Senior defender Ryan Thelen high fives the Red Cedar Rowdies at the end of the game against Bowling Green on Sept. 18, 2013, at DeMartin Stadium at Old College Field. The Spartans defeated the Falcons, 1-0. Danyelle Morrow/The State News
—In the wake of a week that saw the MSU men’s soccer team come away with a pair of wins, the team now is doing something it’s not used to — nothing at all.
The five-day break between the Spartans’ (4-1-0) 1-0 win against Bowling Green, Sept. 18, at DeMartin Stadium and their trip to Omaha, Neb. to take on No. 5 Creighton Tuesday is the second-longest of the season.
Many games are two or three days apart, but this break provides both challenges and positives for the health and tempo of the team.
Head coach Damon Rensing said the team took Friday off to get fit, and the Blue Jays double overtime thriller against No. 7 St. John’s will give MSU even more of an advantage heading into the matchup.
“We’ll train a little bit tomorrow to get them in psychologically and physically and treat some things,” Rensing said. “(We’ll) use Saturday, Sunday and Monday to get ready for Creighton. They play Saturday night and hopefully, that will benefit us.”
The Spartans have played a total of 450 minutes through five games this season. Seven field players and sophomore goalkeeper Zach Bennett have started all five games.
Bennett and junior defender Ryan Keener are the only two players to play every minute of every game thus far this season.
“We’ve got a (regeneration) practice and we’re just going to try to get guys healthy,” junior forward Tim Kreutz said.
“We’ve logged a lot of minutes over the last week, and this break is exactly what we needed.”
There are other ways for the team to rejuvenate their bodies than take a break from practicing on the field.
Sophomore midfielder Jay Chapman plans to take a “cool” bath to give his well-run legs a much needed break.
“The players who’ve got a lot of minutes and go 90 minutes are just going to rest,” Chapman said. “Ice tub, give the legs a rest and come back and do what we do every day, and that’s just work hard with our blue-collar work ethic.”
The tough work ethic has paid off, as the Spartans rank in the top 50 in the country in scoring offense with nine goals in five games, good for a 1.80 goals per game average.
After playing well in the last two and a half games against Bowling Green, at Marquette and at Detroit — the Detroit game was canceled after one half — Kreutz said the mindset of the team hasn’t changed.
“We’ve got the momentum, we’ve just got to get healthy and focus on Creighton, they’re one of the top five teams in the country,” Kreutz said. “We’ll watch the film on them and figure out how to beat them.”
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