The Michigan men’s soccer team didn’t step onto the pitch in its season opener against Loyola-Chicago with offense as its focus. With five defenders lined up deep to face the Ramblers, the Wolverines were ready to weather the rain of balls over the top that soon faced them.
Michigan handled a tough early phase of the game with ease. As Loyola successfully got boots on long balls over the top of the Wolverines’ defense, the interior trio of defenders helped their outside counterparts and defended all Rambler runs with ease. The five-man line held strong throughout the early barrage from Loyola, but keeping all five back for the entire game was never Michigan’s intention.
“It’s really more of a three,” Wolverine coach Chaka Daley said. “But because we’re just trying to see the game out, we brought the two wing backs back.”
Michigan held its wing backs deep to defend early in the game to endure the Ramblers onslaught of long balls. But as the game wore on, Daley set them free to open up the Wolverines’ offense.
Michigan jumped into attack mode in the latter part of the first half, successfully winning challenges at the top of Loyola’s defense and returning some pressure to the Ramblers. Once the Wolverines countered successfully into the attacking third, their wing backs crossed the center line and allowed Michigan to stack up its offensive numbers.
“Because we played two kind of attacking midfield players, when they offered themselves the center back has to jump,” Daley said. “Just because of numbers, if they jump, the space is available in behind. We didn’t find that early, but as the game went on we found it and that’s how we opened them up.”
Finding those cracks in the Loyola defense moved the Wolverines defense from the seemingly impenetrable five-back line, to a slimmer three-back line. But at that stage in the game defense was no longer the priority. Holding possession in the Rambler’s defensive third allowed Michigan to share the ball and work towards quality shot attempts.
The Wolverines’ game-winning goal didn’t come until 15 minutes into the second half, but the blueprint of controlling possession had been set after surviving the first-half barrage from Loyola.
“Just a little bit of composure and a little bit of quality,” Daley said. “With our passing, when we did that, we picked the ball up a lot in good spots.”
Michigan picked up the ball in good spots over the top and moved its wing backs into their offensive position. Then it picked apart the Rambler defense with sustained pressure, which led to the Wolverines’ eventual game-winning goal, and a successful 1-0 victory in the first game of their 2024 campaign.
Daley’s decision to come out of the gates in a five-back line paid dividends early to stave off Loyola’s aggressive offense, and came back into play to close out the game. After securing the winning goal, Michigan dropped back deep again, its defenders tasked with holding off an equalizer.
While Loyola had its chances and certainly put some pressure on the Wolverines, that five-man line held tight throughout the game after a strong start. And with only one needed goal to accompany it, Michigan earned its first win of the season.
The post Michigan’s dynamic defensive line controls Loyola-Chicago appeared first on The Michigan Daily.