After rough start, club champions seek repeat

The IU men’s club soccer team has one aspiration this year – to repeat as national champions.

Throughout the past three years, the team has the best overall record in the country with 44 wins, seven losses and eight ties. 

The team participates in the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association.
IU is in the most competitive region in the country, which comprises all universities in the Midwest. Half of the final four teams in the national tournament have come from this region during the past three years. 

The men’s team (2-1-2) is one of the most competitive around. It has consistently had between 50 and 60 men try out for the 28 available spots. 

“We have a really deep team,” club president Andy Kushnir said. “We get a lot of guys in and out, and the bench has really been producing.”

The team returned 17 players and eight starters from last year’s championship team. 

The returning players add leadership and have become one of the team’s strongest assets.

Kushnir has been on the team for four years. Each year, the team qualified for nationals, and he said he knows that the depth of the team will be key if it hopes to do that again. 

First-year coach Darren Gallagher looks forward to the chance to lead the team back to the national championship. 

He said he believes that the team as a whole is very talented. He also points to the depth of the team as a key factor. 

“In Sunday’s game I used 20 to 22 guys,” he said. “There is not that much difference in talent between our first to 20th guy.”

Gallagher saw the toughness that his team exhibited in some of the close games it has already had this season.

“We’re very gritty and really get after teams,” he said. “We’re definitely not afraid to mix it up with our opponents.”

The members of this year’s team have quickly learned that defending a national championship is not an easy task. 

The team struggled this weekend with 1-1 ties against Bradley and Northwestern. It also had a 0-1 loss to Illinois.  Senior goalkeeper Steven Smith realized the burden that it is to be reigning national champions.

“Every team we play is gunning for us, as we are their biggest game of the year,” said Smith, who won the Golden Glove award for being the best goalkeeper on the club level in 2008. 

IU has four remaining home games this season. The team also will compete on its home turf for the regional tournament with the top-12 teams from the region on the weekend of Oct. 31.

“We have great games left, and it would be awesome to have people come out,” Kushnir said.