With the regular season over, crunch time has begun for the Wisconsin men’s soccer team (4-2-0 Big Ten, 9-7-2 overall) who are the number three seed in the Big Ten tournament, which starts for the Badgers Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Badgers will face the tournament host Michigan Wolverines (1-5-0, 5-13-1) in a rematch of an early October game.
Wisconsin was awarded the bad fortune of having to play the home team in the first round of the tournament. The Badgers will have to deal with a home crowd and a well-rested Michigan team hungry for a win. The Wolverines will try to avenge their 2-1 loss against UW in the regular season.
In the first meeting between these two teams, junior Badger midfielder Tomislav Zadro and senior forward Josh Thiermann scored one goal each. The two goals came on headers, and that was not surprise as Michigan sports a slightly undersized roster, especially compared with the Badgers who start a very tall lineup.
Since that meeting, the Badgers have a .500 record while the Wolverines have dropped four of six. With neither team especially hot, it comes down to match-ups yet again. And again Wisconsin looks to have the upper hand. Michigan shoots an even lower percentage than they did in the first game at a dismal 7.3 percent. The Badgers combat that with a shot percentage of 11.5. The Wolverines do take a lot more shots than the Badgers, but the Badgers can build on their last game against Penn State where they took a high volume of shots for the first time.
Wisconsin started the last game against Michigan with a foot on the gas pedal and they should do the same in Wednesday’s game. It would do the Badgers good to take shots in hopes of getting corner kicks and take advantage of the fact that the Wolverines foul more than the Badgers do. If Wisconsin can get corners and free kicks, there is no reason they should not be able to bang one in from a set piece.
Wisconsin was ousted in the early rounds of the Big Ten tournament last year. But in his second year, head coach John Trask has effectively turned the program around, restoring the winning ways of Wisconsin soccer from the mid ‘90s. If this team can get hot there is nothing stopping them from winning this game and going deep into the tournament.
