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(07/09/21 8:08am)
Welcome back to The Q49 Journal! After a brief summer hiatus, it feels good to get the fingers typing again and the brain whizzing with Indiana men's soccer thoughts and musings.
Now that the dust has settled on IU's loss to Marshall in the College Cup finals (more on that shortly), and the fall season less than 50 days away, it's a great time to reconvene and take stock of the Hoosiers' current outlook.
Spoiler alert: The outlook seems extremely bright in Bloomington due to some major returns and additions (also more on that below).
With all the formalities out of the way, let's dive into this mid-summer edition of The Q49 Journal.
(05/18/21 4:43pm)
Todd Yeagley clutched sophomore defender Brett Bebej in his arms like a father would his child.
There was nothing to say, no wisdom to give, not a thing the IU men's soccer coach could do. So Yeagley gently grabbed Bebej's head, streams of tears melding with beads of sweat from 98 minutes of denying chance after chance, pulled him close to his chest, and whispered five simple words: 'I'm so proud of you.'
The scene was captured live on ESPN2 for the entire country to see. It came mere moments after Marshall's Jamil Roberts stuck the dagger into No. 3-seed Indiana's quest for a ninth national title. Roberts' golden goal in the 98th minute gave the Thundering Herd their first NCAA championship, while the Hoosiers were left to cope with the 1-0 defeat.
It was so tantalizingly close.
The ninth star being added to Indiana's crimson kits. The trophy ceremony obliging the Hoosiers to hoist their ninth national championship high above their heads. The roar of the Indiana faithful, including IU head football coach Tom Allen and IU head men's basketball coach Mike Woodson, who made the trip to Cary, N.C., to root on the cream and crimson.
It was all supposed to be Indiana's reality Monday night. Until it became fantasy.
This isn't Yeagley's first go-around with disappointment or heartbreak, though. In fact, he'll be the first to tell you that some of the strongest IU teams he's ever coached failed to complete the Quest For Nine.
"It's hard to compare teams, I don't like doing that," Yeagley said after the College Cup finals. "...The '17, '18 teams were a special group, no doubt. A lot of talent in that group. I thought we were very dominant.
"This group had to do it a little different way, and had to do a little bit more defending than some of our teams in the past. But we always want to put ourselves in position to win games. The kids come here at IU to play in these games, to be in the championship match."
In 2017, Indiana fell one goal short of the ninth star, losing to Stanford, 1-0, in double overtime in the College Cup finals. That Hoosiers team was arguably the most talented of any during Yeagley's 12 seasons -- Trey Muse, Grant Lillard, Trevor Swartz, Mason Toye, Justin Rennicks, Andrew Gutman, the list goes on and on. Yet they still couldn't get past the final speed bump.
In 2018, the story was nearly the same, only the Hoosiers were sent home in the College Cup semifinals at the hands of Maryland. Despite having a MAC Hermann Trophy winner in Andrew Gutman, an All-American goalkeeper in Trey Muse, and a supporting cast littered with All-Big Ten selections, it still wasn't enough.
If not those teams, then who?
Such is the conundrum that Yeagley and his coaching staff have been trying to solve since the Hoosiers last won a national championship in 2012. And they'll have to wait at least one more season to crack the code.
But the pieces were all in place for the Hoosiers this season.
An elite goal-scorer and National Player of the Year candidate: Check, Victor Bezerra.
A premier goalkeeper to lead the backline: Check, Roman Celentano.
Experience and unflappable leadership: Check, Spencer Glass and A.J. Palazzolo (though Glass' final season was cut short after suffering a broken leg at the end of the regular season).
Rock-steady secondary players who embraced their role: Check, Daniel Munie, Joe Schmidt, Brett Bebej, Herbert Endeley, Maouloune Goumballe, and others.
What more could Yeagley or the coaching staff have done?
Sometimes, the answer is simply... nothing. Sometimes, it just doesn't matter what the cache of talent is or how much depth has been built. Sometimes, it seems, the fate of one's own destiny is left up to nothing more than chance.
Sure, Indiana had several dangerous chances to score against Marshall and put the match away early. But it didn't pan out that way. Perhaps it was fate. Or maybe it was the soccer gods showing no mercy to the College Cup long-timers and instead favoring the College Cup first-timers.
However you wish to chalk up Indiana's shortcomings Monday night, don't lose sight of this: IU has advanced to the College Cup in three of the last four seasons.
Any collegiate men's soccer program would kill to be perennial Final Four mainstays like the Hoosiers. It's the tradition that has been built in Bloomington, first starting with Jerry Yeagley in 1973 (and before in the club days) and trickling down to Todd nearly 50 years later.
Excellence is expected for a program that's won eight national titles. Every season, the expectation is to vie for a spot in the College Cup. How many other programs or fanbases can realistically say this?
But with all the pomp and circumstance surrounding Indiana's program, it's also quite easy to forget the bigger picture.
That is, Yeagley has built this program to last, and he's doing it in different ways than his counterparts.
Across the five matches the Hoosiers played throughout the NCAA Tournament, each opponent had a significant amount of international personnel on their rosters. Marshall's roster consisted of 22 international players. Pittsburgh had 17 overseas players. Seton Hall's pipeline added up to 19. Marquette, eight. St. Francis Brooklyn, 13.
Indiana had one international player this season, redshirt freshman midfielder Quinten Helmer by way of Amsterdam.
In an era where college soccer program's are seemingly in an arm's race to pluck as many international players and build as many overseas connections as possible, Indiana has stuck to its roots.
Longstanding pipelines in the St. Louis area, Chicagoland area, Indianapolis area and Columbus area have anchored the Hoosiers for decades, and the wins keep coming.
No matter how the landscape around Bloomington changes, Yeagley, assistant coaches Kevin Robson, Danny O'Rourke, Christian Lomeli, and Director of Operations Phalo Pietersen, understand what it takes to win.
Indiana won't hang a national championship banner every season, but it is in contention for one every season. That, in itself, is a sign of a program that understands its identity and what it's chasing after.
All season, the message Yeagley continued to echo was to "change the jersey." The eight stars have been around long enough, he said, and it's time to add a ninth.
That's why, when most other teams would've been happy to simply advance to the College Cup finals, players like Bebej were left inconsolable.
Don't lose sight of the bigger picture for the present moment. Yeagley sure isn't.
"To be in our 21st College Cup, to do the things this program has done, although difficult in this moment, I told the guys that everyone is proud of them. When the time's right and they're able to reflect... they'll be proud, though, in the years ahead."
(05/15/21 7:15am)
Five -- When Herbert Endeley was just five years old, him and his family moved to Tanzania, over 8,300 miles away from his birthplace in Minnesota.
His father, Isaac, worked for the United Nations at the time, and the job necessitated a move halfway across the world.
While in Tanzania, Herbert latched on to one of the locals' favorite sports: soccer. And he never let go.
Ten -- In 2010, Herbert and his family moved back home to Minnesota.
Of course, the game of soccer followed him back to the United States. His passion was only just beginning to burn.
Eighteen -- In 2018, Herbert was named Gatorade Boys' Soccer Player of the Year in Minnesota. He scored 24 goals and tallied 11 assists in his senior season at Totino-Grace High School.
Nineteen -- In 2019, Herbert scored a golden goal in double overtime to lead Indiana past Pittsburgh in the opening match of the regular season. It was Herbert's first collegiate goal in his collegiate debut.
He ended his freshman campaign with two goals, three assists, and a spot on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team.
Twenty-one -- On May 14, 2021, Herbert's game-winning goal in the 79th minute lifted Indiana past Pittsburgh and into the program's 16th College Cup finals.
***
Amid a sea of crimson jerseys jumping up and down in unison, a 5-foot-10 forward stood at the epicenter of it all.
Amid a flurry of Pittsburgh players trying to dispossess a streaking ball headed for the back of the net, Indiana's hero never once flinched.
Amid a rush of media questions waiting to be answered during a postgame press conference, Herbert Endeley looked forward, straight into the computer camera, and said this:
"I knew that it could possibly take one shot for us to win the game. I knew that I was feeling it this game."
One shot was all he needed to cement himself into the pantheon of all-time IU men's soccer moments. One shot to put the Hoosiers within one win of the coveted ninth national championship.
Through 78 minutes, no other player, Hoosier or Panther, could seem to solve the goal-scoring drought.
Endeley made sure it wouldn't go on a minute longer, even if he had to take care of it himself.
So he took the ball and began his ascent, dodging, dipping and darting his way through Pittsburgh's last line of defense. Like a sports car finding its sixth gear at the last possible moment, Endeley finally burst through. The window of opportunity was there.
Endeley squared his body, loaded the rifle in his right foot, and unleashed the shot.
Cue: Deafening screams from large portions of the 2,667 fans in attendance at Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, North Carolina.
"I just tried to split two defenders," Endeley said. "And the finishing we've been working on in practice and all the small details, I think ultimately those added up today and helped us win the game."
But the attention to small details didn't just begin this season for Endeley.
It started in Tanzania when he first discovered his love for soccer.
It transferred back to his home town of Blaine, Minn., where he became one of the most prolific scorers in state history.
It manifested throughout his entire freshman campaign in 2019 when he forced his way into the starting lineup and gave IU's coaching staff no reason to take him out.
It continued through all last summer and fall when COVID-19 pushed the entire 2020 season into the spring.
And now, the small details are turning into big rewards.
"Herb, he's worked so hard on his finishing," Indiana head coach Todd Yeagley said. "He's always been an unbelievable unbalancer, and now his finishing is coming around. He's just a great young man."
It almost wasn't mean to be, though.
The game-winning goal, the mad dash to hoist Endeley off the ground in celebration, the postgame remarks -- all of it nearly became Endeley's fantasy, not his reality.
For much of the first half, Indiana was out-shot, out-possessed and out-played. The Panthers' relentless attack had the Hoosiers scrambling to even get out of their own half of the field.
