Losing its fifth-straight game Sunday to Northwestern 2-1, the men's soccer team just cannot seem to get a break.
The team, which has not won a game since August 31, has been finding it excessively difficult to put the ball in the net.
While Duke (2-8-1) was hoping to seize the opportunity to regain some confidence and momentum early, the squad could not put together a strong enough defense to stop Northwestern (4-3-4) from scoring first.
In the 20th minute, Northwestern's Will Nicholas headed in a goal off a corner kick from teammate Gerardo Alvarez to put the Wildcats up. Eleven minutes later, while Duke goalie Justin Trowbridge was out of the box, freshman Daniel Chille took advantage of a scoring opportunity and put the ball in the net from about five yards out.
While the Blue Devils had some scoring chances in the first half, they were not successful in finding the net.
"Some of our players had a chance to take Northwestern and go to goal [in the first half], and they hesitated," head coach John Rennie said. "Usually that is a confidence thing, and when you have not been playing that well and have not been successful, you are a little more hesitant. But in the second half, I think we did a much better job with that."
The Blue Devils came out in the second half ready to play aggressively. Duke kept the Wildcats from getting a single shot off and allowed them no corner kicks in the entire period.
Keeping the ball in Northwestern's zone for most of the game, the team was still unable to find the net until Blake Camp was given a free kick from the left side midway through the half. From 30 yards out, the sophomore scored Duke's first goal, sending a ball over
Northwestern's defenders and deflecting off the goalie into the net. Even after scoring its first goal, the team could not score another one in its many attempts. The Blue Devils outshot the Wildcats 15-7 and held a 6-5 advantage in corner kicks.
Sending the ball to the center, the Blue Devils could not find an open man. Bringing the ball up the middle, the Northwestern defenders quickly counteracted, said Rennie.
"Right now, we do not have anybody stepping up to score big goals,"
Rennie said. "It is just the way our season's been going. In a game like this, you just have to take advantage of your opportunities. In the first half, they did it; and we did not do enough of it."
Northwestern's defense stopped many of Duke's attempts on the net, frequently keeping multiple defenders on the ball.
"Northwestern did what a lot of teams have been doing," said Camp, who led the team with five shots yesterday. "They were sitting in and getting a lot of numbers behind the ball and really trying to counterattack."
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