Hoosiers host rival Wildcats

IU versus Kentucky. Two words: Border War. \nNo, not the Ohio River -- but rather the 49th parallel. \nWhen the IU men's soccer team battles the Wildcats at 7 p.m. tonight at Bill Armstrong Stadium, it will be a border war of a different kind.\n"They've got several Canadians who are good players," IU coach Mike Freitag said of the visiting Wildcats. \nIn fact, they have four Canadian players, a British player and an Australian player.\n"We've had a pretty good rivalry with Kentucky," Freitag said, even though the Hoosiers are 18-1-1 all time against the team from Lexington. "They're a formidable opponent these days."\nThe only time the Wildcats beat the Hoosiers was in 1995 in Bloomington.\nBut Freitag watched the Wildcats, 7-1-1 on the season, play Louisville earlier this season and was impressed with their performance. \nFreitag is particularly concerned with Kentucky forward Riley O'Neill, a senior from British Columbia who plays on Canada's Under-20 national team. \n"He's dangerous with his feet," Freitag said. "He's also dangerous off the ground."\nTo stop O'Neill and the rest of the Wildcat attack, senior defender Julian Dieterle said the Hoosiers must learn to talk. \n"Communication's going to be key," he said. "Miscommunication, small things have been our Achilles heel thus far early in the season. Something so simple, it's going to get sorted out."\nThe Hoosiers enter the border battle after coming off a disappointing 2-2 tie with Michigan -- a team the Wildcats lost to 2-1 earlier this month.\nIn Sunday's match the Hoosiers were plagued by a slow start and had to climb back from a 2-0 deficit. \n"We haven't been coming out well the first 20 minutes," freshman midfielder Lee Hagedorn said. "We feel like it's just going to happen without us going out and making it happen." \nThe tie against Michigan kept IU unranked for the second consecutive week. Again, the Hoosiers did not receive a single vote.\n"Dropping out of the rankings and everything has been kind of tough on our team," sophomore goalie Chay Cain said, "but everybody realizes that Kentucky's a good team, and we have to go out and play our best Wednesday night." \nEven in a tie, the Hoosiers found a spark in senior forward Kevin Robson. Robson is tied for the team high in total points and was named Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week after his two-goal performance against the Wolverines. \nRobson said its time for the rest of the team to pick up the intensity.\n"If we play a full 90 minutes, we're obviously going to win," he said. "But we haven't done it yet this year. It's got to come soon cause we're running out of games here, so we need to step it up here and get some 'W's'"