After 45 minutes, with Pittsburgh holding a commanding 6-3 shot advantage and 3-1 corner-kick advantage, Indiana knew it had to switch something up, and quickly.
"Ultimately, our game plan in the second half was to just come out stronger," Endeley said. "And we knew that we'd be able to finish out the job if we just stuck to our principles."
Yeagley confirms those principles: "The difference was our defensive principles in key moments. The adaptability of this team is fantastic. The resilience is phenomenal."
Never mind the herky-jerky first half.
Forget the handful of point-blank misses and shots clanking off the goal frame from Pittsburgh.
Bottom line: Indiana keeps finding ways to win, and it's led them to the doorstep of a ninth national championship.
Only now, the Hoosiers' secret weapon -- Endeley -- isn't so secret anymore. It's just another role he'll have to learn to adapt to.
"Everyone knows their role and is one-hundred percent in it, and that's what you need," Yeagley said.
(05/13/21 7:06am)
Some how, some way, the third-seeded Hoosiers keep slugging out wins in the NCAA Tournament, and it has landed them in the College Cup for the 21st time in program history.
Now, only two more wins stand between Indiana and the coveted ninth national title.
We have a lot to talk about this week, so let's get started with this loaded edition of The Q49 Journal.
Taking stock of Indiana's College Cup run
Indiana has yet to play a flawless, complete match throughout the NCAA Tournament. But on the road to the College Cup, perfection isn't always necessary. Resiliency is, though.
In all three of the Hoosiers' NCAA Tournament wins, without resiliency and tough-minded attitudes, we're likely not sitting here today talking about a potential ninth star.
In the second round against St. Francis Brooklyn, IU head coach Todd Yeagley said it was one of the most difficult play styles the team has faced all season. The Terriers' pressure was relentless all game, especially forwards El Mahdi Youssoufi (who scored the second-half equalizer) and Nicolas Molina. Had it not been for Roman Celentano's late-game heroics in net, there's a decent chance Indiana is back in Bloomington looking ahead to next season.
Luckily, Celentano showed why he might be the best goalkeeper in nation, swatting away three shots in penalty kicks and denying several more in regulation and overtime.
I'd also be remiss to not acknowledge IU's two-week layoff prior to the St. Francis Brooklyn match. There was certainly a bit of rust that needed to be knocked off for those in crimson jerseys, where as the Terriers played three days earlier in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament and had a bit more pep in their step, it seemed.
Nevertheless, the Hoosiers found a way to squeak past the Terriers in penalty kicks, despite being without starting defender Joey Maher (1-game suspension due to a red card). Talk about a massive sigh of relief for IU fans.
Then came a dangerous third-round matchup against an experienced and dangerous Marquette team. The Hoosiers looked much better to start this match than they did in the second round, fortunately, and rode out two second-half goals from Maouloune Goumballe and Herbert Endeley to mount the come-from-behind-win.
The no-call on A.J. Palazzolo which led to a Marquette goal in the first half had IU fans irate, but to the referee's credit, his head was looking in the complete opposite direction. Tough situation for both IU and the referee to be in, but the Hoosiers managed to rally at halftime and fend off the Golden Eagles until the final buzzer.
And then came the Elite Eight matchup against No. 6-seeded Seton Hall, where Mother Nature decided to unleash a monsoon on Cary, North Carolina. (Disclaimer: I was also watching the broadcast from home, and the camera work was a mess due to the rain. God bless Dean Linke for his professionalism on commentary; one of the best in the business.)
Both sides endured a 40-plus-minute weather delay with 3:16 left in the first half, and at that point it felt like whoever could score first would likely win the game. Lo and behold, Indiana was able to brave the buckets of rain being dumped on the field to strike less than two minutes after play resumed.
Ryan Wittenbrink's tally just before halftime was one of the most technical goals from an Indiana player all season, which also brought his season goals total to five.
If and when Victor Bezerra foregoes his remaining college eligbility after this season, Wittenbrink is at the top of the shortlist to lead IU in goals next season. He just always seems to be in the right place at the right time, and it's going to be imperative that him, Endeley, Goumballe and Thomas Warr continue to step up in order to take the load off Bezerra's shoulders in the College Cup. (But I digress.)
All in all, the Hoosiers have yet to display their top form in any match throughout the NCAA Tournament.. But again, perfection is not what matters; resiliency is.
Now let's take a look at Pittsburgh...
What to expect with No. 2-seed Pittsburgh
It's as if this match was destined to take place from the very beginning. The storylines simply write themselves, and there are several notable ones.
No. 1: IU starting right back Nyk Sessock's first trip to the College Cup will pit (pun intedned) him against the team he transferred from last offseason.
A native of Philadelphia, Sessock spent his first two seasons with the Panthers, appearing in 37 matches with 32 starts while tallying two assists and one goal.
Following his sophomore season, Sessock entered the transfer portal and by Spring 2020, he signed on the dotted line for the Hoosiers. On his way to Bloomington, he brought a grittiness and selflessness that's allowed him to be successful from day one.
So, how does Sessock feel about his playing career coming full circle and playing his former team Friday?
"We haven't really talked about it much," Yeagley said. "...Any time you have a player that's on a different team or transferred in, I think for us, with Nyk, it's just enjoy where you are now. And obviously he'll have some insight on some of their players, which of course we'll talk to him about,"
While the inside intel might be helpful, Sessock's real value will come in just being himself Friday and not getting caught up in all the pomp and circumstance.
"Nyk has a lot of friends on Pitt and he's obviously well-loved on our team," Yeagley said. "He's just a great young man, and we just want him to go out and enjoy it and obviously not overthink the opponent. I think he'll do great.
"Once the whistle blows, it's go time. It's just another team that he's playing against."
No. 2: Pittsburgh head coach Jay Vidovich has deep-rooted ties with the IU program.
So deep, in fact, that Vidovich once donned the cream and crimson IU jersey for a full season in 1978 under legendary head coach Jerry Yeagley. His stint at Indiana would only last one season, though, before transferring to Ohio Wesleyan to finish his playing career.
"I have a lot of respect for Jay Vidovich," Todd Yeagley said. "As some of you may not know, he was at IU for a short time as a player, so he's got some IU love somewhere in there. He's got a lot of respect for our program and my father, in particular.
"He always asks how he's (Jerry) doing, and we really appreciate that."
Now decades removed from his freshman season at IU, Vidovich has blossomed into one of college soccer's great coaching minds.
From 1994-2014, he singlehandedly turned Wake Forest into the premier program it is today, guiding the Demon Deacons to its first and only national title in 2007. He also earned five ACC Coach of the Year selections and and two NSCAA Coach of the Year nods.
Now in his fifth season at Pittsburgh, Vidovich has again completely turned a program around, including the Panthers' first ever College Cup this season.
No. 3: One of the nation's premier goal-scoring teams vs. One of the nation's premier defending teams.
Pittsburgh's scoring pace this season is unprecedented. The Panthers lead the nation in goals scored with 51 in 19 games. The next closest team, High Point, tallied 38 goals across 14 games this season.
On the flipside, Indiana's defense has conceded next to nothing in terms of goals all season. Goalkeeper Roman Celentano's .909 save percentage leads the nation, while his eight shutouts are tied for third-most in the country. As a unit, the Hoosiers rank second nationally in goals against average (.344) and third in goal differential (+25).
Moral of the story: The two sides couldn't be more different from each other in terms of strategy, philosophy and personnel.
However, it's not as if IU and Pitt are unfamiliar with one another. The two teams met as recently as 2019 in Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic hosted in Bloomington. The Hoosiers came out on top, 3-2, in double overtime.
Could the recent familiarity work in IU's advantage?
"It does help," Yeagley said. "We definitely know the style of play that they like to play. We play against a few teams (in the Big Ten) that play a similar style.
"I thought Michigan this year has a close resemblance to what we'll face on Friday with their movement and some of their interchanges."
It's the all-out aggressiveness that Yeagley is referring to with the Panthers. For the sake of giving up some goals defensively (22 allowed this season), Pittsburgh is relentless in pushing the ball up field and making runs whenever possible.
MAC Hermann Trophy Finalist and ACC Offensive Player of the Year, Valentin Noel, is the lynchpin that holds Pittsburgh's attack together. The sophomore midfielder has tallied 14 goals and two assists this season while logging 21 shots on goal.
Noel doesn't do it alone, though. ACC Freshman of the Year Bertin Jacquesson (4 goals, 7 assists) and ACC Defender of the Year Jasper Loeffelsend (9 assists) are key cogs in the Panthers' attack-heavy style.
Defensively, goalkeeper Nico Campuzano, an ACC All-First Team selection, and defender Arturo Ordonez anchor a formidable backline that's always hunting for dispossessions.
Will the "Godfather" make the trip to Cary?
Here was Todd Yeagley's full answer when asked if his dad, Jerry, would be in attendance at the College Cup:
"I'm not sure about my father yet. He likes to watch (IU games) in his comfort area a lot, so I'm not sure if he'll make it. I'm talking about it with him.
And my family, they told me to get to the College Cup and they'll come over (to Cary). So talk about some pressure, I guess, to get to there.
There's a lot going on. Usually you get to the College Cup and you're there for three days, hopefully, but this one, to commit to a long time in Carolina was tough on our administration, our families."
In-depth on my recent Yeagley family feature story
As many of you may have already read, last Friday I published a story here on The Hoosier Network titled, A dynasty of destiny: Inside college soccer's greatest family.
The feedback I've received thus far has been overwhelming, and I want to start by saying THANK YOU for reading that special piece and for all the kind words. Initially, I wasn't sure how the story would be received since the Yeagley family is so sacred among the Hoosier community, but I'm glad it resonated with the readers.
The process of writing this 3,000-word story was very meticulous and took four months to write, edit, and re-write. First, I want to acknowledge Zak Keefer (Indianapolis Colts beat writer, The Athletic), Alex McCarthy (IU alum and HN editor), and Jeff Rabjohns (Senior writer, Peegs.com) for all the time they spent editing the story and guiding me.
