Indiana University Athletics
Hoosiers Host Mexican Youth National Team
4/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
April 17, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - For the second consecutive spring, soccer excellence will be on display with an international friendly between two storied champions. The seven-time national champion Indiana men's soccer team host the 2006 FIFA World Youth champion Mexican Youth National team at Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium on Tuesday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m.
Through their partnership with the Indiana University Student Foundation, IU Soccer is excited to kick off Little 500 week. Indiana Youth Soccer will assist IU Soccer in promoting this special International soccer event through their membership across the state of Indiana. General admission for the game is $5 and children under 2 are free. The rate for groups of 20 or more is $3 per ticket for the event. Tickets can be purchased at the gate or by calling the IU Athletic Ticket Office at 866-IUSPORTS. Group discounts are available by contacting the ticket office.
The Mexican Youth National team is defending World Champions in their age group. In September of 2005, the Mexican Youth National team captured the FIFA World Youth Championship. Mexico claimed a 3-0 victory over Brazil en route to the title. Mexico finished as the top scoring team in the tournament with 16 goals and fewest goals conceded with three.
Spring Recap
The Hoosiers are 2-0-3 on the spring season entering the match against Mexico. Indiana owns victories over Cincinnati and IUPUI, while forging ties with Lindsey Wilson, the United Soccer League Second Division Cincinnati Kings and Notre Dame.
Indiana opened the spring with a 1-1 tie against defending NAIA Champion Lindsey Wilson on March 26. Playing with a limited lineup due to injuries, the Hoosiers forced a tie on a late second-half goal by Julian Dieterle.
As part of the Midwest Soccer Coaches Symposium, IU captured its first victory of the spring on March 31 against Cincinnati. In a match that was eventually played at Mellencamp Pavilion due to inclement weather, Kevin Robson scored the game-winner in the 85th minute.
On April 5, the Hoosiers used a split squad to earn a win and a tie as part of a double header with IUPUI and the Cincinnati Kings. IU opened up a 4-1 victory over the Jaguars, before coming from behind to tie the Kings, 2-2, in the nightcap.
The Hoosiers scored a quartet of goals in the victory over IUPUI before the Jaguars got on the board with a goal in the waning moments of the contest. Sophomore forward George Tembon scored the Hoosiers opening goal of the contest. Fellow classmate Jacob Tudela, junior Kyle Schwartz and redshirt freshman Lee Hagedorn added goals in the IU victory.
In the nightcap against the Cincinnati Kings, the Hoosiers fell behind early on a pair of goals by the USL Second Division team in the first half. The Kings missed the USL Second Division playoffs by one spot a season ago. Trailing 2-0, the Hoosiers closed to within 2-1 on a penalty kick from senior midfielder John Michael Hayden just before the half.
The Hoosiers put the pressure on the Kings out of the locker room before finally tying the contest in the latter stages. Sophomore midfielder Brian Ackley scored on a header in the contest to tie the match at two.
Most recently, Indiana played to a 0-0 draw with Notre Dame on April 8 in Indianapolis at Knutz Stadium. The game was a rematch of the second-round 2005 NCAA Tournament game.
Oh Captain, My Captain
Seniors Josh Tudela and Julian Dieterle were named captains for the 2006 season by head coach Mike Freitag. Along with fellow classmates John Michael Hayden and Kevin Robson, the quartet will attempt to become the first class in school history to win three national titles. The group has been an instrumental part of the Hoosiers' back-to-back national championships in 2003 and 2004. In total, the senior class has made 186 starts over its four years. The class is 49-10-12 overall during the last three seasons with two trips to the College Cup, two regular season Big Ten titles and a Big Ten Tournament title.
Tudela returns after earning second team All-Big Ten accolades in 2005. He has played a vital role in the Hoosiers' offensive possession game from his central midfield position during his three seasons. As a junior, the Evansville, Ind., native finished the season with a career-best 17 points on seven goal and five assists. In his IU career, Tudela has played in 68 games with 61 starts.
Dieterle has been an influential member of the Hoosiers' back line during his career. The Elgin, Ill., native has started every match of his IU career, a total of 67 games. Over his Hoosier career, the defense has a goals against average of 0.65 with 35 shutouts. Dieterle was an intergral part of a stingy Hoosier defense that ranked sixth nationally in shutout percent (13 of 22 opponents) and ranked 11th in the country in goals against average at 0.68 in 2005.
Welcome Additions
The Hoosiers welcomed a pair of United States Under-17 National team players to the fold at the start of the spring semester with the additions of Ofori Sarkodie and Kevin Alston. The duo helped the U.S. to a fifth-place finish at the 2005 FIFA Under-17 World Youth Championship in Peru. Both players started on the back line for the U.S. team that won its group with a 2-0-1 record and advanced to the quarterfinals. Sarkodie was later named to all-tournament team as one of the top XI players at championship.
Sarkodie was the 2005 NSCAA/adidas National Youth Player of the Year and one of five players nominated for the 2005 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year Award for Young Males. He started an astonishing 88 of his 93 games with the Under-17 National Team, including all 36 international matches. Sarkodie notched four international goals and a total of six goals and eight assists during his seasons with the Under-17 National Team.
