FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Northern Illinois University men’s soccer team competed in its first exhibition game of the fall against Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday (August 9). The contest offered head coach Daniela Swan and his team at their first look at the 2024 Huskies against foreign opponents.
“I think we got off to a really good start and created some really good chances,” said Swan. “We were happy but then we lost our bearings a bit. We didn’t really let any chances go against us but we had no control of the game so the first half was pretty hectic, which is something you would expect in a first game.”
“We made a few adjustments in the second half but we got off to a bad start before settling down. I thought we were excellent in the last 30 minutes. We probably weren’t as sharp and composed as we would have liked to have been but we never panicked and created some good chances, so we were happy with how things went. It’s good to have the first game behind us and we know we have a lot of work to do before Tuesday’s game against Marshall.”
With half of this season’s squad made up of newcomers, Swan had the opportunity to watch numerous players make their unofficial debuts during Friday’s friendly, as almost the entire squad played against the Mastodons.
“Tom Dahlin was good today, especially in the first half. He was one of the few guys that got the ball and tried to get some passes to the man,” Swan said. “Paskus Scholarship came on in the second half and was excellent in midfield, he won the ball and was very composed. Josh Squires played a lot of minutes, was technically good and showed that he can play in tight spaces. Alex Curtis played in goal in the second half and did a good job.”
Today’s friendly gave Swan and his team the opportunity to get a feel for the current state of the Huskies as they prepare for their second friendly against Marshall next week.
“There are things we need to sort out structurally as a team,” Swan said. “There have been times when we haven’t been very structured, particularly in our press work. We’ll look at the video and hopefully those messages will come across more clearly. I think from now until Tuesday we’ll spend a lot of time working on the structure, when to go forward and when to be more composed and what everyone’s individual roles are defensively.”
NIU will play one more preseason game before the start of the regular season, as the Huskies host eighth-ranked Marshall at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 13 at the NIU Soccer Complex. The regular season is scheduled to begin on Thursday, August 22 with an away game at St. Thomas, Minn.