Of course, I'm also very grateful for the time I got to spend chatting with Jerry, Todd and Ben. I wasn't sure if it would even be possible to coordinate interviews with all three, but they were incredibly gracious with their time and I cannot thank them enough.
Anyways... before I ever put pen to paper — or I guess fingers to keyboard — my mind was flooding with different ways to write this story. I knew I wanted to do something on the Yeagley family, but I wasn't quite sure what.
However, I also went into the reporting process knowing I didn't want the story to simply be a rehashing of the IU men's soccer program or an oral history of the Yeagley's — that's already been done several times over, like the "Worth the Wait" documentary, which I highly recommend you watch on Big Ten Network if you haven't already.
So, instead of framing the story around a linear timeline of the program, I decided to dive deep into the Yeagley family's psyche. What makes them tick? We don't hear from Jerry much nowadays, what's he up to? How about the third generation of Yeagley's, what are their thoughts on upholding the family legacy?
These are all questions I had, and it soon became the inspiration behind the story.
As you'll learn from reading the story (or at least I hope you learn), there's a lot that goes on behind-the-scenes with the Yeagley's. Winning at the rate that Jerry and Todd have is nothing short of unprecedented. In fact, it probably flies way under-the-radar in the college sports' world than it should.
But it's not always sunshine and daisies when it comes to running a powerhouse program, and I did my best to capture at least some of that.
Ultimately, my goal was to give IU fans and readers another angle in which to understand college soccer's winningest family, while still emphasizing their immense accomplishments. I hope you all enjoyed.
(05/11/21 3:16am)
There was no dogpile of cream and crimson jerseys Monday night in Cary, North Carolina.
There were no dramatic celebrations or tackling of teammates as the official game clock flashed 90:00 on the scoreboard and referee Carmen Serbio blew the final whistle.
There were no thunderous screams from the voices of the triumphant.
In whichever way you envisioned No. 3-seed Indiana celebrating a 2-0 win over sixth-seeded Seton Hall to advance to its 21st College Cup in program history, throw all that out the window.
Sometimes the best celebration is little celebration at all — especially if the ultimate goal, a ninth national title, is yet to be fulfilled.
"We're enjoying it, we had some fun times after the game," IU head coach Todd Yeagley said in a postgame press conference. "...But at the same time, we have the crown jewel, it's still out there. It's just a lot closer for us, it's more tangible."
However, any hopes of reaching that "crown jewel" almost always need the help of a proverbial perfect storm.
In the second round against St. Francis Brooklyn, the perfect storm came via penalty kicks, when goalkeeper Roman Celentano swatted away three shots to yank the Hoosiers from the brink of an upset.
In the third round against Marquette, Indiana stormed back from a 1-0 deficit at halftime, scoring two unanswered in the second half to squeak past the Golden Eagles.
Monday night in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, the perfect storm was actually just that — a storm. One that dropped enough buckets of rain onto WakeMed Soccer Park that play had to be paused with 3:16 left in the first half, forcing both sides to retreat to their team busses.
It was a scene that not even Yeagley, who has been around soccer his entire life, has ever quite experienced.
"I've been on busses (before) for waiting for things, maybe a halftime, but not for a delay to go the Final Four," Yeagley said.
The postponement lasted nearly 45 minutes.
In such a unique situation, Yeagley said there wasn't much else he or the coaching staff could really tell the team that would suddenly change their demeanor.
"Trying to keep them loose the best you can in that scenario, there was no place to go."
And when the match finally resumed amid an ongoing downpour, there was no guarantee that either side would find the back of the net given the rapidly deteriorating playing surface.
"The field conditions drastically changed," Yeagley said. "It was tough. I mean, the middle of the field, it was not standing water, but it was pretty close to it."
No matter how much Mother Nature tried to wreak havoc on the game, though, the Hoosiers refused to succumb. They couldn't.
Not against a Seton Hall squad that was hell-bent on extending its dream season into the Final Four. Not against an offense as dangerous as the Pirates, who out-shot the Hoosiers, 14-3, and forced the Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year to make six saves.
Despite the 11-shot disparity, three attempts was all Indiana needed to meticulously pick apart Seton Hall's backline.
Following the lengthy weather delay, IU forward Ryan Wittenbrink broke open the scoreless affair with a snipe in the 44th minute. Dodging and weaving his way atop Seton Hall's 18-yard box, Wittenbrink unleashed a shot with his right leg that curved past three Pirates' defenders and the outstretched arms of All-Big East goalkeeper Andrea Nota.
Like the lightning that forced a stoppage in play earlier, the redshirt sophomore's go-ahead goal was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.
"The Wittenbrink's of the world, those are important for us," Yeagley said. "We've got to continue to develop those players and be patient for their time, and he's done that."
Armed with a 1-0 lead heading into an abbreviated halftime, Indiana allowed itself to play with a bit more freedom as the pressure and stress waned slightly.
Then, in the 58th minute, the perfect storm struck again. Only this time, it wasn't Mother Nature's doing.
It was a dagger from IU senior forward Thomas Warr that put the exclamation point on the Hoosiers' quarterfinal victory. A perfectly-timed run from sophomore Maouloune Goumballe into the 18-yard box allowed him to find Warr near the opposite goal post who finished off the tap-in goal.
As the final 30 minutes trickled down, a rainbow forming overhead, it seemed like a mass Hoosier celebration was brewing. After all, how could you not celebrate a trip to the College Cup?
Well, when you play for a program that expects more than to just be content with a semifinals appearance, the celebration is subdued.
Sure, there were plenty of smiles, high-fives and hugs to go around, but the real work is still yet to be done, the "crown jewel" yet to be captured.
Indiana's players know it. Indiana's coaching staff knows it. Todd Yeagley knows it.
"I told them after (the game), I said 'you're kind of leaving your mark. You are leaving your mark. But the ultimate one is still ahead.'"
(05/07/21 8:42am)
He has no clue where the journal is.Maybe it’s buried deep inside a cardboard box, packed in tight with National Player of the Year plaques, Big Ten trophies, game-worn MLS uniforms, mementos from a lifetime ago. Maybe it’s laying dormant on an end table somewhere, a sheen of dust masking the very ink that once turned a soccer star into a coaching maestro, a Hoosier hero into a Hoosier legend, a son into a disciple.In 1995, Todd Yeagley sat cooped up in a room halfway across the world, his professional aspirations just beginning. The previous winter he graduated from Indiana University with one of the most illustrious playing careers in program history — a four-time All-American, a three-time Big Ten champion, a National Player of the Year. But he wanted more, and he knew he had more to give.So that summer he found himself in Italy training with a foreign team in preparation for a new start-up league that was forming in the United States. It would be named Major League Soccer and feature 10 teams scattered around the country, and nobody truly knew if it would last or flame out like every other American soccer league that came before.Todd was willing to give it a shot.A few weeks into his international stay, he stumbled upon the journal.“I don’t remember (writing) it,” Todd says 26 years later. To this day he still can’t recall where it came from.But the proof is there, in the dark ink that engulfed page after page after page. It was his handwriting, his frantic thoughts, his copious observations. With each stroke of the pen, Todd’s genius was cemented, never to be erased. Thoughts are fleeting. Ink is permanent.Inside the journal, a coach’s ambition was born.“I look back and the journal was more about the coaching that I was seeing, the activities, maybe the way they played,” he says. “…I guess I was always prepping to be a coach without ever knowing it.”It’s a good thing he never stopped writing that summer. His career was about to take off.
(05/07/21 3:23am)
Two bodies crashed into each other with 3:08 remaining as if a soccer match had gone rogue and turned into American football.
Body No. 1 — A 6-foot-3 striker lurching his body forward in an attempt to bury the equalizer for No. 17 Marquette.
Body No. 2 — A 6-foot-2 goalkeeper, dressed head-to-toe in black, willing to do anything if it meant keeping No. 3 Indiana men's soccer in the lead and a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.
Advantage: IU sophomore Roman Celentano, who snatched the ball in mid-air with two hands before bringing it close to his chest and hugging it tight like a teddy bear, much to the chagrin of two Golden Eagles' players.
The physicality brewed all match — evidenced by the 11 yellow cards doled out — but this time, Celentano refused to back down.
After landing on his feet, ball firmly in his clutches, Celentano lowered his shoulder into Marquette's Alex Mirsberger and stared him down as if to say, this my goal box, the shenanigans stop right now.
Not only did the silent message seem to resonate loud and clear, the Golden Eagles didn't generate another shot-on-goal for the remainder of the match and watched as the Hoosiers closed out a Sweet 16 win.
"I'm just really proud of the team," IU head coach Todd Yeagley said. "That was, again, just a real gutsy, extra-effort type win."
Through two NCAA Tournament matches, the Hoosiers certainly haven't made it easy on themselves. After squeaking past St. Francis Brooklyn in the second round via penalty kicks, IU desperately needed two late goals against Marquette in the final 20 minutes to ensure a spot in the Elite Eight.
In both wins, the Hoosiers relied on leadership to help drag them to the final whistle. On Thursday night, it was senior midfielder and co-captain A.J. Palazzolo's turn to inspire the team.
"Really want to credit A.J., just the way that he kind of rallied the troops at half," Yeagley said. "He just kind of willed the guys on making sure that we're going out of this thing, that we're leaving everything on the field."
Before any of the halftime rallying began, though, it was Palazzolo who found himself on the wrong end of a Marquette goal sequence.
In the 44th minute, with senior forward Thomas Warr dribbling the ball past midfield, Palazzolo seemed to be tripped up by a Marquette player while making a run down the left flank. Instead of a foul and a free-kick in favor of the Hoosiers, however, the referee did not see the trip and allowed play to continue.
Seconds later, Marquette struck.
Amid the confusion surrounding the no-call, Marquette forward A.J. Franklin took the turnover into IU territory and rifled a shot from about 25 yards out that sailed past Celentano and into the back of the net. For the first time all season, Indiana trailed at halftime.
