Opinion: UIS soccer an unclear picture for me

UIS student road trips to watch season opener in Bloomington

September 03, 2008
By: David Clary
Sports columnist

The UIS Men’s Soccer season will either be a perfect example of a team rising above challenges and using teamwork to overcome weaknesses, or it will be a frustrated muddled picture of missed opportunities and inconveniences.

Brian Doellman busts through the defense against Blackburn last Wednesday. Photo by David Clary

Using the first two games of the season as a barometer, here are a few things to be expected for the rest of the season. Look for quick breakaways coming from the sides and senior Jakub Piotrowski and junior Brian Doellman to duel for the team’s top goal scorer. The defense will likely continue to try and push the action back to the midfield, leaving senior goalkeeper Chance Walker plenty of space to do what he does best. The major noticeable difference between this year’s team and last year’s team appears to be is in sheer size. While last year’s defenders specialized in physical play, this year’s defenders are going to be quicker being more smaller defenders.

The glaring weaknesses of the team potentially lie in a lack of observable leadership and motivation. That is not to say that there are not players out there busting their butts, there are just a few key areas of the field where hustle and grit are blatantly lacking. Offensive attacks up the middle seem to fizzle without too much work or worry by the other team. Again, this isn’t necessarily to say the whole team is slacking, but a couple of key players do not seem to realize that giving less than 100 percent is robbing the team. Another problem related to running a quick, light team, is that the defenders will be inherently weak against fast breaks up the middle from the other team. Blackburn and IWU have demonstrated that once you’re in UIS’ part of the field, there is really only the goalkeeper to beat.

The team does have the potential to rise to the challenge. For this a few key elements will need to be present. Walker will need to post another statistically strong season in goal. Seniors/ Juniors will need to step-up and not try to carry the team, but to lead it, and the members of the team are going to need to fight for every ball, shot, and goal for the full 90 minutes and beyond. If they do that, looking back, the picture could be pretty good.