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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SOCCER MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 18, 2013John TraskTHE MODERATOR: The men's soccer team qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995 and will host Milwaukee in a first‑round match on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in the McClimon Soccer Complex. The winner of that game will play at Notre Dame on Sunday. Head coach John Trask is here. We'll have opening comments and take questions. COACH TRASK: A long waiting period for the guys on the team as well as the staff, and to get rewarded with our body of work and be in the NCAA Tournament after 18 years here at the University of Wisconsin, it's more than exciting. It's a bit mind‑boggling to me. Four years ago we started this project and this process, this journey with these guys. To see them today and the smiles on their faces and to know their season is going to continue, at least through Thursday, really is exciting. A compliment, I think it's the first time in the history of the state that three Division I teams made the men's tournament. Milwaukee, excellent program that we'll be playing Thursday night, and then Marquette University. So great for the soccer community and the state of Wisconsin as well for all the youth that have an opportunity to aspire one day to be in our guys' shoes here in Madison and other state schools. Looking forward to the challenge. Q. In terms of where your expectations were before the season started, how the season has ended up, where does it sit in your mind? COACH TRASK: I think we're pretty pleased about where we're at, having won 13 games. I kind of had said to the team before the start of the season, you know, maybe 14 wins. So they let me down a little bit there. But, no, in all honesty, 13 wins with the quality of schedule we have to finish second place in the Big Ten, and just a lot of positives across the board. I wouldn't say we overexceeded expectations. I think we're right about where we were hoping to be. You'd always like to be a seeded team and not play in the first round, but it's nice to be at home as well. I know our guys are really looking forward to playing at least one more game in Madison. We've got quite a few seniors. They love the home field. Our field's in excellent shape. It's going to be a really spectacular show for NCAA soccer here in Madison on Thursday night. Q. Your regular season meeting with Milwaukee was tight. What can we expect? How do these two teams match up? COACH TRASK: They beat us 1‑0 last year at home. We tied them at their place this year in a tough overtime game. A good program. A lot of strengths. A lot of quality to their team as well. I think it shapes up for just an excellent night of soccer. They try to play, which is nice. We try to play, which is to be expected, I think, for the type of teams that I've always put together. It will come down to tournament soccer is about a few plays here and there. The soccer gods maybe weren't smiling on us against Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament. Hopefully, we can turn the tide and get a result on Thursday and move on in the tournament. That's what it's about. It's about advancing at this point. Q. Are you excited or happy to be playing an instate rival, or would you rather be playing someone else? COACH TRASK: Usually on the men's side in the NCAA Tournament you get matched up geographically as much as possible, so I think whether it was going to be a Bradley or someone like that who was reasonably close. We're not basketball and things like that. They do bake into the cost analysis on the game. So we were figuring, once Milwaukee won last night, that we most likely would be playing them. It's nice to be hosting them. I'd much rather play them at home than at their facility. They've got a pretty rabid fan base, and I'm sure plenty of them will make the trip up to Madison. It just shapes up for a great game, and it's what the NCAA Tournament is all about. You've got rivalry games all over the country that will be happening. There will be upsets. There will be great performances, I'm sure some poor performances. But we'll put together a great performance. Q. In terms of your players' mindsets, are they leaning more towards "we're happy to be there" or‑‑ obviously, you want to win‑‑ "we can win"? COACH TRASK: I think, considering what we've gone through as a group over four years, and it's been 18 years since Wisconsin's been in the tournament, there's always a little bit of worry on our end as coaches to make sure that we're locked in, we're dialed in for what's next. I guess that's my job as a head coach and the rest of the coaching staff, to make sure that the expectation was that we were going to be in it and we'd be hosting this game. The expectation is that we've got a good chance to win the game as well. So to think that we're happy with just getting in, I put that to our guys all the time. Because men's soccer is so tight at the end of the year and a lot of results go up and down, you know, you're sitting there wondering, are you on the wrong side of the bubble like we felt a couple of years ago? Fortunately, we weren't, and we're hosting. I'd like to think that our guys understand that we'd like to move on in the competition. I think there's more in this team. I've said it consistently to them. I'll say it publicly. I still don't think we've seen the best soccer out of this group of players. And that's what we'll be striving for on the practice field this afternoon and hopefully come match time at 7:00 on Thursday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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