Rather than sulk, it was a lesson learned for the Hoosiers.
"We had a little left in the tank in that first half," Yeagley said. "I think that was maybe the takeaway, is that we had to empty it (the tank), and we did. We emptied it."
Maybe emptying the gas tank meant playing with more of an edge, because what ensued in the second half was something of a yellow-card-palooza rather than an IU-type soccer match.
Over the course of the final 45 minutes, referee Sergio Gonzalez showed 10 yellow cards to 10 different players — IU receiving six total, Marquette shown five.
With so many stoppages and collisions, neither team could get into much of a second-half flow.
"The game got chippy," Yeagley said, "but I thought the official did a really nice job of managing that... The game didn't get out of control, it just had a lot on the line. Both teams were fighting for a lot."
The chippiness played right into the Hoosiers' strengths, though, especially on restarts and turnovers where they were able to make a few key runs into open space. Two of which proved to be the difference.
In the 70th minute, forward Victor Bezzera connected with Herbert Endeley streaking down the right flank with no one but the goalkeeper in front of him. Endeley finished it off with an equalizing shot to the far post.
Less than nine minutes later, with Marquette on the mend following another yellow card, forward Maouloune Goumballe buried the game-winning goal. Touches from Ryan Wittenbrink and Nyk Sessock inside the 18-yard box caused a scrum and loose ball in front of the net, and Goumballe tapped it in.
Saddled with the late lead, Celentano and IU's backline took care of the rest to propel the Hoosiers into the Elite Eight.
"Just another example of digging and digging," Yeagley said. "Some of these guys were uncomfortable. We still have some young guys or guys that don't have a lot of minutes.
"That's a big game, and they were able to overcome. That says a lot."
(05/03/21 4:54am)
Metaphorical sirens with red flashing lights were howling throughout Wilmington, North Carolina, Sunday evening. No, it wasn't a firetruck. No, it wasn't a police car. No, not even an ambulance.
For the final 12 minutes of regulation, 20 minutes of overtime, and three minutes of penalty kick's, the proverbial upset alert blared throughout UNCW Soccer Stadium for all 250 spectators to hear.
Then, with one final sprawling save from sophomore goalkeeper Roman Celentano, the sirens retreated as IU men's soccer escaped with a 3-1 victory in penalty kick's over St. Francis Brooklyn.
In the sirens' place, one giant, collective exhale befitting an early-round NCAA Tournament match that had the three-seeded Hoosiers standing on fate's doorstep.
"Tonight was survive and advance," IU head coach Todd Yeagley said.
Survive. It's a word often tossed around in tournament settings when David gives Goliath a defiant pop in the mount, and then some.
But Indiana's second round match against St. Francis Brooklyn was no David versus Goliath showdown — that would be an understatement. Rather, it was one of college soccer's premier programs against a team who doesn't even have a home field to play on during the regular season.
So it should have been a breeze for the Hoosiers to get past the Terriers, right? Wrong. Very wrong.
"Give credit to Brooklyn," Yeagley said. "I thought they were a tough team — I wouldn't necessarily say a tough matchup — but just a tricky team the way that they played."
There were no tricks on the part of the Terriers, though, only an aggressive, relentless approach that nearly drove the Hoosiers to their breaking point.
"I thought their team, they were really into, like, 'we want to make a statement' kind of mojo," Yeagley said. "... there was just something underneath that team that I felt they squeeze everything they had out of them."
The eye-test and final box-score confirm Yeagley's thoughts.
15-7 shot advantage — St. Francis Brooklyn.
6-2 shots-on-goal advantage — St. Francis Brooklyn.
16-8 foul advantage — St. Francis Brooklyn.
Had it not been for Celentano's heroic day, saving five shots in regulation and three in penalty kicks, there's a decent chance the Terriers, not the Hoosiers, are headed to face Marquette in the third round. In fact, there's a case to be made that St. Francis Brooklyn's rabid attacking duo of El Mahdi Youssoufi and Nicolas Molina outplayed Indiana's entire offense.
Youssoufi, a native of Morocco, used a combination of lightning-fast speed and finesse to wreak havoc on IU's backline and rifle off five shots. His equalizer in the 77th minute — a through ball that gave the streaking Youssoufi a point-blank shot on net — summed up the Hoosiers' struggles against relentless pressure.
Molina, who Yeagley referred to as a "mini Zlatan (Ibrahimovic)," was equally as pesky and a thorn in IU's side all game. Despite several of his teammates needing medical attention late in the match due to cramping and an assortment of injuries, Molina's motor never waned. He dispossessed IU players who were lackadaisical at times and made them pay with five shots that challenged Celentano each time.
Could it be that IU simply overlooked its counterpart?
"No, we didn't overlook them," Yeagley responded emphatically. "We just came up against a good team, and we were, again, just not as sharp as we have been in game's past."
But having one of the top goalkeeper's in the nation comes with many perks.
One of them is bailing out your team in odd-man situations, as Celentano did time and again Sunday. The other perk, a confident swagger that radiates from the end line when the 6-foot-2 Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year stalks his prey during a do-or-die penalty kick shootout.
It's a scenario that Celentano has already faced three times in his brief career, coming out on top all three times.
"When it got to penalties, you know, we have Roman," Yeagley said. "So we're in a good place."
At least for a few more days, Indiana can cling to that "good place."
Sure, maybe it's OK to chalk up Sunday's performance as simply a two-week layoff coupled with the unpredictability of St. Francis Brooklyn and the gusty weather conditions.
Going forward, however, the Hoosiers are going to need a much better showing if they want to make a run at a ninth national title.
But for now, go ahead and exhale. The sirens have shut off.
(05/01/21 5:50am)
It is time. On Sunday evening, the Quest For Nine commences.
After what has been an unbelievably long and draining calendar year for Indiana men's soccer and its fans, the wait is over. Sure, IU claimed its third-straight Big Ten Double -- a feat that deserves significant praise -- after defeating Penn State two weeks ago via penalty kicks in the Big Ten Tournament finals.
But anyone who follows the Hoosiers knows what the ultimate goal is each season: a ninth NCAA title.
With that, let's dive into another installment of The Q49 Journal.
(04/18/21 4:28pm)
Roman Celentano knew what he would do. He visualized it days ago. The moment after he swatted away Penn State's final penalty kick to secure IU men's soccer's 15th Big Ten Tournament championship. The ball rifling to his left, his body diving, sprawling, extending in the same direction. The celebration.
"I thought a little bit about it," Celentano said after the match. "I just visualized winning and what I'd do after."
It was a familiar scene for the sophomore goalkeeper — the fate of the Hoosiers' conference tournament hopes riding on his shoulders.
In 2019, Celentano found himself in net as IU edged Michigan, 4-3, in penalty kicks to claim its 14th Big Ten Tournament title. In 2021, the circumstances were nearly identical, only this time Celentano could dictate the outcome. His chance to etch himself into IU lore.
So there Celentano stood, toes on the end line, body upright, eyes fixed on his prey, never tipping off which way he'd dive. Penn State's Callum Pritchatt lined up opposite, his left foot making one last determination of where the ball would end up.
"For most of these guys it's more just feeling them out and seeing how they're standing and how they're lining up for the shot and where they're going to go," Celentano said. "So it's a mixture of both, the educated guess and feeling it out."
Celentano's instincts were all he needed. Pritchatt's shot darted right, the 6-foot-3 goalkeeper matched it step for step, and the celebration was on. IU players poured out onto the field, all headed for the one dressed in red and black.
Celentano returned the favor, busting out an old dance move from the proverbial shed out back. "Ride that bike, Roman Celentano!" said Dean Linke on Big Ten Network's broadcast of the match. It was the same celebration he used after IU's tournament-clinching win over Michigan just a season ago.
(04/15/21 4:26am)
For a head coach who is usually as calm, cool and collected as any you'll find, Todd Yeagley did a whole bunch of screaming Wednesday night.
But it was the good kind of screaming, like when your team is headed to its fourth straight Big Ten Tournament finals after shutting out a bitter conference rival. Or the kind of screaming you do when your team has an opportunity to clinch a third straight Big Ten Double.
"I'm a little hoarse, so bear with me," Yeagley said to begin his postgame press conference.
The gruff, raspy voice was certainly understandable given the celebration that ensued after top-seeded Indiana blanked No. 4-seeded Maryland, 2-0, in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.
The on-field performance from the Hoosiers, though, will likely make up for whatever sore throat Yeagley wakes up with Thursday morning.
"Good performance overall," he said. "Certainly the first half I thought we played pretty well. Second half I thought we played very well, and it's obviously great to advance and move on."
Indiana was fortunate to escape the first half unscathed against Maryland's relentless attack, but the same could be said on the other end of the field, too. While both sides created several dangerous chances and forced the opposing team's backline to stay on its toes, neither side was able to capitalize.
Though Indiana entered a scoreless halftime with a clear advantage on corner kick opportunities and shots on goal, the team's services and finishes weren't crisp enough to find the back of the net.
The Terrapins, who matched the Hoosiers' first-half shot total with five, also generated a few odd-man opportunities inside the 18-yard box, but none were threatening enough to force a save from IU sophomore goalkeeper Roman Celentano. That stout defense continued into the second half as Maryland tallied six more shots, three on frame, and IU's backline remained steady to secure the eighth clean sheet of the season.
"Just to go out there and shut them out, it felt good," Celentano said. "They're always going to bring their best, so to go out there and not let them score, it's a good feeling."
An even better feeling, however, is receiving a pair of second-half goals from IU sophomore forward Victor Bezerra to slam the door shut on Maryland for good. The two tallies, Bezerra's ninth and 10th of the season, were all the Hoosiers needed to comfortably waltz into the Big Ten Tournament finals.
The first of Bezerra's two goals came in the 46th minute as junior right back Nyk Sessock served a tight pass in front of the goal box which Bezerra connected on with his right foot and buried just under the top crossbar. But the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year wasn't done just yet.
