Want to Win a Soccer National Title? You'll Need This
4/30/2021 9:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For Indiana, now the real soccer fun begins. Now the Hoosiers can focus on what they've done better than any other college program in the last 50 years:
Win another men's national title.
Fun begins Sunday when the No. 3-seed Hoosiers (9-1-1) face and St. Francis Brooklyn (6-1-2) in North Carolina.
First, though, a little history.
St. Louis won 10 national championships from 1959 to 1973, and none since. That was before participating NCAA tourney teams jumped from eight to 48, before national parity kicked in, and before Indiana and Virginia muscled their way into the limelight.
IU has eight national titles, the last coming in 2012. Virginia has seven.
Because of the pandemic, this year's tournament was cut to 36 teams. The Hoosiers must win five games to inch closer St. Louis' championship total.
IU coach Todd Yeagley has one national title, one national runner-up and one national semifinal appearance on his 11-year Hoosier resume. He knows what it takes to win under one-and-done pressure.
It starts, he says, with leadership and focus.
"That has to be there. That's first and foremost.
"The roles that have been established at this point, where we have guys put away their egos and say, 'I know where I'm at. I can help the team in this role.' That's support-rotation-starting.
"That is crucial."
Then comes the one element that, regardless of the sport, determines championships:
Defense.
"We always say a good attack will win you games," Yeagley says, "but a really good defense gives you a chance to win a championship."
Consider IU's 2012 title. Its last four games came by scores of 2-1 in overtime at No. 1 Notre Dame, then 1-0, 1-0 and 1-0.
"That's all you need," Yeagley says.
"If you're a prolific scoring team that has an OK defense, it's hard to run the table. I don't care what the sport is."
IU has a very good defense behind goalkeeper Roman Celentano and a tough-minded team approach that has overcome the loss of standout defender Spencer Glass to season-ending injury. It has only allowed three goals all season.
"With a goalie like Roman and our team defending mentality where everybody trusts in one another," Yeagley says, "that gives you the best chance. You can find a goal. We have guys who can score."
No Hoosier scores like Victor Bezerra, who has 11 goals, three assists and 25 points in 11 games, a pace that hasn't been seen around the program since the late 1990s with Aleksey Korol and Dema Kovalenio.
But IU isn't one-dimensional. Twelve other Hoosiers have scored, with Ryan Wittenbrink's four goals and nine points next behind Bezerra. The Hoosiers have totaled 25 goals.
"You need to have balance," Yeagley says. "That gives you the ability to adjust to other teams.
"If you're stubborn in what you do or how you defend or attack, you can get in trouble. You will come across a lot of varieties in the (NCAA Tournament). We can adjust and adapt as needed to be effective.
"That's what I like about our team. Every championship team has that."
IU looks like a championship team in so many other ways.
A pandemic-shortened season -- from 18 games to 10 -- didn't cost Indiana's difference-making experience. It's won close and decisively, won coming from behind and holding onto the lead, won playing a man down and under penalty kick duress.
The Hoosiers, Yeagley says, are fully prepared for what's coming.
"One of the things you get over an 18-game season is more overtimes, more games where you're losing late. How do you handle that?
"The good fortune is we won an overtime game where we didn't play well in the first half. We overcame a lot of adversity to win. We came from behind in the Michigan State game to win. We were able to hold leads late against really good teams, certainly late with the Maryland situation (a 2-0 Big Ten tourney semifinal win).
"We played down a man (in the Big Ten title game against Penn State), and that rarely happens with us. That hasn't happened since Stanford in the 2016 regular season. We are really good with our cards. To get that experience and find a way to get a result, to get to penalties, will help.
"The way these games are so tight, a penalty shootout is probable. To have that experience under our belt, that pressure and then succeed, that will be pivotal if we're in that situation again."
Every NCAA Tournament game will be played in North Carolina. The Hoosiers will be in a bubble, Yeagley says, "but not as strict as basketball."
"I think we can leave our hotel without someone monitoring us. Once we go down there, the same group stays together. There's no in-and-out of that group. If anyone comes to watch. It's outside of our group."
IU will have a 15-day break between the time it beat Penn State in the Big Ten tourney title game and the time it plays Sunday.
"The positive is everyone is in the same boat," Yeagley says. "Some of the conferences have been done earlier. If you didn't go as far as we did, you'd have a three-week break. I would be going crazy if that was the case. It was good that we did well in the conference tournament."
Yeagley and his staff are balancing rest and staying sharp physically and mentally.
"We do have some guys banged up we're getting back healthier," Yeagley says. "This time is wonderful for that.
"The hardest deal is maintaining that sharpness and edge, and that game rhythm. You can't quite do that in training. Our guys are really tired of scrimmaging. We did that all fall. We have to be smart. Be careful that guys don't battle in training too much.
