We'll Take It

Anyone who has played a sport knows that it is sometimes more difficult to get excited about some games than others. The facilities, the opponent, or the crowd can have an effect on one's ability to be at their peak level of concentration and effort. On Tuesday, Luther's Men's Soccer Team looked to be suffering from some of these symptoms, and things were not clicking as they had in the past. But they did what good teams do and found a way to win.
The afternoon game in Lacrosse against Viterbo University was swarming with mosquitoes and the crowd left a little to be desired. Luther dominated a lackluster performance from both sides as they dominated the possession and looked like they were going to score every time they had the ball. A crossbar and a couple great saves from Viterbo's goalkeeper was all that kept Luther out of the back of the net in the first half.
There were numerous chances for the Norse, as Viterbo's legs showed the fact that they had played four games in six days. But when the final ball was needed to create a clear goal scoring chance, or when a Luther player looked to go at a defender 1v1 in order to be clear to goal, they were slightly off. Far too often the final pass was consistently a yard ahead or behind and the ball got stuck underneath the feet of the forwards. The result was many near misses for Luther.
It wasn't for a lack of effort that Luther continued to come up short of a goal, as they continually pressed Viterbo, whose chances were few and far between.
The game went scoreless into overtime, with Kustra, Oket, and Fernandes suffering many near misses throughout the second half. It was not until six minutes into the first overtime that they were able to put the game away. Saul Rosales played Mark Fernandes into space outside the box to the left of the goal. He went at the defender and took a touch to his right towards goal when ball ricocheted off a retreating Viterbo defender and slowly rolled to bounce off the post and into the back of the net. There was a moment of shock when everyone on the field was not sure what had happened, and then Fernandes was mobbed by his elated and surprised teammates.
While it was not the most beautiful performance, these are the kinds of games this team needs to learn to win. In the past, these weird games that Luther dominated but could not find a way to score often resulted in a goal for the bad guys against the run of play. Perhaps this change of tides is a sign of the growth of this team. Their commitment to work hard and their ability to never give up on a game paid off in a big way on Tuesday, and they will look to continue their win streak Friday at 5 PM at Upper Iowa University.