The UW Men's soccer team (1-0-0 Big Ten, 5-3-2 overall) will face its second straight tough game Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. when the No. 5 Creighton Blue Jays (0-0-0 Missouri Valley, 8-1-0 overall) come to McClimon.
The Badgers are no strangers to tough games as they took down an extremely well-rounded opponent Sunday when they faced Indiana. Much like IU, the Blue Jays have been scoring a lot of goals and giving up very few. In fact, the ratio by which Creighton is out scoring their opponents is insane.
The Creighton defense has only given up one goal so far this season. That one goal came against a very good Maryland Terrapins team. The Blue Jays has scored 17 goals to their one surrendered.
The test for Wisconsin will be their ability to beat the staunch Creighton defense and score some goals of their own, while still worrying about the Creighton attack, which has been very potent thus far.
This won't be the first time that the Badgers have faced an opponent who has not given up many goals. Wisconsin was able to solve the riddle that was Indiana's goalie, Luis Soffner, who had earned Big Ten player of the week honors just before coming to Madison.
Wisconsin will have to be wary of at least two players on the Blue Jays who both have point totals in the double digits. Senior forward Ethan Finlay and sophomore midfielder Bruno Castro, with 16 points and 12 points respectively, will be a handful for the Badgers just as they have been for every other team Creighton has faced.
The pairing of Finlay and Castro have scored nine of the Blue Jays' 17 team goals and have been responsible for four assists each. This is not to say the Badgers cannot contain them.
The challenge for Creighton will be utilizing the two aforementioned stud players to break through the recently stingy Wisconsin defense and the team's ever-improving and impressive goalie Max Jentsch, who just this Sunday recorded a shutout against Indiana. However, Jentsch will have his hands full, literally, as Creighton has out-shot their opponents 129 to 76 this season.
The Badgers will be looking forward to this next challenge as they finish out their home stand. With a win, Wisconsin could enter the national discussion and may become a ranked team. The Badgers have a strong resume thus far and are starting to look as though they could be a contender for the Big Ten crown.