"We're honing on restarts. Making sure things are more functional. Keep it short and sharp when we are going. Hone in on some things that maybe we didn't have time to revisit during the regular season -- situational play, training our rotation guys and support guys a little harder. We can get after them a little bit and gain some fitness with them. That is the best way to approach it."
No amount of rest will get Glass back. He went down just before Big Ten tourney play.
The Hoosiers adjusted and outscored Northwestern, Maryland and Penn State 6-1 to win the championship.
"It starts with Spencer," Yeagley says. "He's the biggest supporter in practice and games. The way he handled it is unbelievable. He's a mature kid. He's done a great job of leading and putting his disappointment behind him. Whatever we do, he is part of that, a huge part of it.
"For the guys who have stepped up, it's another level of confidence. It shows our rotation players that all of sudden your name might be called and you have to be ready to go."
Training approach is the key, Yeagley adds.
"How hard are you training? How intent are you to get better? If your name is called, are you ready to go? We need those guys ready.
"It's good to keep that culture alive in your program that when one guy goes down, the next guy steps up. Maybe he hasn't had to do it, but he's ready to do it."
College soccer has evolved since the mid 1990s when Yeagley played. Players are bigger, stronger, faster. They are more technically advanced at earlier ages.
And yet, Yeagley says, the biggest difference, and what impacts coaching the most, comes down to one word:
Parity.
"Everyone is improving," Yeagley says. "The difference is the parity and ability to have a really good player on a lot of teams.
"Look at some of these teams in the NCAA Tournament. You might not see a name you are familiar with in college soccer. The international recruiting has evolved since the time I played. There are so many good people playing college soccer. Many are people I have never heard of, because they might be international students or programs you haven't been following."
Yeagley points to Indiana's 2017 national title-game run. IU played New Hampshire in the third round and struggled to win 2-1.
"That was arguably the toughest game we played in that 2017 run. New Hampshire is a team not many people have heard of in college soccer, but they were really good. Their top guys were international and they had a lot of good Americans to support them.
"There are so many international players in college soccer, therefore the level continues to grow. It brings the tightness of the competition even closer than the days I played."
Tight competition or not, the Hoosiers aim to be there for the May 17 title game.
As Yeagley puts it, "We hope we're there a while. That would be a good thing."
@IndianaMSOC
For all the latest on Indiana University men's soccer, be sure to follow the team at @IndianaMSOC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
#GoIU
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For Indiana, now the real soccer fun begins. Now the Hoosiers can focus on what they've done better than any other college program in the last 50 years:
Win another men's national title.
Fun begins Sunday when the No. 3-seed Hoosiers (9-1-1) face and St. Francis Brooklyn (6-1-2) in North Carolina.
First, though, a little history.
St. Louis won 10 national championships from 1959 to 1973, and none since. That was before participating NCAA tourney teams jumped from eight to 48, before national parity kicked in, and before Indiana and Virginia muscled their way into the limelight.
IU has eight national titles, the last coming in 2012. Virginia has seven.
Because of the pandemic, this year's tournament was cut to 36 teams. The Hoosiers must win five games to inch closer St. Louis' championship total.
IU coach Todd Yeagley has one national title, one national runner-up and one national semifinal appearance on his 11-year Hoosier resume. He knows what it takes to win under one-and-done pressure.
It starts, he says, with leadership and focus.
"That has to be there. That's first and foremost.
"The roles that have been established at this point, where we have guys put away their egos and say, 'I know where I'm at. I can help the team in this role.' That's support-rotation-starting.
"That is crucial."
Then comes the one element that, regardless of the sport, determines championships:
Defense.
"We always say a good attack will win you games," Yeagley says, "but a really good defense gives you a chance to win a championship."
Consider IU's 2012 title. Its last four games came by scores of 2-1 in overtime at No. 1 Notre Dame, then 1-0, 1-0 and 1-0.
"That's all you need," Yeagley says.
"If you're a prolific scoring team that has an OK defense, it's hard to run the table. I don't care what the sport is."
IU has a very good defense behind goalkeeper Roman Celentano and a tough-minded team approach that has overcome the loss of standout defender Spencer Glass to season-ending injury. It has only allowed three goals all season.
"With a goalie like Roman and our team defending mentality where everybody trusts in one another," Yeagley says, "that gives you the best chance. You can find a goal. We have guys who can score."
No Hoosier scores like Victor Bezerra, who has 11 goals, three assists and 25 points in 11 games, a pace that hasn't been seen around the program since the late 1990s with Aleksey Korol and Dema Kovalenio.
But IU isn't one-dimensional. Twelve other Hoosiers have scored, with Ryan Wittenbrink's four goals and nine points next behind Bezerra. The Hoosiers have totaled 25 goals.
