Over and Out

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, wrote the team blog all season on the UWM website. Today is his 12th and final entry of the year.

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It has been an enjoyable, progressive and encouraging season. But now, sadly, it has come to an end.

Losing in the quarter final of the conference tournament on a miserable night in Valparaiso was a regrettable way to finish. I think we all genuinely believed we were capable of extending our postseason play further. And after watching from the sidelines, suspended due to yellow card accumulation and frustrated, I, like lots of the guys, was emotional as the final whistle blew on our competitive involvement this fall. But looking back over the last few months we have reason to be happy, as there is much to celebrate about the program and much to look forward to next year.

After summer we had to settle in quickly to a new set-up brought in by coaches who were appointed not long before our initial training began. We adapted successfully to this challenge and now a stable and content environment for the team to work in has been created – one I am confident that this program will thrive under in seasons to come. And our overall record is evidence of improvement already. Finishing 8-8-2 was superior to how we have fared in the last few years and our home record of 6-1 is a real achievement that is deserving of praise.

With 14 of our 18 games being decided by just 1 goal, we provided plenty of excitement for the spectators too. Perhaps this exposes our occasional inability to kill off opponents but it also proves the never-say-die attitude we showed throughout the season. Our team’s togetherness ensured we competed and still believed up until the final minutes – or the final second as was the case with a couple of our most dramatic games this year.

Ultimately, it has been a season to look back on with satisfaction even if a feeling of ‘what might have been’ still lingers. James Ashcroft, Aaron Horvat, Declan Rodriguez and myself received individual honors which is something to be proud of, but the whole squad is worthy of recognition for our achievements and attitudes this year. We won games, impressed spectators and enjoyed ourselves as we did it. Now we must say a sad goodbye to our seniors but also welcome some new guys who will only strengthen the team. We all look forward to a promising 2013 which will hopefully be a more successful season still. Just so long as we don’t schedule any more games in Ohio!

I would like to thank everybody who followed my blog this fall. I hope you have been entertained and not too confused by my British-ness and have had as much fun reading as I did writing.

Over and out.

LB

Senior Night Success

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his 11th entry of the year.

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We said some official goodbyes Saturday night to our seniors and our home field, but managed to keep our season alive with a well-earned victory against Valparaiso.

The night started out emotionally with the presentation of senior awards to our three departing Panthers, Jamie Bladen, John Shakon and Cody Banks. Their parents were invited up to receive their deserved honors alongside them. Cody’s and John’s family proudly marched out their sons to cheers from the crowd. But as Jamie’s name was announced, he was accompanied by a man who looked suspiciously like our athletic trainer, John Ochsenwald, instead of any Bladen relation.

Nonetheless, in the absence of his real father on the night, who couldn’t make the trip across the Atlantic, Ox hugged him like a son to warm applause from the team for one of our star players this fall. All three seniors have indeed contributed hugely to the program over their years here and I’m sure everybody who knows them wishes them well in whatever futures lay ahead.

We also played our final game of the season at Engelmann field on Saturday. Finishing with a victory was both crucial for our post-season participation and fitting for the way we have played at home this year. A final record of 6-1 at Engelmann has provided the backbone for our team’s winning record and this has come about from a mixture of great crowd support, home confidence and familiarity of our surroundings.

We are thankful to all the fans who have cheered us on this fall and the Valparaiso game was no different. Our 2-1 win had a lot of positives. It was our first victory in four outings, it secured fifth place in the division and Kyle Neumann tallied his first goal of the year.

With a bit of luck next week’s blog will not be my last, as we look to extend our season for as long as possible. We all know there is a lot of hard work to do and some good teams standing in our way, but in the post-season we also know that anything can happen!

Food for Thought

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his 10th entry of the year.

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After leaving Ohio for the fourth time this season without a win, I feel like there isn’t much to add to previous accounts of our troubled travels. The 1-0 loss to Wright State was our most disappointing performance of the season. Perhaps we were still jaded from a hard fought 10-man loss to Detroit in midweek. Personally, I blame forgetting my lucky underwear. Whatever the reason, nothing seemed to work for us this weekend and we had to endure the recognizable journey home knowing our final conference fixture against Valparaiso is now absolutely crucial if we are to qualify for postseason play.

