Trask speaks at weekly news conference
October 25, 2011 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 25, 2011
Watch Trask's Press Conference 
MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin men's soccer coach John Trask spoke to the media on Monday at the weekly press conference held at Camp Randall Stadium
Archived video of the media session is available through the link above, and a complete transcript of Trask's remarks can be found below.
John Trask: Bit of an interesting week for us. We had a huge result against Michigan State to take over first place in the Big Ten last weekend. Very tough conditions up at Green Bay and, unfortunately, we lost the coin flip and gave them a goal early and had to play catch-up the rest of the game. And then turned around and played a very stingy, very good, competitive game against Northwestern. Came out on the wrong end, one-nil. Northwestern is probably in the driver's seat of the Big Ten at this point, but looking forward to Wisconsin Milwaukee on Wednesday. You know, it's a Darby, it's a rivalry. It will be a great game over at Engelmann Field, It always is. And then we come home and play Ohio State, who we're tied with in the Big Ten.
My feeling is it's (Big Ten) still wide open. I don't know the last time that 5-1-0 won the Big Ten or 5-0-1 won the Big Ten. So at 3-1-0, we're still right in the hunt, and we're going to keep pushing forward and hopefully get that result against the Buckeyes.
QUESTION #1: Is it easy for your guys to bounce back after a couple losses like they have in the past two games, especially with kind of a lot on the line these last couple games?
TRASK: Yeah. I think that's the continued maturity of the group. Last year, we would lose a couple and there wasn't that resilient belief that we would turn it back around. We lost three earlier in the season, a couple tough ones against some nationally ranked teams, and then we bounced back with a great win over Drake. Yeah, we've lost two in a row, heartbreakers if you want to put it that way, but, the guys respond well. They'll be back in training today, and I know they'll be ready to play on Wednesday night in another very competitive match.
QUESTION #2: That's probably easier to do too when you have a game like Ohio State coming up. You're not overlooking Milwaukee, but at least from a conference standpoint with a lot on the line that last game.
TRASK: Yeah. Some people look at the season and say, boy, it's nice when you get a week break. Sometimes it's nice to get right back on the field. And I think after that Northwestern performance, getting back out there on Wednesday and being in a competitive environment against an opposition, rather than sitting around all week waiting for the big game, I think will be huge for us. Hopefully we can get a positive result over there. It will be a tough game, but if we can win that one and really kind of steamroll into the game with Ohio State at home. Ohio State beat us one-nothing in a very close game last year at their place. They are definitely in the upper echelon of teams in the Big Ten, and we're looking forward to a great home crowd and a great game, great atmosphere on Sunday afternoon.
QUESTION #3: Coach, you were shut out twice for the first time all year. How do you get your offense back on track?
TRASK: I don't want to say we went away from things. The Green Bay environment was tough. It was 55-mile an hour winds or something on Wednesday, if people remember what it was like across the Midwest. And Northwestern doesn't give up many opportunities. We had a couple good looks at goal. It would have been nice to get a few more, but we have confidence we can score goals. I think the players will take it upon themselves to put themselves, hopefully, in positions to reward themselves. That's the big part of it. It's a team game. It's not an individual game. So they're going to have to do it collectively, and we're going to work on it a little bit in the next two days and look forward to trying to punch the ball in the net a couple times on Wednesday.