Less than 10 minutes later, the Big Ten's leading goal scorer struck again, this time with a you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it snipe. In the 55th minute, the Hoosiers were awarded a free kick from about 25 yards out. IU junior midfielder Joe Schmidt tapped the ensuing kick back to Bezerra who unloaded a laser shot past four Terps' defenders and off the left post to secure a 2-0 lead for IU.
"He loves the moment, he loves the pressure, and he's only getting better," Yeagley said about Bezerra.
Bezerra's fourth brace of the season provided the Hoosiers with just enough padding to settle back into a more defensive-minded approach the rest of the way. With the midfield and backline dropping down a bit, ensuring Maryland's late surge didn't result in any ideas of a comeback, the next 35 minutes proved to be all Indiana to close out the match.
It's not often IU victories (or shutouts for that matter) have come so comfortably against Maryland, but Wednesday night proved to be a rare exception. Dating back to 1999, the Hoosiers have posted just five shutouts of the Terrapins in 16 total meetings.
"It's always a really good game with Maryland," Yeagley said. "The rivalry is bigger than the conference because it was a national rival early in the time, and now it's a Big Ten rival."
Now, Indiana's focus shifts to No. 2 seed Penn State, which will visit Armstrong Stadium at 5 p.m. ET Saturday with a Big Ten Tournament title on the line.
It's been a decade since the Nittany Lions earned a spot in the Big Ten Tournament finals. This season, though, they're arguably as good as any roster they've assembled in the past decade with First Team All-Big Ten selections Brandon Hackenberg, Danny Bloyou and Pierre Ready leading the way.
In what should be one of the best Big Ten matches of the season Saturday night, Indiana will need to bring the same intensity and firepower that it did against Maryland if it wants to claim a third-straight Big Ten Double.
"Right now, the guys are really really focused on getting a chance to win another title," Yeagley said.
(04/11/21 5:27am)
Mother Nature has a funny way of expressing her emotions. One moment she's dropping buckets of rain down onto Bill Armstrong Stadium, the next she's painting golden sun rays to the West and a double rainbow to the east.
And on Saturday night in Bloomington, as the skies opened up and Mother Nature did all she could to wreak havoc on the field below, IU men's soccer glided past Northwestern, 3-0, in the Quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.
"It was a strange first half," IU head coach Todd Yeagley said. "Weather played into that strangeness. The sun came out at one point, the rain, I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know if we'd have snow next."
Fortunately for the Hoosiers — and the entire Bloomington community — it did not end up snowing. But rain or shine, Indiana stuck to its game plan, adjusted when necessary and flexed its muscles against an overmatched Northwestern team.
For much of the first half, you'd have thought Jerry Yeagley Field was located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. The precipitation was heavy and steady, even blowing sideways at times which made for errant passes and less-than-superb play from either team.
Luckily for top-seeded Indiana, it had the benefit of hosting the quarterfinals matchup, and thus had a better feel of how the turf would play and what tweaks would need to be made to accommodate the slick playing surface.
"The game plan was every finish that we have, try hitting it low, use the conditions in our favor," IU sophomore forward Victor Bezerra said.
Not only did that game plan work for IU, it resulted in another multi-goal effort for Bezerra, his third brace and eighth goal of the season.
The first of Bezerra's two goals came early in the 7th minute when fellow sophomore attacking mate Herbert Endeley was tripped up inside the 18-yard box and elicited a penalty kick in favor of the Hoosiers. Without thinking twice, Yeagley called upon Bezerra and the newly-minted Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year rewarded his team by burying a shot into the bottom left of the net.
The early tally was crucial for Indiana as the rain, which originally began as a slight drizzle, unleashed a storm that lasted for the remainder of the first half. That's where things began going a bit awry for IU, though, as its lack of aggressiveness and opportunistic finishing drew the displeasure of Yeagley and the coaching staff.
"That's where the challenge was at halftime," Yeagley said, "to continue to hold the tempo, but change the gear. There just needed to be a tempo change at certain times, and we saw more of that in the second half."
Despite the slower pace to open the match, IU's backline still stifled Northwestern's attack, limiting the Wildcats to just two total shots, zero shots on goal, and zero corner kicks. It was a relatively quiet day for the reigning Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year, Roman Celentano, given the quality play of defensive mates. Backup goalkeeper Bryant Pratt even made his IU debut with less than 10 minutes remaining, a sign of how well the Hoosier defense was holding up.
And it was only a matter of time before IU's attack began to match its defensive intensity.
In the 42nd minute, forward Ryan Wittenbrink capitalized on a major gaffe by Northwestern starting goalkeeper Ethan Bandre. With a live ball trickling back inside Northwestern's goal box and Wittenbrink in heavy pursuit, Bandre attempted to clear the ball but instead kicked it right back to Wittenbrink who finished off IU's 2-nil lead. It marked the fourth goal of Wittenbrink's breakout redshirt sophomore campaign.
Then, to slam the door shut one final time on the Wildcats' season, Bezerra struck again in the 72nd minute. A textbook touch pass from midfielder Joe Schmidt found a streaking Bezerra all alone inside Northwestern's box and he rifled a curving shot past Bandre's outstretched arms.
"When (Bezerra's) around the 18(-yard box), you get excited, we get excited, other teams not, but we are," Yeagley said with a slight chuckle.
Perhaps it's a bit premature to say, but with Bezerra leading the offensive charge, IU's ceiling is as high as any team in the nation. Couple that with a stout defense that has conceded a total of two goals all season and it's no wonder why Indiana has catapulted itself into contention for a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
However, the Hoosiers must take care of business in the Big Ten Tournament first before they can even think beyond that, which means up next is semifinals tango with bitter rival Maryland on Wednesday.
In what may be the toughest match of the season for the Hoosiers when they face the Terrapins — their regular-season match was canceled — they'll need every bit of Bezerra, the stone-wall defense and the confidence that showed on Saturday against the Wildcats.
"We come to IU for bigger things than individual awards," Bezerra said. "We look for the team goals and that's where my heads at right now."
(04/02/21 8:28pm)
Somehow, some way, we've made it to the end of No. 5 IU men's soccer's regular season. Despite a slip-up at Northwestern and match cancellations against Penn State and Maryland, the Hoosiers' steadiness has earned them a third-straight Big Ten Regular Season Title and 17th overall in program history.
In this week's edition of The Q49 Journal, we'll explore IU's unconventional regular season, Spencer Glass' season-ending injury and what it means for IU, and take a deep-dive into Roman Celentano's breakthrough season in net.
Regular season finale cancelled, Hoosiers win Big Ten title
Before we get in too deep, here's a fun anecdote: I had typed out this entire edition of The Q49 Journal on Saturday afternoon which included an in-depth preview of the Maryland match, and within minutes of hitting publish, IU announced its regular season finale against Maryland was cancelled and, by default, the Hoosiers were Big Ten champions for a third-straight season. Needless to say I had unpublish and rewrite the entire story.
Such is a life in a COVID world, right?
Anyways, No. 5 Indiana has secured the three-peat and ends the regular season atop the Big Ten with a 7-1 record, narrowly edging Penn State. It's certainly going to be a tough pill to swallow for the Nittany Lions because they never got a chance to play the Hoosiers due to a cancellation earlier in the season, and IU still would've needed a draw or a win against Maryland to outright clinch the title.
However, because of the uncertainty of this season and the cancellations that were sure to pile up, the conference pivoted away from its normal standings and instead awarded the regular season title to the team with highest average points per game. Thus, IU's 2.62 points per game topped Penn State's 2.38 points per game despite both teams finishing with just one loss this season.
For the fans it's also a shame that they never got to see IU and Penn State square off in what likely would have decided the conference champion. The Nittany Lions have been terrific this year, especially goalkeeper Kris Shakes and defender Brandon Hackenberg, and they likely would have been the Hoosiers' stiffest competition in conference play.
The cancelled rivalry matchup against Maryland also stings for both sides involved. For Indiana, winning the conference crown after a hard-fought match is probably more exhilarating than winning it due to semantics and circumstances out of their control — though, I'm sure they're more than happy to be raising that trophy regardless of how it happened. For the Terrapins, a win over the Hoosiers would have been a significant boost to their NCAA Tournament hopes, which are in murky waters after a 4-3-1 campaign.
All this being said, Indiana now shifts its focus to the Big Ten Tournament where the Hoosiers own the top seed and will retain home-field advantage through the entirety of their tournament run. Whereas in a normal year the Big Ten would designate a neutral site for the tournament to take place, this season the higher seed of each matchup is the host team.
The conference tournament gets underway with the quarterfinals on Saturday, April 10, the semifinals on Wednesday, April 14, and the final on Saturday, April 17.
Indiana will open tournament play against the winner of the 8-seed vs. 9-seed match, which likely will be Northwestern and Wisconsin.
Spencer Glass out for the season, now what?
Indiana suffered a huge blow last Saturday when redshirt senior defender and co-captain Spencer Glass was carted off the field midway through a Big Ten showdown against Michigan. While the Hoosiers escaped Ann Arbor with a double-overtime win thanks to Ryan Wittenbrink's golden goal, a dark cloud of uncertainty still remained as Hoosier fans awaited Glass' prognosis.
Then came an announcement on Thursday afternoon from IU head coach Todd Yeagley that confirmed the worst-case scenario for Glass and the Hoosiers.
"[Spencer] has broken his leg in the game against Michigan, so he will be out the rest of the season," Yeagley said in a Zoom press conference. "He had his procedure done on Sunday. The medical staff did a great job in getting the bone back together, if you will.
"His spirits are really high for all things considered, and we certainly hope to raise a trophy for him on Sunday."
Two things immediately became apparent when Glass exited the Michigan game: IU's restarts and corners were less crisp, and the backline has some glaring depth issues.
To the former point, Glass was tabbed as IU's primary corner-kick and free-kick initiator, but with him out, Joe Schmidt and others took on that role to varying degrees of success. Several of the second half and overtime corner kicks against Michigan were noticeably less sharp without Glass. However, I wouldn't expect for this to be a long-term issue as Yeagley and his coaching staff sort things out.