No matter what adversities we have faced this season though, one consistent feature that shouldn’t be overlooked is the food. As in-season athletes, fueling our bodies correctly is important both before games as well as when recovering. We have enjoyed many nice meals this fall at various restaurants which has proved beneficial to our bodies. Getting the necessary calories in to replenish those we expend when playing and practicing can be a costly business. Also finding the time to feed ourselves well can be a challenge. So visits to Via, Carini’s and personal favorite Pancake House in Milwaukee have been an enjoyable and advantageous feature of our schedule. Equally, team trips to Olive Garden and Applebee’s when on the road have ensured we get the right foods in at the right times. Even though Kevin Ferron stretched our meal limitations this weekend by ordering himself 3 pre-match desserts, generally we are all satisfied with our budget allowance. So I would definitely say getting well fed is one of the major perks of being a student-athlete!

All our efforts our now concentrated on Saturday’s game, as a win will be enough to secure our place in the conference tournament. If you were to ask any of the players or staff I’m sure we would all agree that we could, and should, have achieved that feat already. But the way our results have unfolded means there is now extra significance on this game against rivals Valparaiso.

We will go into the match confident of being able to complete the job, especially as we are playing on Engelmann and have a strong home record. However, we know it is going to be a difficult task. If we manage to qualify, we know anything can then happen so it is an exciting opportunity for all of us, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. All the support possible will be greatly appreciated so come on down and cheer us on!

5 and 0 but Ohio Woe

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his ninth entry of the year.

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Our two games this past week left us with another non-conference win, but saw our Horizon League standings take a hit after an overtime defeat at Cleveland State.

By beating Nebraska-Omaha we remained perfect at Engelmann Stadium, moving to 5-0 at home and proving what a difficult place Milwaukee is for opposition teams to come and play. Two early goals were enough to secure our win. Robbie Boyd earned an overdue first point for his great efforts this season by assisting Horvat’s game winner. And even though we couldn’t extend our lead in the second half, we defended well and saw out the game comfortably without conceding.

Our weekend game involved another long bus ride to Ohio – this time to take on Cleveland State. The game, like others we have had in the state, didn’t quite go as planned with a chaotic 5 minutes seeing us lose out, 2-1, in the early stages of overtime.

Encouragingly, the final moments of the game served to prove that Andrew Wiedabach cannot be stopped from getting his name on the score sheet for the Panthers despite being unable to play this season. The game’s commentator and the provisional statistics both credited the striker with my equalizing goal. That has subsequently been corrected, but we are all looking forward to having him scoring goals for us again for real in the future. Likewise, it will be good to have all the other guys who have had to sit this fall out because of transfer rules to come in and strengthen our squad next season.

Instead of dwelling on the match, I will talk in more detail about the accommodation aspect of the trip. The hotel we stayed in was right in the heart of Cleveland which is unusual for us, as we are normally situated in less busy regions of the cities we visit. This came as a pleasant change and provided an opportunity for many of the guys to view the city for the first time. Personally, I enjoyed our comfortable hotel, seeing the close by sports stadiums and experiencing the place as a whole but others in the team seemed to have some negative things to say about Cleveland. The comment “I can see why LeBron left” was commonly used. But seeing as though I’m not sure what ‘LeBron’ is I didn’t quite understand the reference and I remained impressed by the city nonetheless.

We will attempt to break our Ohio curse next weekend when we go on the road again to take on Wright State. Before that though we will look to beat Detroit on Wednesday, with a win guaranteeing us a place in the conference tournament. Come down to Engelmann to support us in our effort to go 6-0 at home!

Freshening Up

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his eighth entry of the year.

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We headed into a week-long break in the schedule off the back of an impressive win against Madison last Wednesday. Our solid team performance was enough to beat the strong opposition who had chances to score, but ultimately couldn’t find a way through our defense.

Perhaps after tallying so many shots without many goals to show for them in previous games meant we were due a victory this time around despite being outshot. The clean sheet was also a notable achievement for our freshman goalkeeper Connor Revsbeck on his first start for the Panthers.

