Hoosiers battle, fall against Mexican U-20 team

In late November, the IU men’s soccer team did not know it would face and fall to the No. 1 team in the country. When the time came, the Hoosiers never achieved control against the Tar Heels when facing them on their home ground in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Both teams totaled only five shots on goal — all from UNC — during the match that went into overtime tied 0-0.

A single ball that rolled by IU junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner during overtime was all that separated IU from the end of a season and the defeat of the eventual national champion.

On Sunday, IU faced a similar fate as the Mexican U-20 national team, a collection of Mexico’s finest young professionals, faced Indiana at Jerry Yeagley Field in an international friendly match.  

Indiana took a 1-0 lead early into the first half and kept going into the second, but the Mexican national team controlled the pace for much of the game’s 90 minutes and capitalized on two IU defensive lapses, leaving IU on the wrong side of a 2-1 defeat.

After the game, both players and IU Coach Todd Yeagley agreed that with its professional experience, the Mexican team was simply on another level.

“This is a different class,” Yeagley said. “It’s amateur versus pro. They are playing for their first team in Mexico and have had international experience at high levels.”

IU freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta has had some international experience.

During his sophomore and junior years of high school, Zavaleta left his home in Westfield, Ind., for the U.S. Soccer U-17 National Team Residency Program, for which he helped the United States advance to round 16 at the 2009 U-17 World Cup.

He was named a Parade All-American twice, as well as a National Soccer Coaches Athletic Association All-American his junior year.

This past season, Zavaleta was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and was part of several all-freshman teams across the country. He led the Hoosiers in scoring with 10 goals.

But Zavaleta is one of few Hoosiers with much international experience, and as Yeagley said, the Mexican team’s whole bench is filled with international talent from around their home country.

“We had some tired legs out there, and when they get changes, they’re bringing on another pro, so they don’t drop much,” Yeagley said. “If anything, they had a few in their back pocket that they brought in who were as good as anything. When they make changes like that when they’re six or seven deep, it really challenged us physically.”

Even before the two teams began their match, the fans who filled the stands — those decked out in cream and crimson and those in their green Mexican jerseys, running around the stands waiving the Mexican flag — had turned the game into a different atmosphere the players said was unlike any college soccer game they had played in the fall.

But aside from the Mexican National Anthem, the huge flags and rowdy, chanting away crowd, Zavaleta and his teammates knew they were up against a different task.

Although IU ended on the wrong side of the result, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year said he was proud of his team for keeping its composure in such a crazy atmosphere.

“What I was really pleased with was that from the beginning of the game, especially in the first half, we didn’t seem scared,” Zavaleta said. “We seemed like we wanted to take it to them.

“Quite frankly, we have some players on our team who have some experience there, and that showed. But they’re a great team, both technically and tactically. They’re some of the best players we’ll ever play against, and I thought we took it at them.”

Yeagley echoed his star freshman, saying although a loss might not look as great on the team’s record, his players had something to learn from the defeat.

“There are so many nuances that our guys can walk away saying, ‘Yeah, I got something out of this game,’ but until you play against it, you can’t understand that fully,” Yeagley said. “You can talk about it, but until you feel it, it’s different.”

Zavaleta said, in the end, the game simply came down to the teams’ different
natures.

He and his Hoosier teammates play soccer for fun, some to try to get a chance to move on to the next level, but soccer for a Mexican national player is much more serious.

“It’s a completely different thing in this country,” Zavaleta said.  “You can see that experience there, and that’s why they win games, and that’s why they won today.”