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It’s post-season. A time when every game is your biggest of the season, and any game could be your last. When your next blog may be a season-reflector or a look ahead to a new opponent. We kick off tonight in the Horizon League semi-final against a tough Oakland side who finished just one place behind us in conference. The prize for the winner: a place in Sunday’s final against UIC.
So, we are in Chicago, stationed in our hotel rooms, each player preparing themselves for tonight in their unique way. We have just returned from our habitual pre-game walk. On today’s wander, we lapped a Super-Target megastore beside the hotel. The journey took us behind a loading dock that smelled worse than Ryan Onwukwe’s dreadlocks after a month without being washed. Perhaps it was some kind of preparatory strategy. If we can make it through that, we’re ready for anything.
A week ago, we recorded our biggest victory of the season, a 5-0 thrashing of Cleveland State. Our defense was huge in ensuring the clean sheet, and five different players notched goals. Ashy, Goodnetter, and myself added to our season tallies, and two freshmen scored their first goals for Milwaukee. Beau finished nicely to wrap up the scoring, after Kostas Kotselas earned an overdue first goal in the final game of a regular season that he deserved more from. Rami Younes starred with two assists and an impressive performance on his return from injury. It was a great way for the seniors to bow out of Engelmann action, and a fantastic set up for this weekend’s tournament. It has given us confidence that we will carry into tonight.
Earlier this week, the Horizon League awards came out. Andrew Stone and I were awarded First Team All-Horizon League honors, and Luke Goodnetter and Robbie Boyd were named on the second team. I must thank my team for helping me earn the Horizon League Player of the Year Award, too. Our whole squad felt rightly aggrieved, after our remarkable season, that we didn’t get more recognition in these polls. But, while they are good achievements, this isn’t why any of us play the game. If our priorities were the pursuit of individual trophies, we would have taken up tennis or golf.
But we are all footballers, soccer players. We participate in the greatest team sport in the world for a reason. To play in a team. To win, draw and, sometimes, even lose together. To work collectively with 25 other guys towards the same goal. The goal this weekend: to win a Horizon League Championship in Chicago. It is what we have worked towards all season, and it starts tonight against Oakland. We can’t wait.