Our first weekend without games for a while came as a nice change and provided us welcome opportunity for recovery. Our recent overtime appearances have meant a lot of soccer and some tired legs. So a few days of just light training and some Manther teambuilding exercises have helped to restore our energies and hunger in preparation for our next game against Nebraska-Omaha and then into further conference fixtures.

Off the field we have made a tradition of pre-practice joke telling sessions to start the day off in a positive way. But it is fair to say that as a group we’re more suited to being soccer players than comedians. A couple of comic highlights have come through Richard Johnson’s witticisms, but I think players and coaches alike need to generally step up their humor in order to get more than mild chuckles from the audience or just a defiant clap from the joke teller himself!

We look forward to getting back to competitive action this Tuesday and hope to have plenty of supporting as we aim to continue our perfect record at Engelmann Stadium.

Homeward Bound

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his seventh entry of the year.

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When we finally returned from our stretch of games on the road, we proved what a fortress we have made Engelmann Stadium this fall, going 4-0-0 at home with a win against a strong UIC side this Saturday.

We have made a solid start to our conference play, remaining unbeaten after our first three games. Our recent win following a draw at Green Bay has put us in a strong position but left us heavy legged as our last four games have gone into overtime.

Some exciting displays for the fans have been somewhat nervy for us, but we finally managed to find our first golden goal of the year in our 2-1 win over the Chicago opposition.

Away from the field Halloween preparations have begun in some of the soccer houses with pumpkins being generously donated to us by certain members of the women’s team. Our carving skills may be slightly less impressive than our female counterparts’ but points for creativity definitely go to us.

From a personal perspective this last week has been very enjoyable as my sister and her partner made the trip across the Atlantic to come visit me and watch the Manthers playing live. Some exciting soccer certainly made it worth their while but their favorite experience from their Milwaukee trip came in the form of numerous bowls of the local frozen custard.

We have just the one game this week to concentrate on with a trip to Madison followed by a break in our schedule next weekend.

Road Warriors

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his sixth entry of the year.

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As the summer sun dwindles and the Wisconsin leaves turn Panther-gold, our quest for Horizon League success begins.

The final weekend in September staged our first conference match up, resulting in a tie away at Loyola. Dorian O’Lochlayne netted his first goal for Milwaukee and we created other chances that we were unable to convert in the 120 minutes of play – our second overtime involvement in a tiring week. Leaving Chicago without a win was a little disappointing, but the 1-1 outcome against difficult opposition is a platform that we can build upon as we prepare for further crucial contests in the coming days.

Wednesday nights exciting fixture against Green Bay is now the focus of all our attentions. With the Chancellors Cup on the line and a conference victory being fought for, the match will be played with a healthy rivalry between the two familiar teams. The game will be the culmination of our month on the road which has yielded mixed results while certainly helping to build team togetherness.

Last Tuesday’s trip to Ohio ended bitterly as we narrowly lost out to a golden goal at Bowling Green University. Despite our attacking soccer, dominant pressure and the encouragement from Monty Stevenson’s vuvuzela, we weren’t able to bring a win back with us on the increasingly familiar eight-hour journey home.

The midweek game involved another overnight stay in a hotel. Traveling has provided opportunities for us to spend concentrated time in one another’s company which has been good for the squad as a whole. It is particularly beneficial in helping the new guys to integrate into our close team environment so there have been a lot of positives to take out of our recent away days.

Now is time to turn our good team morale and some strong performances into results on the field. We have high ambitions for this fall and winning conference games is crucial for us to achieve our goals as a team.

LeWang Holders

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his fifth entry of the year.

Note: The team is off this week, so look for the next blog in 2 weeks.

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Our weekend spent participating in the Lakeside Classic tournament at Northwestern saw us produce two good performances in beating NIU and then unfortunately losing out to the hosts on Sunday.

Friday’s match up against our LeWang Trophy challengers proved to be our most complete performance of the season as we successfully defended the cup. Stu McBain scored his second goal in as many games - a good achievement for our freshman forward. His watching family seemed more than pleased with Stu and the team’s successes with Mrs. McBain in high spirits and a talkative mood as she congratulated all of us after the match.

Our second game of the weekend against nationally ranked Northwestern may have ended in defeat but we still left with pride in our performance and some healthy experience for our young team who matched, and even outplayed, the opposition for long periods of the game. Overall the weekend can be looked back upon with satisfaction.

