Some say the best defense is a good offense. Others say defense wins championships. Whatever the philosophy, the Marquette men’s soccer team has both ends covered this spring, which makes philosophical preference irrelevant.
Through seven spring games the Golden Eagles (6-0-1) have scored 27 goals while opponents have countered with just one goal of their own. In 19 fall games, Marquette scored 24 goals.
“We’ve had a very spicy, very competitive spring training against each other,” coach Louis Bennett said. “Then when we’ve had the opportunity to do it against opposition, we’ve done it. Whoever we’ve played, we’ve done it against.
“Sometimes we struggled to take what we did in training and bring it to the field (last year). This year — this spring — we’ve taken what we’ve done in training onto the field, both from a defensive point of view and an offensive point of view.”
Marquette is known as a break or build team, meaning it looks to use ball movement to create opportunities to get the ball downfield and then move downfield when the opportunity presents itself.
Junior defenseman Michael Alfano has noticed a positive change in the team’s understanding of the concept this spring.
“A lot of times in the past, we’ve continuously just looked to break even when it’s not there and we’ve stressed this spring that we’re going to build when we have to build, but we’re building to look for a break,” Alfano said. “It’s not about keeping the ball and being patient, but looking for that opportunity to get through, around, over or behind.”
The spring schedule resembles that of previous seasons, Bennett said. So is Marquette that much better this spring or are its opponents that much worse?
“I think it’s a bit of both,” Bennett said. “We’re definitely better. I don’t think they’re any worse. I just don’t think a lot of the teams were prepared to play with the intensity and with the direction that we were.”
One of those teams Marquette defeated this spring was Wisconsin-Madison in a 2-0 shutout on April 17. Marquette may again play the Badgers when it hosts three fellow Wisconsin schools (Wisconsin-Green Bay, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Wisconsin) this Sunday in the Wisconsin Division I Cup.
Marquette plays Milwaukee Sunday and the winner of that game plays the winner of Green Bay and Wisconsin for the championship. The losers will play each other as well.
“We want to be known as the best team in the country at some time, but we definitely want to start with being the best team in Wisconsin,” Mallace said. “It’s been a pretty good (season) so far and if we finish it off with the Wisconsin Cup, it’ll be the cherry on top of the cake.”
With a spring season that’s been one of the most successful in recent years, Bennett would still like to see more consistency from his team — consistency in regards to quickness, quantity and quality.
“It’s something we talk to them all about. It’s being able to do what we do consistently, do it quicker and do lots of it,” Bennett said.