Alston earned 17 caps as a member of the U17 National Team. In total, he started 51 of the 76 matches he has played with a goal and three assists after joining the Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla. In 2005, he was a PARADE Magazine and NSCAA All-America selection at back.
2005 Mexico-Indiana Recap
History was made on Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium when the Mexican Youth National Team paid a visit for an international friendly against Indiana last season. In a hard-fought contest witnessed by 3,472 raucous fans, the Hoosiers came up on the short end of the stick in a 2-1 affair. It marked the first time in over 30 years the Hoosiers had played an opponent from outside the U.S.
At the 17:09 mark, the Mexicans notched the first tally. Efrain Juarez gained possession at the top of the box after a defensive miscue and flicked a shot over the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Chris Munroe into the upper left corner.
The Hoosiers were able to equalize at the 35:35 mark. Midfielder John Michael Hayden gathered a pass from forward Billy Weaver, dribbled 10 yards and fired a curling shot from 30 yards inside the left post.
The Mexican offensive pressure paid off with the game-winner in the 82nd minute. In what amounted to an international-quality goal, Juarez heeled a pass back to Heriberto Beltran, who placed a picturesque shot past the outstretched arms of Munroe into the upper right corner of the net. Despite allowing a pair of goals, Munroe finished with 10 saves against Mexico.
Presser Returns
Former All-Big Ten honoree and member of the Hoosiers' 1999 national championship team Phil Presser returned to the Indiana this spring as an assistant coach for the men's soccer program. Presser took over the position formerly held by Caleb Porter, who left the program after six seasons as an assistant coach to take over the head coaching reigns of the University of Akron. Presser was a four-year letterwinner for the Hoosiers from 1999-02 and earned All-Big Ten accolades in 2001 and 2002.
Prior to returning to Indiana, Presser was an assistant coach under former IU assistant and player John Trask at the University of Illinois-Chicago during the 2005 season. Presser spent one season with the Flames in which the team recorded one of the best turnarounds in the NCAA. In 2005, UIC amassed a record of 10-5-2, which was a significant improvement from its 5-12-2 the previous season. The 2005 squad also finished ninth in the NSCAA Midwest Region, the first time since 2002 a UIC team has accomplished that feat.
Presser is no stranger to coaching at Indiana. In 2003, he became the first undergraduate assistant coach. The 2003 team went on to win the first championship in back-to-back national title runs in 2003 and 2004.
Presser was a three-year starter for the Hoosiers at the defensive midfield position. He started 67 games during his four-year career and played in 88 total for the Hoosiers. The versatile player tallied 10 career points with two goals and six assists. The Fort Wayne, Ind., native was the 1998 Indiana Player of the Year, a high school All-American and the Gatorade State Player of the Year as a senior at Canterbury High School.
Along with his exploits in the collegiate and prep ranks, Presser played professionally for the Kansas City Comets and Chicago Storm of the Major Indoor Soccer League.
Among the National Leaders
The Hoosiers continued to demonstrate itself as one of the top draws in college soccer. Last season, the Hoosiers ranked second in average attendance and third in total attendance in the figures released by the NCAA. The Hoosiers also were involved in three of the top 10 attended games in college soccer during the 2005 season.
Every year since the NCAA began tracking men's soccer attendance in 2001, the IU program has ranked among the top three in at least one of the two categories and has never ranked lower than sixth in any category. Indiana led the nation in average attendance in 2004 and in total attendance in 2003.
In 2005, along with New Mexico, IU topped the national record for average attendance. The Hoosiers and Lobos are the only two programs to ever average over 3,000 fans per contest during a season. Indiana drew 28,013 total attendance during the 2005 campaign, an average of 3,112 per match. The previous national record was 2,779 by Saint Louis in 2003.
New Mexico led the country in both total (36,228) and average (3,629) attendance a year ago. Indiana ranked second in average attendance, while national champion Maryland was second in total attendance at 33,121.
The Hoosier-Terrapin matchup, which was called the top contest of the college season by Soccer America, drew 6,203. The number was not only a school record for Maryland, but the top attended regular-season affair during the 2005 season. The contest ranked fourth overall behind both sessions of the College Cup and the quarterfinal matchup between Creighton and Clemson.
Indiana drew two of the top crowds to Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium in 2005. The Nov. 3, 2005, matchup between then-No. 1 Akron and the Hoosiers was the seventh-largest crowd during the season with 4,884 fans in attendance. The Indiana-Penn State affair on Sept. 30, 2005, drew the ninth-largest single-game crowd of 2005 with 4,585 fans in attendance. The game was one of eight nationally televised on Fox Soccer Channel. The game also was the eighth-largest crowd in the history of the facility.
Capping the Spring
Indiana will cap the spring season with a game against Butler at North Central High School in Indianapolis. The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., on Tuesday, April 25. It will be a homecoming for juniors Chris Munroe, Charley Traylor and Greg Stevning. The trio helped North Central to the 2002 boys' soccer state championship before heading to IU.
Players Mentioned
