Bernell DorroughSometimes things really aren’t as good as they seem. That was true for the Washington University men’s soccer team Wednesday evening, when they won 2-1 over Illinois Wesleyan University at home. Despite scoring two goals within 30 minutes of each other, a near record for the team, head coach Joe Clarke deemed the Bears’ performance unacceptable.
“This was our worst game of the season,” Clarke said. “There was no doubt about it.”
The problem was that his men were neither focusing nor hustling. The players are prepared to pay for both soccer sins in upcoming practices.
“We’ll be feeling it tomorrow morning, that’s for sure,” midfielder Allen Gleckner said.
Recalling a dismal first half performance, Clarke was quick to condemn his team’s effort.
“We weren’t ready to play and it showed in our performance,” Clarke said. “Watching paint dry would have been more interesting than watching the first half.”
In previous games the Bears have taken ten, fifteen, and sometimes even twenty minutes to warm up and settle into the game plan before gaining momentum in the second half. However, the entire 90 minutes elapsed Wednesday without proof that the red and green ever had their heads in the game.
“We didn’t work,” Clarke said. “They just weren’t working hard.”
Putting forth a lack of effort is uncharacteristic of Clarke’s squad, and he expects more of his players on Sept. 27, when they take on Millikin University on the road.
“This weekend, they need to bring their brains to the game and bring total effort,” Clarke said. “That’s all I want.”
“They work hard all the time. This game was an aberration.”
Clarke does not accept aberrations though.
“It was our worst performance of the year,” Clarke said. “I don’t want this.”
“You know, I could come up with a bunch of excuses, but I don’t think there are excuses. You have to mentally overcome, and we didn’t do a good job of that.”
The Bears apparently underestimated their opponents too. The squad shutout Illinois Wesleyan 6-0 twice in recent history, but victory did not come easy this time around.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” Clarke said of Illinois Wesleyan. “They really could have won this game, easily. They came here with a good plan. They were going to defend and counter, and they did a good job with it.
“I don’t think we gave them the respect they deserved up top, and we broke down a few times. They got through our defense a few times and did some good things.”
Illinois Wesleyan hung with the Bears during a scoreless first half. Thirty seconds into the second half, however, they made a costly defensive error. A Titan player slid from behind to take down midfielder sophomore David Borton, who was dribbling towards the goal. The Bears were awarded a penalty kick, which Borton capitalized on, knocking the ball into the lower left corner of the net.
Illinois Wesleyan responded with a goal 11 minutes later. Joshua Lacey took the ball straight down the center, sped by the home team’s last defender, and put a shot past goalkeeper Colin Robinson and into the lower right corner.
The Bears took the lead when presented with a free kick with fifteen minutes left to play. Midfielder Josh Farber was not attempting a shot. Rather, he tried crossing the ball to one of his teammates in front of the net.
It appeared as though Gleckner could have made contact with the ball, but credit went to Farber.
“He got a nice free kick in,” Clarke said “The ball went through everybody and into the corner. That’s one of those things that happens in that type of free kick.”
At least the Bears did what it took to win and put a stop to their scoreless streak. According to Clarke, the plan for Saturday will be “focusing on us, and figuring out what we can do to score goals.”
“Well, I know we did play bad, but a win’s a win, and hopefully we can get on a roll,” Farber said. “But yeah, we’re going to have to play better than we did today.”