"You need to have balance," Yeagley says. "That gives you the ability to adjust to other teams.
"If you're stubborn in what you do or how you defend or attack, you can get in trouble. You will come across a lot of varieties in the (NCAA Tournament). We can adjust and adapt as needed to be effective.
"That's what I like about our team. Every championship team has that."
IU looks like a championship team in so many other ways.
A pandemic-shortened season -- from 18 games to 10 -- didn't cost Indiana's difference-making experience. It's won close and decisively, won coming from behind and holding onto the lead, won playing a man down and under penalty kick duress.
The Hoosiers, Yeagley says, are fully prepared for what's coming.
"One of the things you get over an 18-game season is more overtimes, more games where you're losing late. How do you handle that?
"The good fortune is we won an overtime game where we didn't play well in the first half. We overcame a lot of adversity to win. We came from behind in the Michigan State game to win. We were able to hold leads late against really good teams, certainly late with the Maryland situation (a 2-0 Big Ten tourney semifinal win).
"We played down a man (in the Big Ten title game against Penn State), and that rarely happens with us. That hasn't happened since Stanford in the 2016 regular season. We are really good with our cards. To get that experience and find a way to get a result, to get to penalties, will help.
"The way these games are so tight, a penalty shootout is probable. To have that experience under our belt, that pressure and then succeed, that will be pivotal if we're in that situation again."
Every NCAA Tournament game will be played in North Carolina. The Hoosiers will be in a bubble, Yeagley says, "but not as strict as basketball."
"I think we can leave our hotel without someone monitoring us. Once we go down there, the same group stays together. There's no in-and-out of that group. If anyone comes to watch. It's outside of our group."
IU will have a 15-day break between the time it beat Penn State in the Big Ten tourney title game and the time it plays Sunday.
"The positive is everyone is in the same boat," Yeagley says. "Some of the conferences have been done earlier. If you didn't go as far as we did, you'd have a three-week break. I would be going crazy if that was the case. It was good that we did well in the conference tournament."
Yeagley and his staff are balancing rest and staying sharp physically and mentally.
"We do have some guys banged up we're getting back healthier," Yeagley says. "This time is wonderful for that.
"The hardest deal is maintaining that sharpness and edge, and that game rhythm. You can't quite do that in training. Our guys are really tired of scrimmaging. We did that all fall. We have to be smart. Be careful that guys don't battle in training too much.
"We're honing on restarts. Making sure things are more functional. Keep it short and sharp when we are going. Hone in on some things that maybe we didn't have time to revisit during the regular season -- situational play, training our rotation guys and support guys a little harder. We can get after them a little bit and gain some fitness with them. That is the best way to approach it."
No amount of rest will get Glass back. He went down just before Big Ten tourney play.
The Hoosiers adjusted and outscored Northwestern, Maryland and Penn State 6-1 to win the championship.
"It starts with Spencer," Yeagley says. "He's the biggest supporter in practice and games. The way he handled it is unbelievable. He's a mature kid. He's done a great job of leading and putting his disappointment behind him. Whatever we do, he is part of that, a huge part of it.
"For the guys who have stepped up, it's another level of confidence. It shows our rotation players that all of sudden your name might be called and you have to be ready to go."
Training approach is the key, Yeagley adds.
"How hard are you training? How intent are you to get better? If your name is called, are you ready to go? We need those guys ready.
"It's good to keep that culture alive in your program that when one guy goes down, the next guy steps up. Maybe he hasn't had to do it, but he's ready to do it."
College soccer has evolved since the mid 1990s when Yeagley played. Players are bigger, stronger, faster. They are more technically advanced at earlier ages.
And yet, Yeagley says, the biggest difference, and what impacts coaching the most, comes down to one word:
Parity.
"Everyone is improving," Yeagley says. "The difference is the parity and ability to have a really good player on a lot of teams.
"Look at some of these teams in the NCAA Tournament. You might not see a name you are familiar with in college soccer. The international recruiting has evolved since the time I played. There are so many good people playing college soccer. Many are people I have never heard of, because they might be international students or programs you haven't been following."
Yeagley points to Indiana's 2017 national title-game run. IU played New Hampshire in the third round and struggled to win 2-1.
"That was arguably the toughest game we played in that 2017 run. New Hampshire is a team not many people have heard of in college soccer, but they were really good. Their top guys were international and they had a lot of good Americans to support them.
"There are so many international players in college soccer, therefore the level continues to grow. It brings the tightness of the competition even closer than the days I played."
Tight competition or not, the Hoosiers aim to be there for the May 17 title game.
As Yeagley puts it, "We hope we're there a while. That would be a good thing."
@IndianaMSOC
For all the latest on Indiana University men's soccer, be sure to follow the team at @IndianaMSOC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
#GoIU
Players Mentioned
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