Bradley’s soccer team has lost double-digit games just four times under head coach Jim DeRose. Two of those four seasons have occurred in the last seven years, with the team losing 11 games in 2007 and 12 in 2008.
What does this have to do with this year’s team?
The current Braves sit at 5-7 on the season coming off victories in two of their last three matches, all at home. The team knocked off Denver in double overtime last week before dropping a weekend match to Evansville 2-0.
Both of Evansville’s goals came on counter-attacks, as Bradley’s defense was unable to recover quick enough to prevent the goals. Head Coach Jim DeRose said, despite the results of that game, the team would not change its strategy.
“The goalkeeper cut it out, made a great distribution pass, one pass to a guy at midfield and our last two defenders tripped over one another,” DeRose said. “For us, because we’re usually dangerous on the set pieces, we will not be conservative on those and say ‘Hey, listen, maybe we should keep three to four guys back in case they get there.’”
After a rainout on Monday night, the Braves were back in action Tuesday evening against the Eastern Illinois Panthers, where fortune favored Bradley’s all-out attack.
The Braves scored two goals thanks to their all-out attack formula, one of which came thanks to a cross from forward Jason Lesch. He placed the ball perfectly in the box for sophomore Alex Garcia, who put the ball in the net for his first goal of the season.
Coach DeRose said he was happy with how the team played and liked that he was able to get different players involved.
“If you looked at it, we also played the most players we’ve played in a game in the last eight games,” DeRose said. “Outside of one guy, nobody played more than 56, 57 minutes. I thought that allowed players to really push the tempo…We got the most done purposefully in attack in a long time.”
The Braves’ offensive attack will look to put goals on the board in two matches this week. The team faces Central Arkansas Saturday night, a conference team Bradley has had trouble with before.
“If you look at the last three to four games we’ve played against them, they create problems for us because they are very committed to playing possession soccer,” DeRose said. “They want to put 10, 11, 12 passes together. We want to defend every roll of the ball…those two things are polar opposites of one another.”
Saturday’s game is Homecoming for the university, and DeRose said the newfound school spirit is a welcome occurrence but does not distract the players from the task at hand.
“There’s not a day that goes by that you don’t hear our guys [mention] how humble and thankful they are that cheerleaders are at our games, how appreciative they are that students come and support them and that there’s tailgating,” DeRose said. “The one thing I’m very happy with our guys is that they tell you to tune out distractions but our guys are keenly aware of the support they get from the university and the students in particular. For them, they truly do play for more than themselves and the program.”
