Wolverines notch first Big Ten win of the season
Chantel Jennings
Daily Sports WriterOctober 4th, 2009
It didn’t matter that the Michigan men’s soccer team didn't wear its maize uniforms, because by the end of yesterday’s game against Wisconsin, there had been more than enough yellow on the field.
In the Wolverines’ 3-0 victory over the Badgers, the referees called 32 fouls and gave out 10 yellow cards, with five going to Michigan — the most this season.
“The word to our guys was that we were playing the team in red, not the guys in blue,” Michigan coach Steve Burns said of the referees. "Just think of them as bad weather — you just can’t do anything about it, so just adjust to the bad weather and play.”
The Wolverines acclimated themselves right out of the gates, taking an early one-goal lead at the U-M Soccer Complex.
Less than eight minutes into the game, senior Mauro Fuzetti played a ball to junior Jeff Quijano on the far right side of the field. Quijano lofted the ball towards the back side of the goal where Fuzetti was making a run. The forward broke through two defenders and sent a low header to the left side of the goal, for his team-leading 10th goal of the season.
Nearly 70 minutes and 10 yellow cards later, junior Justin Meram scored the Wolverines’ second goal, a quick header, two passes off of a corner kick. That was after the Badgers were forced to play down a man following Badger midfielder Austin Spohn’s second yellow card of the game, which resulted in his expulsion from the contest.
“At 1-0, the game hung in the balance way too long,” Burns said. “I thought we had a couple chances to put daggers in on them and really close the game out, but they continued to fight and battle. Really, the difference was they had to play down a man.”
The Wolverines didn’t wait much longer after the second goal to pile on their third goal of the day, as freshman Hamoody Saad notched his fourth goal of the season.
Saad has gained attention this season as a legitimate offensive threat for the Wolverines. And his presence on the field, along with Fuzetti's and Meram's, has turned heads. The offensive triad boasts 18 of the Wolverines’ 26 goals this season.
Their ability to work as a unit on the field has given Michigan more offensive options this season because the three can keep possession in attacking situations.
“You could put the three of those guys in a phone booth with three defenders, and they could play their way out of that phone booth,” Burns joked.
Meanwhile, on the back half of the field, redshirt sophomore Chris Blais notched his fourth shutout of the season with two saves, including one diving recovery that would have tied the game at 1-1.
With the victory, the Wolverines are now 5-0 on their home field. Michigan welcomes No. 9 Indiana to Ann Arbor next weekend with redemption on the line. Last season, the Hoosiers ended Michigan’s season in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We just need to play tough and have the confidence that we can beat any Big Ten team,” Fuzetti said. “We have Indiana next, they’re known as the strongest team in the Big Ten, so this is a great win to build momentum on going into that game.”
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:33:55 -0500