The backline depth, though, is a bit concerning. Starting right back Nyk Sessock has battled a leg injury all season, which sidelined him against Michigan, and now Glass' season-ending injury creates holes on both flanks. Against the Wolverines, Yeagley made the impromptu decision to insert sophomore Maouloune Goumballe at right back, a position Goumballe has never trained a minute at according to Yeagley, and Brett Bebej at left back, again a relatively new position.
At this point in the season, it's going to be all-hands-on-deck as Indiana tries to navigate the injuries.
"We're not quite sure what we're going to yet," Yeagley said, "and quite honestly we've had some other injuries on the backline, and we don't know what we're going to do, but we'll figure it out."
Based on Yeagley's comments, it's unclear what the Hoosiers will do along the backline and in the midfield going forward. It is possible that Goumballe and Bebej remain at the two fullback positions while others like Ben Yeagley, A.J. Palazzolo, Joe Schmidt, and Quinten Helmer continue to rotate in the midfield.
Or, best-case scenario, Sessock returns to full health soon, slots in at right back, and alleviates some of the depth issues.
Nonetheless, Indiana still has big goals to accomplish this season, but Glass' injury won't make the road any easier going forward.
"[Spencer] came up to the video session [Thursday] with a smile on his face, and he just wants to see us do well," Yeagley said. "He wants to see the work he's put in finish. He wants to see it finished.
"And that's the job of this group is to finish the work that Spencer and the guys before him did... that's the best way to honor a teammate that's injured."
Roman Celentano's stellar sophomore season
Sophomore goalkeeper Roman Celentano hasn't just been good this year for Indiana, he's been among the nation's elite all season long. Among all Division 1 NCAA goalkeepers, Celentano ranks third in shutouts (6), 4th in save percentage (93.5%), and 6th in average goals against (.246).
The Naperville, Ill., native's meteoric breakthrough has been a bit of a welcome surprise for IU's coaching staff.
"Once we started working with him, I'm not surprised he made the jump that he's made," Yeagley said, "But in the recruiting process we though it might take a while."
Rated a two-star prospect in the 2019 class according to Top Drawer Soccer, Celentano was initially viewed as more
of a project than an instant plug-and-play goalkeeper a la Trey Muse. However, when then-starter Sean Caulfield struggled in net in 2019, Celentano was quickly thrust into a starting role and never looked back.
The sizable minutes he played as a true freshman and the belief of the coaching staff early on has since parlayed into the development of a premier goalkeeper.
"We saw a lot of potential in Roman," Yeagley said. "He was a late bloomer, and we typically like to find those in goalkeepers in particular, but Roman didn't even take over starting his club goalkeeping starting job until, really, late junior year."
Well it's a good thing Indiana decided to pull the trigger and take a chance on Celentano because he's rewarding Indiana handsomely. Even in halves or full matches where Indiana looked to be out of sorts this season, Celentano's rock-solid dependability and long, 6-foot-3 frame has been a crucial security blanket.
Especially as the Hoosiers head into the final match of the regular season and into the postseason, they're going to need Celentano to continue swatting away shots at a torrid pace if multiple pieces of championship hardware remain in the team's future.
"We saw a kid that had a lot of promise," Yeagley said, "and then you get to know him, and he's hardworking, humble, just everything we're looking for for character."
(03/24/21 4:15am)
How does one respond after finding out they've won 150 matches in their coaching career? Well if you're Todd Yeagley, you simply respond "Hey!" followed by a slight grin, as he did in a press conference following IU's match against Northwestern.
For a head collegiate soccer coach that has seemingly experienced it all — one National Championship, three College Cup appearances, six Big Ten Regular Season and Tournament titles — Tuesday night's milestone win over Northwestern might just serve as another day at the office; one step closer to Indiana's ultimate goal of Big Ten and National championships.
But to those on the outside looking in, IU's 3-0 thrashing of Northwestern was perhaps poetic in more ways than one. A dominant win for a dominant program headed by what many consider one of the most dominant head coaches in college soccer history.
"Whistle to whistle I thought we were in control," Yeagley said.
No matter the amount of congratulatory messages that Yeagley will likely brush past in the coming days — his way of remaining humble and grounded — there's no sugar-coating the manner in which Yeagley's 150th win came. In true IU and Yeagley fashion, the Hoosiers used a stifling defensive effort and an opportunistic offense to cruise past the Wildcats and avenge their lone loss of the season.
Ironically, if you were to compare the box scores from IU's 1-0 loss at Northwestern on Feb. 27 and IU's win on Tuesday night, they'd look nearly identical — significantly more shots, corner kicks and restarts than the Wildcats. The only difference was Indiana refused to wait around, instead throwing punch after punch after punch from the opening whistle until Northwestern eventually succumbed.
"We just make it hard for teams to get comfortable," Yeagley said. "... Some of those games I didn't feel really great after, a couple of the early ones; this one felt good. We played well and deserved the goals we scored, and I thought it was a deserving score at the end of the day."
IU's shutout win, which maintained its solo lead atop the Big Ten standings, was only possible because of a complete team effort. Sophomore forward Maouloune Goumballe led the way with an assist and a goal, both coming in the first half, while freshman Nate Ward tallied his first-career goal in the 11th minute and sophomore Herbert Endeley sealed the game shut with a goal in the 51st minute.
From the opening whistle, Indiana's strategy was clear: attack, attack, attack. And the Hoosiers responded in earnest, firing seven shots and earning four corner kicks in the first 25 minutes of the match.
Unlike the last time IU and Northwestern met, though, the pressure was too much for Northwestern's backline to alleviate. A cross from Goumballe to Ward allowed the Hoosiers to strike first at 10:49, a header to the far post by Ward that Northwestern goalkeeper Miha Miskovic's diving body had no chance of blocking.
"Coach told us to get in line, be aggressive, so I was just looking to spin a defender, pick my head up, and I saw Nate in [the box]," Goumballe said. "I was happy to give him a good ball, and I was happy to see Nate get his first goal as well."
Ward's goal signaled a Hoosier onslaught that was only just beginning.
Less than 10 minutes later, Goumballe struck again, this time the beneficiary of a well-placed ball inside Northwestern's goal box. After redshirt senior A.J. Palazzolo's shot was swatted away by Miskovic, the ball caromed back to Goumballe who tapped the ball past Miskovic to give IU an early, commanding 2-0 lead.
By halftime, Indiana had a stranglehold of any momentum that Northwestern was clinging on to. A 10-1 shot advantage and 7-0 corner-kick advantage for the Hoosiers heading into the break had the Wildcats waist-deep in dangerous waters.
Endeley's goal just six minutes into the second half eventually submerged the Wildcats for good. The Minnesota native bobbed and weaved his way down the left flank using a combination of dribbles before burying IU's third and final dagger from just inside the 18-yard box.
"We know if we let Northwestern hang around too long, they would get back in the game" Goumballe said. "So our game plan to put the game away early, and getting the goals early was crucial and holding onto that lead through the end."
In some ways, IU's victory didn't do Yeagley's accomplishment justice. No 'Hoosier Army' to bang on the sideline boards as IU dealt blow after blow to Northwestern. No marching band to belt IU's fight song into the night sky. And, perhaps the biggest disappointment to some, no spectators to congratulate Yeagley.
In other ways, however, it almost felt right. Yeagley has never been about accolades, and he has reiterated that time and again throughout his coaching career. All the pomp and circumstance that comes with such an indelible feat, Yeagley's laid-back personality likely doesn't lend itself to such self-adoration.
But once fans are able to return to Armstrong Stadium and cheer on one of college soccer's most storied programs, an applause will likely be in order for Yeagley.
Until then, Yeagley field will have to do without the roar of its home crowd. Just Indiana, its opponent, and a historic coach roaming the sidelines.
"It's definitely different playing with fans," Yeagley said. "Tonight was the closest I felt it did feel like a fall game, and obviously there was family there, but just playing under the lights, it's a different feeling.
"We're making the best of it. The guys love playing and we love competing."
(03/16/21 5:12am)
It was a first half to forget for No. 23 IU men’s soccer on a cold and rain-soaked Monday evening at Armstrong Stadium. The pace was slow, Michigan State was the aggressor, and before the Hoosiers had a chance to catch their breaths, they found themselves in an early hole.
But the sluggish start against the Spartans is hardly a newfound revelation. It’s the same reason IU dropped a 1-0 stunner to Northwestern just a few weeks ago. And it’s the same reason IU head coach Todd Yeagley hasn’t minced words when lamenting his team’s lack of his consistency to begin matches.
Not on Monday, though. Nope. Instead, Indiana, faced with its first real, prolonged deficit of the season, dug deep and dug itself out of an early 1-0 hole thanks to a second-half resurgence led by sophomores Victor Bezerra and Daniel Munie.
Or, in far fewer words, the Hoosiers grew up.
“These are the growing moments where this team is different than last year’s team,” Yeagley said. “They haven’t had a come-from-behind win. Last year’s team had four overtime wins. Those are big moments and you build on that.
“So I thought tonight was a building time for this team. And I told them, I go, ‘I’m really happy you felt that and experienced and were able to come through with it because that’s going to be valuable for us moving forward, in the short term and long term.”
Through five matches, a postponement against Penn State, and a home opener delayed by several weeks due to weather, consistency hasn’t been easy to come by for Indiana. Whether it’s a playing rotation that’s constantly been in a state of flux due to injuries or experimentation, or an offense that comes and goes in unpredictable spurts, the Hoosiers are still searching for themselves.
Against Michigan State, however, IU’s second-half performance looked more like the Hoosiers of seasons past rather than the Hoosiers of the first half. After falling behind early due to a goal from Michigan State’s Luke Morrell in the 24th minute, IU salvaged an imperfect first 45 minutes and headed into halftime trailing 1-0.
Instead of letting inexperience and adversity dictate IU’s second half, though, a flip switched for the home team.
