UK just played three of the best soccer teams in the country. The Cats are still unbeaten.
The Kentucky men’s soccer team still has work to do in 2022 if the Wildcats are to match the scintillating start they enjoyed last season.
In 2021, UK went unbeaten in its first 14 games as part of a season that ended with a conference tournament championship and a third trip to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in four seasons.
The No. 6-ranked Wildcats are unbeaten through six matches this season, and the last two weeks on the pitch have shown early signs that UK has the needed characteristics to make another deep postseason run.
In the last 11 days, Kentucky has faced three top-20 ranked opponents.
Kentucky trailed in all three matches, and Kentucky earned a result in all three matches.
A rousing 3-2 home win over then-No. 10 Louisville was followed by a 1-1 draw at then-No. 20 Tulsa in Kentucky’s first road game of the season.
This daunting stretch of matches continued Friday night with a 1-1 draw between UK and No. 7 Marshall in Lexington, an occasion that marked the first game in the Sun Belt Conference for both schools.
“The two things I sent (the team) out before kickoff with was intensity and communication,” UK head coach Johan Cedergren said after the match. “I’m really happy with the performance because we weren’t timid. We were very aggressive and we played as a team.”
Much like last year’s match between Kentucky and Marshall when the two schools were Conference USA members — which ended in a feisty 0-0 draw in Huntington, West Virginia, — Friday’s match had all the hallmarks of high-level college soccer.
The physical, at-times contentious match was a measuring-stick moment for both schools as they began conference play in front of 2,672 fans, including a significant traveling party from Marshall, at the Wendell and Vickie Bell Soccer Complex.
Marshall’s 47th minute opening goal from Matthew Bell was canceled out by UK senior midfielder Nick Gutmann scoring from a tight angle in the 53rd minute.
While Kentucky (4-0-2 overall, 0-0-1 Sun Belt) was unable to win despite having more frequent and better-quality scoring chances over the 90 minutes, Cedergren came away impressed with his team’s performance.
In its matches against Louisville, Tulsa and Marshall, Kentucky has displayed more than just resolve while earning results from losing positions.
Freshman goalkeeper Casper Mols made a combined seven saves against Louisville and Marshall, while senior transfer goalkeeper Isaac Walker was in between the sticks for the Tulsa match, giving Cedergren a pair of quality goalkeepers at his disposal.
“I think as we talk about performances and getting better and better every week, Casper was good when he came here, but every week he’s getting better,” Cedergren said of the freshman from Denmark. “The way we play being a little more aggressive, a little higher, we’re going to need our goalkeeper to help us out.”
A Kentucky team that was shut out four times last season has scored in all six of its matches this season, recording an average of six shots on goal per game against ranked opponents.
Another standout trait Cedergren singled out after the Marshall match was UK’s attacking intensity, exemplified by getting Gutmann in isolation matchups with opposing defenders on the wing.
“Anytime we can get Nick into isolation against (an opponent’s) fullback, the other team freaks out,” Cedergren said. “So if they leave Nick one-v-one, well then he’s going to do what he did today, or what happens a lot of times is (the opponent) will slide an extra player over, which means that someone else will be open.”
The Wildcats also have the legs to survive in high-intensity matches.
UK was the stronger side in the closing minutes against Marshall, and while Marshall’s players frequently fell to the ground with cramps as the game neared an end, Kentucky players remained active and upright.
Even as UK approached playing 270 minutes in 11 days against some of the best teams in college soccer, the Wildcats applied offensive pressure and remained in the ascendancy, a trajectory Cedergren hopes will continue for the rest of the regular season.
“We want to be tested. We don’t care about going undefeated through the season, we want to make sure that we get tested so that when we get to the postseason, we can keep playing for a while,” Cedergren said.
The next ranked test for Kentucky comes in just a few days.
UK is set to face its fourth straight ranked opponent at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when No. 21 Lipscomb comes to Lexington.
“It’s all about confidence. We know that we have a special group,” Gutmann said. “We know that we have the quality, but we have the mindset as well. We have the right characters on the team. If you have quality on the team, but the chemistry is not right, you’re not going anywhere. I think this combination of quality and character and energy that we bring on the pitch this season is really special.”
UK women drop SEC opener
The UK women’s soccer team also played its conference opener Friday night as part of a doubleheader at The Bell, which also marked UK’s first SEC match with first-year head coach Troy Fabiano at the helm.
In the early match of the doubleheader, the UK women’s team (7-2-0 overall, 0-1-0 SEC) lost to No. 15 Ole Miss, 2-1.
UK rallied after allowing an early goal (scored on a free kick by Ole Miss goalkeeper Ashley Orkus) to equalize in the 32nd minute through transfer forward Hailey Farrington-Bentil, but the Cats conceded two penalty kicks later in the match.
Ole Miss (7-0-2, 1-0-0) converted on one of those prior to halftime for the deciding goal.
UK entered SEC play with its most non-conference wins (seven) since 2015. The Cats still haven’t won a match against a ranked team since October 2016.
Something to watch for as SEC play continues will be the depth, such as it exists, for Fabiano’s team in the remaining nine regular season conference matches.
UK has 10 field players with 609 or more minutes played (an average of more than 67 minutes per match) already this season.
