6A -The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 28, 2006
Blue let down after tig Tigers
By Jamie Josephson
Daily Sports Writer
After last night's double-
overtime game ended, the
members of the Michigan men's
soccer team walked slowly
toward their bench at the U-M
Soccer Field with their heads
down, feet shuffling and chat-
tering mouths quiet.
It was a classic post-game
scene of defeat.
But in fact, the Wolverines
didn't lose.
Michigan o
tied Detroit,
0-0.
But for
Michigan coach Steve Burns
and the rest of the roster, the
game might as well have been
a loss.
A usually optimistic Burns
only had two words about the
Michigan mood after the dou-
ble-overtime draw: "major dis-
appointment."
From the outset, Michigan (0-
1-1 Big Ten, 5-4-2 overall) spent
most of its time in Detroit's (1-
1-0 Horizon League, 5-3-1) ter-
ritory.
With just over seven minutes
remaining in the first half, the
Wolverines earned a corner
kick. In the scrum, one of the
Michigan players got a head on
it and the ball hit the back of
the Titans' net. Just as the Wol-
verines and their fans began to
celebrate, the referee blew his
whistle to call Michigan off-
sides and disallow the goal.
The called-back point qui-
eted the Michigan attack for the
rest of the half.
"We wasted 45 minutes in the
first half thinking that we were
a special team and thinking that
the block 'M' on our chests was
going to do it for us," Burns said.
"We didn't put in the effort. We
didn't have the focus. We started
putting it together in the second
half and overtime."
Michigan picked up the effort
in the second period, taking 18
shots - more than double its
count from the first. Several
Wolverine players had glorious
chances to score, but the back
of the net remained elusive.
One such player was fresh-
man Mauro Fuzetti. Just before
the end of regulation, the for-
ward got behind a Detroit
defender with the ball, forcing
the Titans' goalkeeper to come
out of the goal and challenge
the play. Fuzetti had a great
look, but his shot was deflected
out of bounds.
The Michigan offense was
like a broken record last night,
creating chances, getting great
looks at the net, but failing to
convert.
"It's tough when you outwork
(the other team), outplay them
and get the chances, but they
just don't go in," Fuzetti said.
"I guess it's a little bit unlucky,
but we still need to finish those
(chances)."
After two overtime periods,
the Wolverines had nine shots
on goal to the Titans' zero and
11 corner kicks to Detroit's nil.
But the only stat that mattered
for Michigan was the big goose
egg for goals scored.
Michigan's leading scorer,
freshman Peri Marosevic, was
named Big Ten Co-Offensive
Player of the Week on Monday.
But he couldn't perform his
magic last night. Sophomore
Michael Holody's usually sure
foot from 25 yards out didn't
have its regular eyes. The Mich-
igan attack that scored five
goals in the previous two games
just never took flight.
"The next side of it is that
soccer is the ultimate team
game, where it is very difficult
to score goals and everyone's
got to be playing at or above
their potential for that to happen
for our team," Burns said. "We
aren't good enough to think that
just one or two guys are going
to win games for us all the time.
There were too many individu-
als on the field tonight and not
(a team)."
Defensively, the Wolverines
can look to completely shut-
ting down the Titans' offense
for some consolation. But
Burns believes that Detroit got
what it came for - a tie. As
Michigan's second consecutive
draw, last night's outcome left a
much more bitter taste than the
Wolverines' 2-2 tie on the road
against powerhouse Indiana last
Sunday.
"This is the kind of disap-
pointment that either wakes
a team up or puts them into a
major funk," Burns said. "I
think there is a lot of good char-
acter on this team, and I think
they will rebound from this as
we get ready for a very diffi-
cult game against (University
of California-Santa Barbara on
Sunday)."
4
Sophomore forward Jake Stacy registered four shots in Michigan's 0-0 tie
against Detroit last night at U-M Soccer Field.
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