“Second half, you felt like it was just coming any time,” Yeagley said. “Those are really important wins to come from behind against a good team. Michigan State is a good team … So to comeback in a bit of a dogfight when we had to play better, tougher and just with more swag, I really liked that.”
And in the 62nd minute, Bezerra personified the toughness and swag that Yeagley yearned for.
A strike from just outside the 15-yard box that took an improbable bounce off a Michigan State defender’s back and curved past the outstretched hands of Spartans goalkeeper Isiah Handspike gave way to a swag-laden celebration near the IU sideline.
As for the toughness, a tooth infection that has prevented Bezerra from sleeping soundly or practicing comfortably for several days can explain that one.
“(Victor) was tired today and I really got after him,” Yeagley said. “He played really hard the second half, but he’s been on limited sleep with what’s going on with his tooth. Maybe I shouldn’t have started him like the Northwestern game, but he can change the game for us.”
Bezerra’s equalizer was perhaps just what the doctor ordered — for both Bezerra’s tooth and the Hoosiers’ comeback bid. Finally, after 60 minutes of frustration and uncharacteristic play, Indiana received the jolt of energy it needed.
Staring a potential draw in the face, Munie and the Hoosiers channeled that energy to bury the Spartans in the 88th minute. Redshirt senior captain Spencer Glass ignited the game-winning sequence as he rifled a free-kick restart into Michigan State’s box that deflected off Herbert Endeley’s heel, trickled to Munie in front of the net, and finished off with a redirection that sealed the game-winner.
“The ball had eyes for the back post,” Munie said. “I don’t know how it got through, but I was able to go flick on it and the rest was an exciting time.”
Exciting, indeed, as Munie’s goal and IU’s eventual 2-1 win propelled the team atop the Big Ten standings and in sole possession of first place. But in order to hold on to the top spot throughout the remainder of the season, the Hoosiers will need to replicate their second-half selves.
With a rugged schedule down the stretch that still includes Michigan, Maryland and Penn State, the lessons learned from IU’s come-from-behind triumph on Monday can’t be taken for granted, nor can they be forgotten.
For a team with aspirations of a third consecutive Big Ten Double, continued growing moments are all IU can ask for.
“We found a little bit of our identity, and I think we still haven’t reached our full potential,” Munie said. “I think we still have a lot to prove.”
(03/11/21 9:42pm)
Near post or far post, it didn't matter for Indiana sophomore defender Brett Bebej on Thursday afternoon. Simply serve it up and Bebej would find a way to rifle the ball through the net, or at least it seemed that way in No. 23 IU's 4-0 win over Wisconsin.
Though the windy conditions in Madison made for unpredictable services, set-pieces and kicks all match long, the Hoosiers' midfield duo of redshirt senior Spencer Glass and Bebej remained in sync.
A corner kick from Glass in the 25th minute found Bebej waiting near the post who eventually polished off the goal from almost point-blank range. Then, in the 54th minute, Bebej and Glass struck again, this time connecting on a corner-kick serve to the far post that set up Bebej's second tally off a header and Glass' second assist of the day.
Had it not been for junior defender Nyk Sessock's return to the Starting XI, though, Bebej's first career brace might not have even happened against the Badgers. Prior to Thursday's matinee, Bebej had started the previous two matches exclusively at right back filling in for the injured Sessock. What was supposed to be a stop-gap of sorts until Sessock found his way back on the field, soon became a revelation for the Hoosiers.
And against Wisconsin, with Sessock reinserted back into the lineup, IU head coach Todd Yeagley couldn't keep his newfound revelation off the field, instead inserting Bebej in the midfield, where he paid Yeagley handsomely with a pair of goals.
Elsewhere, the Hoosiers used another pair of goals from Herbert Endeley and Joey Maher, the first of his career, to sink the proverbial dagger into the Badgers. Endeley's early second-half goal grew IU's lead to 2-0, using a well-placed service from Victor Bezerra down the right flank that the sophomore forward finished with a diving shot. Maher's goal, IU's fourth and final of the day, came in the 81st minute courtesy of another corner kick that rattled around in front of the net and landed at the freshman defender's feet.
However, the lopsided final score was anything but indicative of Wisconsin's effort. Rather, the Badgers put the Hoosiers' backline in several precarious situations and forced sophomore goalkeeper Roman Celentano to make six saves including a big stop late in the first half. While both sides fired off 12 shots apiece, Wisconsin finished the match with a 6-5 shot-on-goal advantage, with four coming in the final 31 minutes.
The win comes at an opportune time for IU as it entered Thursday's contest on an 11-day hiatus and exited with some much-needed momentum. Indiana looked out of sorts in their loss to Northwestern on Feb. 27, and a postponed home-opener against Penn State last Sunday didn't help matters.
No matter, the Hoosiers returned their dominate ways by sweeping the season series with the Badgers and recording their third clean sheet of the season. With the win, Indiana improves to 3-1 on the season and is now in a three-way tie with Michigan and Ohio State for first place in the Big Ten standings.
Next up, Indiana makes its long-awaited return to Bill Armstrong Stadium on Monday afternoon as it gets set to host Michigan State at 2 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network.
(03/05/21 8:32pm)
Three matches have come, three matches have gone, and 30% of Indiana’s regular season is in the rear-view mirror. Crazy, I know, but when you’re only given 10 regular season matches and haven’t played in a year and a half, you take what you can get.
After an eight-day stretch to open the season that saw Indiana handle Wisconsin and Ohio State with ease before falling 1-0 to Northwestern, the Hoosiers sit at 2-1 in the Big Ten standings. This week, IU received a much-needed layoff as it gets set to host a tough Penn State team this Sunday.
With that said, let’s dive into this week’s Q49 Journal.
IU lost to Northwestern for first time in over a decade. What happened?
File this one under “things we thought we’d never see, but, y’know, it’s a COVID season.”
Indiana’s 1-0 shutout loss at Northwestern last Saturday snapped a 14-match, 11-year unbeaten streak against the Wildcats. Just so we’re clear, that’s over a decade since Northwestern last beat Indiana. But there’s no need to belabor the point anymore; streaks are bound to die at some point.
So how did the Hoosiers fall in Evanston despite firing 17 shots (five on goal) and earning eight corner kick chances? IU head coach Todd Yeagley is as perplexed as the rest of us are.
“Honestly, we created as many good chances as we’ve created in actually a couple outings against Northwestern,” Yeagley said. “... That’s where the sport can be cruel. I wasn’t super happy after the first two games about our offensive effectiveness. Quite honestly the Northwestern game was much better.”
Sometimes it just isn’t your day, and that day came Saturday afternoon for Indiana; Ugo Achara Jr.’s game winner in the 88th minute proved as much.
Having generated 10 fewer shots than the Hoosiers up until the final three minutes, the Wildcats needed an almost perfectly placed rebound and carom to set up the game-sealing goal, and they got it. Achara walked away the hero, Northwestern escaped the victor, and Indiana left licking its wounds.
But if the loss is at all worrisome to you, allow Yeagley to be the voice of reason.
“Actually I think we went forward, and that’s what’s hard because we lost,” Yeagley said. “But I was much better with the group after the Northwestern game, though it stung. We play and do more of that, and we’ll be fine.”
Perhaps the biggest factor in IU’s defeat was its lack of healthy key players, which thrusted several inexperienced players into heavy minutes. Starting right back Nyk Sessock and starting forward Ian Black both sat out the Ohio State and Northwestern matches, and leading goal scorer Victor Bezerra logged only 48 minutes off the bench against the Wildcats after injuring his leg in the match prior.
Thus, IU had no choice but throw some of its underclassmen into the proverbial Big Ten firepit and see what they could do. Quinten Helmer and Maouloune Goumballe both saw over 50 minutes of action and tallied five combined shots. Helmer looks like he’ll stick in the midfield based on his performance and technical skill. Ryan Wittenbrink, Ben Yeagley and Nate Ward also contributed minutes off the bench, though none recorded an offensive statistic.
Perhaps it’s a bit naive to simply write off the Northwestern loss to injuries, but it certainly warrants a discussion. Once Indiana gets back to full strength, or at least near it, then we’ll have a clearer indication of what these Hoosiers are really capable of.
Showdown with Penn State a potential Big Ten Title preview?
As things currently stand, both Indiana and Penn State hold 2-1 records this season. The Nittany Lions’ lone defeat was a 1-nil result against lowly Michigan State.
Don’t let the early Big Ten standings fool you, though. IU and Penn State are still two of the strongest and most talented teams in the conference, and Sunday could very well be a preview of the Big Ten Title race.
For the Nittany Lions, forward Peter Mangione has quickly asserted himself as a go-to player in Happy Valley. The freshman leads Penn State in goals (two) and points (five), with both scores ending up as game-winners.
Sophomore forward Liam Butts and seniors Brandon Hackenberg and Pierre Ready, all named to the Big Ten Preseason Watch List, will need to be held in check, too, if Indiana wants to protect its home turf on Sunday.
“Penn State’s off to another good start, not to be unexpected,” Yeagley said. “They return a lot of starters from last year, although some of them are young … they have a dynamic attack and have a couple key players on the back line.”
As for the Hoosiers, Yeagley said that the eight-day layoff came at a perfect time, not only for health purposes but also evaluation purposes. With the lingering injuries to Bezerra and Sessock, Yeagley said this week has been crucial for rest and recovery. Based on his optimistic comments, it’s possible that we see both return to the Starting XI against Penn State.
Another benefit of the extended time off was the ability for IU to simply take a deep breath. After nearly 500 days without a real match against a real opponent, the Hoosiers were blitzed with three matches in eight days. With no preseason scrimmages or non-conference opponents, it’s tough to immediately be thrown into conference play that quickly.
“I think the timing of the bye was really advantageous,” Yeagley said. “You want to play after a loss pretty quickly, but that would probably be a time that I’d say no just because of the health.”