Compared to some away day journeys the two trips to Chicago seemed relatively short but they still managed to provide some noteworthy moments. Everybody shares the same goals and everyone has a role to play. One player who proves this as much as anybody is Mark Heydt. Even if he doesn’t make the travel squad you better believe he is still going to represent us by wearing his Milwaukee soccer gear at all opportunities, proving he is as committed to the program as anybody. Either that or he wants to make certain that every girl on campus knows he plays the soccer team!

We now have a nine day gap between games which will be used to recover then prepare for a busy schedule in the build up to our first conference fixtures.

Travelling Tales

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his fourth entry of the year.

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Our first weekend on the road didn’t end with the result we were hoping for, making the many hours of travelling far less enjoyable and significantly slower than they can seem after an away day victory.

We set off travelling on Saturday, following an enjoyable evening spent by many team members at Pantherfest on Friday, the concert headlined by B.o.B and J Cole. The long journey took us to Xavier University where we suffered a 3-1 defeat. Stu McBain managed to score his first collegiate goal in an otherwise forgettable match.

I’d like to at least be able to say I went to the city of Cincinnati, Ohio this weekend. I think technically I did. But, in reality, we went to a very nice hotel somewhere in that region without ever seeing the city. It was a place that required a 30-minute round trip to the nearest gas station just to get snacks. No glimpse of a skyline, just the impressive buildings that made up the Xavier campus.

But one of the points the coaches have stressed this season is not to get too high after victories or too low after defeats. So with some pizza in our stomachs and Wedding Crashers on the team bus’s TV set, our spirits were somewhat lifted on the ride home. Entertainment for the trip also came in the form of some predictable Megna-Ashcroft disagreements – predominantly over internet usage this time around. But Alex’s Green Bay Packers stream taking up the necessary data for Jamie’s online football manager game was just a front. The two of them love any excuse to showcase their equally measured malicious and flirtatious arguments with one another.

Some gags were had at my expense too through the hacking of my twitter account. The phantom tweeter finally unveiled himself as my so-called comrade Zach Stevenson – hurtful yet humorous actions by him and the rest of the team that were involved in the betrayal. Apologies go out to anybody offended.

Our travelling antics will continue in the coming weeks as we are on the road for further upcoming fixtures. We will all be looking to keep up the on-coach banter but most importantly come home with a positive result next time around.

Engelmann Excitement

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his third entry of the year.

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Our team is quickly developing a reputation for producing excitement, going from being beaten at the buzzer last weekend to winning in the final second against IUPUI on Friday at Engelmann. A victory on Sunday made it three wins in three at our own venue and that strong home form has set us up well for our month on the road, beginning this coming weekend.

Friday’s last gasp winner was bundled home by our boy from Barcelona, Pol Narbona. If that pleased the spectators, they were even more entertained by his post-game interview. With a cheesy smile, in stuttered English and his charming hybrid accent, the lanky Spaniard just about managed to tell the world (or at least those checking our team’s website) that his “long legs” were the reason for his debut goal. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d recommend searching for the video online!

A big factor in both wins this weekend was the great turnout by the crowds who willed us to win throughout both games. Beating EIU on Sunday was especially sweet, as it was in front of great numbers of spectators who turned out on a day that had a carnival-type atmosphere with tailgating and rock climbing going on in the pitch-side parking lot. Some new chants and some Mikey Poll inspired cheering helped us through a tiring game and our victory ensured us as overall winners of the 38th Panther Invitational.

The wins were even sweeter for me personally, as the games fell either side of my birthday. To be honest, turning 20 and leaving my teenage years behind me had been something I was dreading. But two wins, two goals, some team-based fun and a lot of ice cream made it a weekend to remember. The earliest moments of my twenties were made even sweeter by being named in the team of the tournament too, alongside other goal scorers, Aaron Hoorvat and Jamie Bladen as well as James Ashcroft. Horvat’s day went from success to failure though, when he found out the toes of his favorite socks had been cut by an unknown locker room culprit.

What a Weekend...

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his second entry of the year.

