Freshman Nik Patel dribbles the ball up the field on Oct. 21 against Principia College, a game that the Bears won 4-1. Patel and seniors Alex Neumann, Harry Beddo and Randall Schoen anchor a Bear’s defense that has allowed opponents only six goals in 15 games, and the team is currently 11-3-1 on the season and is ranked 15th in the nation.

With 10 shutouts so far this season, the Washington University men’s soccer team has a defense whose talent is hard to ignore. With a .40 goals against average, the Bears have outscored their opponents 28-6 in their first 14 games and have jumped out to an 11-1-3 record. Anchored by senior captain Alex Neumann and fellow seniors Harry Beddo and Randall Schoen, the Red and Green defense welcomed freshman Nik Patel to its back line this year. Student Life sat down with Neumann, Beddo and Patel to talk about the 2010 season.

Student Life: So, what goes into making a successful defense?

Nik Patel: I think defensive members are usually strong leaders of the team.…I’ve gotten a lot of help from [the seniors], learning my position, how to get into the Bears style of play. I feel that we’re constantly making improvements, and we want to continue to improve all the way to the tournament.

SL: You mentioned the “Bears’ style of play.” What does that entail?

NP: We like to play the ball a lot. We work on it all the time at practice, and coach [Joe Clarke] likes to build from the back. He doesn’t like the standard, just as soon as our defense gets the ball to send it straight up field. We tend to look for passes, give-and-gos and especially wingbacks—he likes to get them into play, have them bring the ball up and start attacks. I think it’s been working out really well so far in the season.

SL: What do you think when you look at the stats this year?

Alex Neumann: I think it’s pretty good. It can always be better, obviously. That’s kind of what we’re striving for. Every day in practice [we ask], “What can we do to get better and allow zero goals in every game?” Getting back to the fundamentals, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many shutouts you have if you’re not winning games, advancing in the tournament, doing well in the conference. Getting defensive plaudits is great, but I’d rather our team do well than our defense do well.

SL: Alex, Harry and Randy have been playing together for four years. What kind of dynamic does that create?

Harry Beddo: When I was a freshman, the center backs were here for four years, and it just seems like, on this team, the center backs are always the more experienced players. That’s what Joe always tries to put in his main focus, starting at defense and working from there. So our freshman year when we came, me, Randy and Neumann learned to play together. It’s also important, you need freshman on the team like Nik to keep the team going in the future.

AN: It’s also helped that Randy, Harry and I have been roommates for the past three years. I think that probably helps a little bit with our chemistry.

SL: What is the toughest offense you’ve faced this year, and why?

HB: I guess Rochester was the hardest just because of the field they play on and the style they play…They could chuck the ball into the box from 30 yards near the goal every time. They would just crash and crash again until the ball either went out for a goal kick or into the goal.

AN: I would agree with that, and then I think from a playing perspective, probably the hardest to deal with was Wheaton. They made a lot of good runs that we had a bit of difficulty tracking, and they also had some really talented, physical forwards.

SL: Do you approach each offense separately, or do you try to go in with the same game plan every time?

AN: There’s a little of both. There are obviously parts of our games that we think we’re really good at that we don’t change and we try to keep and take advantage of. For example, earlier Nik was talking about working the ball out of the back and really helping to build our attacks. That’s something that we don’t really change. But every offense has something new about it, and they all have their own intricacies. We spend a lot of time in the days leading up to a game trying to mimic the other team’s attacks so that we can practice and know how to defend them when it comes to game time.

SL: How does a back line work with a goalie or, in your case, goalies, to execute a good defensive strategy?

NP: I think that [Andrew] Serio being a senior and Jonathan [Jebson] being a freshman, they communicate a lot with each other to know what each of them want out of the defense. Serio likes to take leadership out of the back, letting us know where we have men, where he wants us to be positioned. I think he’s also helping [Jebson] out a lot and slowly, but surely, Jono [Jebson] will soon start helping lead us out of the back, too.

SL: Is there anything you learned playing defense as a kid that still holds true today?

HB: One thing I learned on my club team was that when the ball is up in the offense, that’s the time to start organizing the defense. That’s what Joe has stressed here, too: just continually talking at all times and never taking a break.

AN: I didn’t start playing defense until pretty late in my career, so I always used to do this move called “the disco inferno,” where when a guy got by you, you would just stick your other leg out behind your front leg, and when I got to actually playing defense, especially here, I realized that was not a good move. I guess what I did learn when I was younger was that it’s always important, even when it looks like you’ve already given up a goal, to never quit on a play. I think a lot of times here, it’s looked like an attacker is about to score a goal for sure, and then one of us will run back and make a clear tackle off the ball or goal line and save a goal.