All that said, the Hoosiers will need to come ready to play on Sunday. Penn State is no joke, and the Nittany Lions will attack early and often if Indiana isn’t prepared. How Indiana performs and dictates the pace in the early going will be crucial to its success against Penn State.
Buckle up, folks. We could be in for a real treat between two of the Big Ten’s best.
(02/27/21 8:56pm)
Dating back to Oct. 25, 2009, No. 7 Indiana men's soccer hadn't lost to Northwestern in 14 straight matches. On Saturday afternoon, that streak ended as Northwestern forward Ugo Achara Jr. scored the game-winning goal in the 87th minute to break a scoreless tie and lift the Wildcats to a 1-0 win.
The Hoosiers struggled to settle in defensively for much of the match, and offensively they couldn't capitalize on any of the 17 shots they attempted. IU sophomore goalkeeper Roman Celentano was busy in net all day as he tallied five saves, but couldn't make it six as Achara's last-minute goal caromed off Celentano and buried into the top right corner to seal Indiana's fate.
Northwestern goalkeeper Miha Miskovic was equally impressive while facing far more IU scoring chances. Miskovic matched Celentano with fives saves, and the two biggest came in the final 25 minutes when he swatted away Spencer Glass' shot in the 66th minute and Herbert Endeley's shot in the 84th minute.
In a surprise shake-up to IU's Starting XI, Victor Bezerra, IU's leading goal scorer, did not start the match and instead played 48 minutes as a substitute. Sophomore forward Maouloune Goumballe started in Bezerra's place, while redshirt freshman Quinten Helmer made his first career start in the midfield.
Injuries, once again, were also a problem for the Hoosiers. Junior right back Nyk Sessock sat out a second straight game with a leg injury, allowing Brett Bebej to make his second straight starting nod. Senior forward Ian Black followed suit as he did not log minutes, giving way to extended playing time for Helmer, Ryan Wittenbrink and Ben Yeagley.
Indiana outclassed Northwestern in nearly every column on the stat sheet, but the eye test indicated a much closer match. While the Hoosiers dominated the first half with a 10-2 shot margin and 7-2 corner kicks margin, the scoring chances rarely materialized into legitimate opportunities as the Wildcats forced awkward angles and move the ball quickly.
In what is already an odd and unfamiliar spring season, Indiana's loss to Northwestern proves that no match will come easy in the conference-only, 10-game regular-season schedule. And from here on out, the slate only gets tougher as IU hosts No. 20 Penn State next Sunday.
(02/23/21 11:41pm)
Let’s preface this by acknowledging that two matches is barely enough of a sample size to glean any concrete lessons. But then again, IU’s spring season is condensed into just 10 regular-season matches, which means the margin for error is extremely slim.
With the Hoosiers’ 3-0 trouncing of Ohio State on Tuesday afternoon at Grand Park in Westfield, Indiana, the team improved to 2-0 overall and earned its second-straight 3-0 victory on the young season. Sophomore forward Victor Bezerra tallied his second-straight brace of the season, bringing his season goals total to four, while sophomore defender Daniel Munie notched his first points of the season with a goal in the 47th minute.
Here are some early takeaways with Indiana’s regular season already 20 percent complete.
Buy stock in Victor Bezerra’s right foot, right now
Four goals in two matches? Without any exhibitions or tune-ups before the season? Who does that?
Victor Bezerra does that.
After recording two goals in IU’s season-opener last Saturday against Wisconsin, the sophomore matched that performance against Ohio State with a penalty-kick goal in the 61st minute and a strike from just outside the 18-yard box in the 82nd minute to cap off the Hoosiers' win.
Bezerra’s brace echoes much of what head coach Todd Yeagley has said all offseason leading into this spring: that the sophomore is due for a huge campaign, shortened schedule be damned.
“He’s one of the best clinical finishers I’ve coached, first and foremost,” Yeagley said after the Ohio State match. “That’s because of the work he’s put in.”
If you’ve ever seen Bezerra play in person, you’ll know how jarring the noise is when his right foot strikes a soccer ball that’s intended for the net. It sounds like a cannon just went off, but instead of ammunition, it’s a soccer ball that’s been discharged. In some ways, that’s also the trajectory Bezerra’s career could be headed for if he keeps this level of play up.
Very easily could Bezerra have followed in the footsteps of fellow classmates Josh Penn and Aidan Morris, both of
whom chose to forgo their sophomore seasons and make the jump to professional soccer. But nope, he stayed in Bloomington instead, knowing that he’d have the opportunity to return as IU’s lead striker and hopefully parlay a successful season into even better professional options in the future.
Well, the decision to stay seems to be paying off, and it’s not going unnoticed either.
“We need to continue to find him in key spots and setting him up for success,” Yeagley said. “... With Victor’s performance and the way he’s striking the ball, we always feel there’s a goal in there, and it gives the team a lot of confidence.”
Though it’s still extremely early in the season, Bezerra’s performance thus far likely slots him on the shortlist of potential Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year candidates.
And while he almost certainly won’t score two goals every match this season, it’s not hard to see the confidence he’s playing with. Bezerra’s swagger and unabashed striking could be IU’s ticket to another highly successful season.
IU’s first half against Ohio State: “it was bad” says Todd Yeagley
Defense has always been an area that IU teams of old have been able to hang their hat on, and Yeagley has reiterated this numerous times over the years. But against the Buckeyes in the first half, the Hoosiers left much to be desired with their play, especially defensively.
The first 45 minutes included a level of physicality that likely brought out the worst in the Hoosiers. Rather than the usual disciplined, unfazed approach that has become a calling card for IU, Ohio State was able to pester IU into several early mistakes. Bezerra drew a yellow card in the 11th minute, though the Buckeyes couldn’t capitalize on it, while the Hoosiers were all-around sloppy with their ball movement, ball security and positioning angles in the early going.
Yeagley was not pleased, to say the least.
“I wish I could explain (the first half),” Yeagley said. “It was bad. I’ll take the responsibility.”
Indiana, fortunate to still be in a scoreless tie entering halftime, eventually regained its composure in the second half, though it took a “kick in the ass,” as Yeagley said, for the Hoosiers to snap out of their first-half lull. And it’s no surprise that once they got back to dictating the pace and flow of the match, offensive chances seemed to come much easier for the Hoosiers.
At the root of IU’s first-half problems was its general lack of toughness. Getting outworked for 50/50 balls or outmuscled while on the ball was a constant source of frustration, especially for Yeagley.
“It just wasn’t the IU toughness that we’re very proud of for one, and one that’s a requirement,” Yeagley said. “They’ve learned from it and we hope that those periods are very far and few between.”
New faces, no problem
Thanks to another comfortable scoring margin for Indiana, it allowed the coaching staff to again showcase a number of young players who hadn’t seen much action in prior seasons.
Sophomore forward Ryan Wittenbrink made the first start of his IU career on Tuesday, totaling 31 minutes played and one shot on goal. In the season-opener last Saturday, Wittenbrink was stretched out for 46 minutes and attempted a team-high four shots.
Sophomore defender Brett Bebej also made his third career appearance in the Starting IX, filling in at right back for an injured Nyk Sessock, and freshman Joey Maher joined him on the backline for his second-straight start.
Off the bench, forward Maouloune Goumballe, midfielders Ben Yeagley and Quentin Helmer, and defender Lawson Redmond also saw extended action for the second time this season. Goumballe logged 65 minutes while Yeagley logged 56 minutes, and Helmer and Redmond each hovered around 15 minutes without any of the four attempting a shot.
“I thought Maouloune (Goumballe) came in and did a fantastic job for us,” Yeagley said. “I thought Ben (Yeagley) came in and did a really nice job, helping us with second balls and being busy.”
With IU already suffering a pair of key injuries that sidelined Nyk Sessock and Ian Black against Ohio State, Yeagley and his coaching staff are going to have to figure out quickly which unproven players they can count on this season.
Based on how the playing time has shaken out through two matches, it appears Goumballe, Wittenbrink and Ben Yeagley will, at the very least, be key parts of IU’s bench moving forward, though injuries could thrust them into even more significant roles. Redmond, a freshman, has also seen notable action in both matches, which could mean he’s shown enough already to carve out a role in IU’s rotation.
As the season progresses we’ll get a clearer picture of what to expect from IU’s bench, but all signs point toward an injection of youth this season, one that could be extremely beneficial in the long run.
“There’s a lot of positives to build from,” Yeagley said. “We got some guys in the game that haven’t played big minutes, and to get them big roles was important.”
(02/19/21 10:41pm)
If there was ever a way to return from a 450-day layoff without looking like a beaten-down, rusty car, IU men’s soccer did so Friday afternoon in dominant fashion. In fact, the Hoosiers looked far more like a rejuvenated convertible — newly washed and freshly painted with a few kinks still to iron out — than a station wagon struggling to rev its engine, which some feared might happen after the prolonged offseason.
In a 3-0 victory over Wisconsin to open the 2021 spring season, Indiana effectively squashed any doubts of a return to form and once again asserted itself as a mainstay atop the Big Ten hierarchy.
Hoosier fans can thank sophomore forward Victor Bezerra and senior forward Thomas Warr for that.
“Victor, getting his slate going was key,” IU head coach Todd Yeagley said. “If I had to say two guys that we could really get goals from today that would be really good for the group, it’s Tom (Warr) and Vic (Bezerra).”
Following a largely uneventful opening 35 minutes that saw the Hoosiers and Badgers play the slow game as they brushed off a year's worth of rust, Bezerra broke free. In the 38th minute, Bezerra corralled a deflected pass off a Badger defender and buried a shot top-right to net the Hoosiers their first goal of the match and season.
But IU’s leading scorer from a season ago wasn’t satisfied with just one. So less than five minutes later, BANG. A rocket shot fired from Bezerra’s cannon right foot in the 42nd minute sailed over the head of Badger goalkeeper Sven Kleinhans to put Indiana ahead 2-0 just before halftime.
With his brace against the Badgers, Bezerra now ranks first in career goals (10) among all active Hoosiers.