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This weekend left the Panthers with mixed emotions and a 1-1-0 record following the first two matches of competitive play. Being beaten 3-2 by Marquette, with a goal literally at the buzzer, saw the whole team leave Valley Fields feeling as bad as the nearby slaughterhouse smelled. The build up for Friday’s showdown rivalry had been exciting to be involved in and, for some, emotional. Lifelong Panther Luke Davey, starting his first Milwaukee Cup game, secured over 100 likes on Facebook for his heartfelt pre-match status – a testament to both the scale of the event and the cheesy word choices by our popular left back!

It was a game in which we showed moments of real quality with two great goals by Cody Banks and Declan Rodriguez. We also showed some naivety as a team though, making some mistakes and not completing the job when we got ourselves in a winning position.

The match’s scoring pattern was reminiscent of the Manchester City vs. QPR game on the final day of premier league last season. From a losing position, City managed to come back to win 3-2 in the final minute that day. As a Mancunian and City fan, the way that game worked out left me elated, whereas Friday’s defeat left us all gutted and in disbelief. But that is the beauty of soccer. It continually produces excitement and stirs emotions and that is the reason it is so keenly watched all around the globe.

It was our turn to provide a comeback on Sunday though, albeit slightly less dramatic but just as valuable, recording our first win of the season in our opening home fixture against Northern Kentucky. It is important for us to make Engelmann Stadium a venue that oppositions will dread coming to this fall. We took steps towards achieving that goal with a very strong second half performance, coming from a goal down to win 2-1 with another goal from Declan and a PK for myself. On top of the two goals we scored, we outshot the opponents and had numerous attempts saved or crashing back off the woodwork. This is encouraging and suggests that when we polish our finishing we can go on to score many more goals in the future.

Following a deserved day off, we will go on begin preparations for the 38th Panther Invitational. With pre-season over, the rhythm of the fall schedule will now take over as we also look to enjoy our final week of summer before the school semester starts up again.

Rise of the Manthers

Laurie Bell, a sophomore on the 2012 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his first entry of the year.

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Welcome to Bell’s Blog, where I’ll be keeping readers in the loop with the goings on of the Milwaukee Panthers men’s soccer team throughout the upcoming season.

As pre-season draws to a close, we look back on what has been a successful first month for a program that has undertaken so much recent change. This summer has seen new staff, new players and a healthy new atmosphere come to Engelmann Stadium. We now hope to continue the group’s positive start into competitive action as our season gets underway with the defense of the Milwaukee Cup tonight at Marquette’s Valley Fields.

There has been a great mood around the locker room since arriving back at UWM following a refreshing summer. Almost half our roster is made up of new guys who have all mixed in well with the returning squad members to create some great team chemistry throughout an intense time of the year. Pre-season has consisted of two sessions per day in which the coaches have introduced us to some fresh tactics and new styles of play. Alongside training, we have been provided with daily team lunches and dinner and completed all other necessary preparations for the coming fall. This has meant an enjoyable period of meeting new Panthers, competitive practicing and a whole lot of pizza!

Without schoolwork to concentrate on yet the busy days have been offset by some team socializing too. This has included group trips, the team’s new longboarding craze and even some of our male panthers (widely known as Manthers) producing some, let’s say interesting, music videos.

But now is the time to concentrate on the serious business, as our new season commences with a mouth-watering curtain raiser against cross-city rivals Marquette Eagles. We go into the game as holders of the Milwaukee Cup after winning the corresponding fixture last year. With more fall victories over Green Bay and NIU we are currently in possession of the LeWang Trophy and the Chancellor’s Cup too. It’s the first time we have held all three since 2005 and the trio of successes was definitely the program’s highlight last year. We are now hungry to keep our hands on all the silverware this season and our defense begins with the most coveted of all the trophies in tonight’s derby game being played at Marquette’s Valley Fields, kicking off at 6:30PM.

As always, we are hoping for some great Panther support and willing all our fans to make the short journey across town, showing their colors and cheering on the team.

Welcome to: Bell's Blog

With the start of the 2012 season right around the corner, it's time to introduce you to the men's soccer blogger for the new season...

And the new must-read will come from ... sophomore Laurie Bell.

Look for the first installment to come Sunday at the latest. Given the timing, he may be able to give us some thoughts heading in to the "Milwaukee Cup" matchup, but I will take the blame if he does not...