E-mail
Print
Men’s soccer falls in defensive struggle
By Jimmy Lemke
The chance to get back on track was too easy for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men’s soccer team. The University of Illinois-Chicago was reeling, coming off its first loss of the season to a Wisconsin team that tied Milwaukee.
UWM could have knocked out the Flames, taken a 1-1 Horizon record back home and been ready for the long homestand.
But that didn’t happen.
What happened was a defensive struggle that saw both teams keeping the ball out of the goal. UIC kept the Panthers from taking shots on goal completely, whereas UWM goalkeeper Grant Fernstrum, the last line of defense, saved six goals. Milwaukee not only didn’t get many shots on goal, it didn’t take care of the ball when they had the opportunity to get on the board.
The game was fixing to be a shutout, ready to go in for some overtime drama. Unfortunately for UWM, Tonci Skroce had other ideas.
Fernstrum, who had played a terrific game, came up to make a play on the ball in the 18th minute. Some confusion got in Fernstrum’s head, and Skroce capitalized.
“I think he (Fernstrum) hesitated to come out and wasn't too certain and then when he got to it he just lost it,” said UWM coach Jon Coleman.
The goal came with only 10 minutes left, and by then the Milwaukee offense, anemic all game, had no opportunities to tie the game. Managing only three shots in the first half, already low, the Panthers could only scrounge up one shot on the goal in the entire second half.
They couldn’t muster a corner kick, and the opportunity never arose after the Flames’ goal.
While the UIC defense had been impenetrable all game, so had UWM. It took a costly mistake by Fernstrum to undo a well-played defensive game.
“I walked out at halftime and said it was going to be, maybe, a matter of a mistake. And sometimes it is a game of mistakes,” Coleman said.
> Comments