So close yet so far.
It’s a sentiment that has defined Bradley soccer’s season.
The Braves have gone into halftime with a tie or a lead five times this season and have yet to walk off the field victorious.
“You have two things in your mind when you get a lead: do you sit back and hold it, or do you continue to push to give yourself a little more buffer,” head coach Tim Regan said.
Bradley (2-3-3) held the lead for 14 minutes in their match against Green Bay (4-3-0) on Tuesday, but couldn’t establish a cushion as they’ve struggled with so many times this season.
“We didn’t have a lead long enough for either tactic to come to mind,” Regan continued. “Our ability to understand and execute is one that, as a coach, I have to make clear, and then, as a group, is how we follow through.”
The Braves knew they were entering this match with a tough task: getting the ball in the back of the net. The Phoenix have been a good defensive team this season, allowing more than one goal twice and posting three clean sheets in their six games before Tuesday.
“Green Bay does a really good job of keeping the ball,” Regan said. “It takes you a little bit of extra quality to break through some of these tight packs of people, and we had our moments. I thought it was a positive day for us in terms of getting the ball in or on the goal and around the box.”
Bradley started fast, getting their first attacking chance three minutes into the match. Senior midfielder Dominic Woolley struck a ball towards the net that Phoenix goalkeeper Drew Swancutt saved, but he coughed up a rebound that fell right to Michael Switala, who slotted the ball into the net to give Bradley a 1-0 advantage.
For Switala, a senior midfield transfer from South Carolina, the goal marked his third as a Brave and brought him to a tie at the top of the team’s goalscoring leaderboard for the season.
“It’s not easy over the course of seven weeks to make your way into a team as a new player and have that kind of impact,” Regan said. “It’s been a really positive individual performance on his part, and his combination of goalscoring and setting people up for chances to score goals is really good for our team.”
Green Bay would make their first shot on goal count, equalizing the game after Nathan Moua put one past Braves keeper Drew Berry in the 18th minute. From then until halftime, each side created two more shots on target, with the score even at one entering the break.
Bradley came out of halftime pushing to find a winner, outshooting the Phoenix eight to five in the second period of play. While they had their chances, they couldn’t find a goal to give them the lead.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Green Bay. As the clock crossed into the 87th minute, the Phoenix capitalized on a goal-scoring chance, with Noah Madrigal putting the ball past Berry for what would ultimately be the winner.
The Braves had one final chance in the 89th minute to escape with a draw, but Swancutt saved a shot from freshman midfielder Luke Knotts, and Bradley fell to Green Bay 2-1.
“We had some really good chances that each of those players would love to have back because they were in the right position to score,” Regan said. “They had the right idea but didn’t execute in the final action. It’s going to be really important going into future games to correct those, especially when we get into Missouri Valley Conference play because opportunities will be less.”
Bradley’s next match will be on Saturday at home as they host Illinois-Chicago in their first game of conference play this season.
“The conference games have a lot more energy and a lot more intensity,” Regan said. “The conference games have their own standings and their own meaning, and we know that we’re ready for it.”
Kickoff against the Flames will be at 7 p.m. at Shea Stadium
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