The Spartans keep their perfect season alive as they draw 1-1 to Waubonsee Community College on Saturday at the Spartan Athletic Fields. 

The team got off to a rough start as they got into some foul trouble. In the 5th minute, forward Adrian Diaz got fouled by the opposition. In the 32nd minute, midfielder Juan Herrera made an amazing shot but unfortunately, it didn’t go in the back of the net. 

The team tried their best to score first but it wasn’t enough as they ended the 1st half 0-0. In the second half, the team was still struggling as Waubonsee scored the first goal of the game which made it 1-0 to the opposition team. 

In the 64th minute, midfielder Reyli Perez tied the game with a goal which made it 1-1 Spartans. Unfortunately, the goal wasn’t enough as the Spartans ended the game on a draw. 

After the game, head coach Dimitri Tsoukalas gave his thoughts on the game. “We actually use 2. We started in a 4-3-3 and we noticed that we might try something new. After they scored, we switched to a3-5-2 and helped open up the game and we’re able to at least tie it at that point.”

According to Tsoukalas, he explained the difference between playing the 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 formation which is “The 3-5-2 is more of an attacking formation. A lot of people might think it’s a little bit more defensive but the way that we wanted to play it. We wanted to try to open up the field as much as we can.” 

Also, he explained the players tempo of the game which is“They could do better with it. We take pride in being able to control the pace of the game but recently, it hasn’t been the case so we gotta try to regroup again.” 

“Yes, there were quite a few whether it was individually or collectively. It wasn’t our best of games but at least we found a way to get a tie and get a point out of it. It’s a conference game. All conference games are hard.” 

Defender Diogo Magana gave his thoughts on the game. He analyzes his way of controlling the tempo of the game which is “Basically, communication. Making sure that everybody is focused and pulling the game. Making sure everybody is in the right position.” 

According to him, he explained how the team made some good long passes. “It’s pretty much like async. It’s like muscle memory. You have to look at where the players are gonna run. Sometimes, you don’t want to pass to a player, you want to pass it to a space where the player is running to.” 

Also, he explained what a drop-back is. “Drop-Back basically means that for the players to come back down and defend the ball now so we don’t get scored. You don’t have to drop-back all the time because it’s tiring.”