on plans for the rest of the season as a whole.
The Big Ten conference and the No. 19 MSU men’s soccer team have an opportunity to show how good they are this weekend as two of the nation’s top soccer conferences meet in the Big Ten/Big East Challenge.
MSU (3-1) already has played two Big East conference foes in Georgetown and Providence, splitting the two games, and will take on Marquette (1-2-1) and Notre Dame (2-1-1) in this weekend’s challenge.
Action will start against Marquette at 5 p.m. Friday at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field, followed by a 2 p.m. kickoff for Sunday’s game in South Bend, Ind., against the Fighting Irish.
The Spartans go into this weekend with the same expectations as usual, senior midfielder and co-captain Spencer Thompson said.
“As always, we’re expecting to get two wins,” Thompson said. “Hopefully we’ll come out and have our legs back with us, and we’ll go from there.
“We’ll start (Tuesday) in practice and figure out what we’re going to do against Marquette, and then immediately after Marquette, figure out what we’re going to do with Notre Dame.”
The weekend’s challenge is what the team is looking for to gain experience, head coach Damon Rensing said.
“Obviously there are two very good Big East teams in Marquette and Notre Dame,” Rensing said. “But we’re not really focusing on anything in particular, we just want to continue to play strong competition from strong conferences, and these are definitely two good teams for that mission.”
Last weekend’s two victories against Providence and Niagara displayed MSU’s strong defensive and counterattack games, and Rensing said he would like to see that carry over to games this weekend.
“Defense first, we want to make sure we’re not giving them goals,” he said. “But we want to continue to create chances, but I’m not sure we’re going to be able to create as many chances against Marquette and Notre Dame as we would against Niagara, but whatever chances we do get we want to finish them.”
Junior midfielder Cyrus Saydee said this weekend will pit the Spartans against two of the most talented teams they will play all season.
“We expect better competition,” Saydee said. “Marquette is another good team — they should be better than Providence and Niagara. It should be a good game.”
Playing at Notre Dame will pose a challenge similar to playing at Maryland to start the season, a game the Spartans won 4-3 in overtime.
The last time the Spartans traveled to South Bend was in 2008, when the team was shut out 3-0. MSU defeated the Irish, 2-1, at DeMartin last season.
“They have a new stadium, good fans,” Thompson said. “It’s always a tough place to go in and play.”
The MSU coaching staff doesn’t concern itself much with the opponents’ play, Rensing said.
“As a staff we meet on Monday, we talk about what we did well and didn’t do well and tweak that and fix that,” he said. “On Tuesday and Wednesday we focus on Michigan State and what we need to do. Then maybe we’ll start to focus on Marquette.”
Thompson said the weekend will give the rest of the nation a chance to see the potential MSU has this season.
“Our team has a good idea where we are in terms of a team and where we want to be,” he said. “But I think this weekend people might realize how good we are.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
