Nicholas Gerard-Larson, a senior on the 2009 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his 10th blog entry.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
We’re about halfway through the semester and the tell-tale signs of overwork, stress and fatigue are becoming increasingly apparent. It’s at this stage that everyone generally realizes how much work needs to be completed in the next eight to nine weeks when classes end. In my case, it’s grasping the daunting task of researching and writing three major history papers, one of which needs to be at least twenty-five pages. In addition to the increasing demands of the academic realm I work three jobs on campus, spend two to three hours a day at practice and still manage to roughly throw together a few random comments, ideas, and observations for this blog.
Don’t ask me how it all gets done. My drug of choice, coffee, offers a valuable hand in completing this veritable fury of tasks. It’s a testament to the volume I consume when I no longer shake after drinking a pot of French Roast in the morning. I can’t imagine this lifestyle is very healthy, so I’m looking forward to the day I won’t need such a caffeine boost just to operate normally. However, that day increasingly looks far out of sight. The nine to five workforce looms ever closer on my horizon, gnashing its teeth in preparation for yet another victim. But let’s face it, that’s the trajectory for most of us and griping about it won’t change anything.
Not that I’m opposed to working hard or being successful in the economic world that confronts us, although the magnitude and gravity of this system certainly humbles even my self-assured, hubristic ego. Factors like increasing conglomeration, intensified job competition and exported businesses and industries abroad continue to rattle my sense of hope and optimism for the future, and all of these fears inauspiciously loom larger as I (and everyone around me for that matter) get closer to plunging directly into a system with such stark inadequacies. I apologize for appearing so pessimistic. This is not the time or the place to elaborate upon all the grossly pressing economic problems manifesting themselves in our country, let alone those facing the world at large. Yet, it helps to discuss these things. Simply by engendering debate, regardless of whether it’s politically or economically palatable with your views, aids everyone’s understanding of particular issues, and maybe that, more than anything, can help place my general outlook in a far more optimistic light.
Perhaps I haven’t articulated myself well enough, but I’ve wasted enough time on such mundane and trivial subjects, so it’s back to the workings of our team. Our four game unbeaten streak continues to keep morale high, despite the depressing effects of overcast skies and cold rain. Many of our recent practices have focused on attacking patterns, which involve long sessions of hammering home positional particulars and individual expectations in building the attack. Although at times these drills tend to become a bit formulaic and uncreative, they succeed in establishing a rigid framework for our offensive mindset.
Our only game of the week involved a short trip south to downtown Chicago. University of Illinois at Chicago’s field is situated right below the monolithic, black Sears Tower (recently renamed the Willis Tower). It provides a fitting backdrop for a soccer match, making the game feel more emphatic and exciting. Their pitch is short, fast-running grass and is excellently maintained, even for our game’s position towards the end of the season. UIC generally has a rowdy, slightly obnoxious crowd yelling every number of obscenities behind the opposing team’s goal and our game on Saturday was no exception. I’ll neglect to repeat most of the insulting swill pelted at (John) Shakon from behind his net.
The last few years saw UIC ascend to one of the top teams in both the Horizon League and the country, with the Flames reaching the NCAA Tournament for the last three seasons. They tend to recruit a fair amount of foreign players and are generally a very strong possession team. Although this year’s squad definitely lacks some of the brilliance of previous seasons, they kept possession for long periods and were moderately successful at penetrating our final third. Defensively, we played very well and limited the number of strong opportunities UIC had directly on goal. Although we gave up a large amount of corner kicks and set pieces, almost every chance was easily turned away from our net.
On the offensive side of things we developed some exciting patterns that led to great attempts on goal. Two such chances in the second half came close to giving us the lead. (Matthew) Bewley fired a close range blast after getting free from UIC’s defensive backline, but it was parried away by their goalie. The UIC keeper came up big a few minutes later when a low, driven cross was sent into the box. A UIC defender tried to clear the ball, only to redirect it towards his own goal. We agonizingly watched as the goalie made an excellent, last-minute reaction to touch the ball over the net and keep the score level. In the closing seconds of regular time a UIC corner kick finally succeeded, putting the home team up 1-0 with twenty-nine seconds remaining. We couldn’t capitalize in those last moments and found ourselves suffering a bitter, one-goal loss. We had played fairly well, but in conference games scoring becomes rare, emphatic and absolutely cutthroat. The result leaves us at 2-2-2 in the Horizon League with two games remaining. Strong results in those matches can give us home field advantage for the first round of the conference tournament, something that has eluded our team for the last two seasons.
