Kentucky men’s soccer (1–1–1) fell to the Wisconsin Badgers (5–0) 1-0 on Friday. The match started an hour late due to weather delays.
The match started as a slow defensive battle, with both teams attempting two shots on goal, but neither could not follow through with the attempts.
It was not until the 55th minute when Wisconsin’s graduate student defender received a yellow card for dissent that the match started to pick up pace. Four minutes later, another Badger, sophomore defender Ellis Jones, acquired a yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct. Despite that, both teams struggled to maintain control of the ball and the match continued to be goalless even as the game’s physicality increased.
This all changed in the 75th minute when Wisconsin’s graduate student midfielder Noah Glorioso hit the back of the net for the first and only time all night. The goal was messy as it came from a Wildcat handball call that gave the Badgers a free kick. Junior goalkeeper Casper Mols initially saved the free kick, but Wisconsin’s offense moved too quickly and slipped one past.
After the goal, Kentucky lost momentum and started to play with frequent mistakes.
UK Head Coach Johan Cedergren was disappointed with the goal and the small mistakes his squad began making as the game progressed that ultimately helped the Badgers keep control and secure the win. He explained how his defenders knew how to combat this situation and failed to follow through.
“I work with the defenders,” he said. “We’ve covered a situation like that 20 or 30 times since we reported for preseason and it’s just not okay. In the first half, I think we played them off the clock. So then we talk about halftime, we make a couple of adjustments and, again, I think we start to get a little antsy. We start[ed] getting away silly fouls in our half which, again, [Wisconsin] is good at set pieces and they push you back and challenge you. You got to find a way to respond. You got to find a way to stand up and still do what we do and I think we just stopped doing that in the second half.”
Kentucky continued to fight but the mental mistakes continued to take effect as, in the 82nd minute, sophomore midfielder Marqes Muir obtained a yellow card for dissent.
The final minutes began to tick and the simply Wildcats could not hit the back of the net to tie up the game as the match ended 1-0 in favor of the Badgers.
Cedergren hoped the loss could be a learning opportunity for the team’s 11 freshmen.
“Hopefully they will learn from this and they will get better,” he said. “Because we still have 13 games to go in regular season.”
The Wildcats will look to end their dry patch this Monday, Sept. 9th, at 7:30 p.m. ET against the Louisville Cardinals (3–2). The contest is set to take place at The Bell Soccer Complex.
