Fifty-two minutes into the Michigan men’s soccer team’s Sunday match against UC Riverside, graduate midfielder Quin Rogers had a choice. Receiving the ball at the edge of the box, Rogers had the option of passing the ball off to one of his two onside teammates or taking a crack at the net for himself.
Rogers decided to let it rip, unleashing a thundering strike that left Highlanders goalkeeper Andrew Hermosillo sprawled helplessly on his side and doubled the Wolverines’ lead to 2-0.
Rogers’ risk-taking from outside the box was reflective of Michigan’s approach to the match as a whole, as the Wolverines (1-0-1) made good on an energetic performance to down UC Riverside (0-2-0), 2-0, for their first win of the season.
“Our goal for every game is to come in with a lot of energy,” Rogers said. “… We try to make it about ourselves, and we set the tone of our games rather than letting our opponents set the tone themselves.”
Michigan dictated the pulse of the game from the onset, with three shots in the first 10 minutes. The Wolverines were more comfortable in possession than they were Thursday night against Notre Dame, dictating the tempo of play — a sequence of quick one-touch passes in their end of the field early in the first half illustrated their ability on the ball.
Michigan didn’t simply consign itself to playing tiki taka football, though. The speed of graduate forward Shuma Sasaki provided the Wolverines with a direct threat in the final third, and he prowled the edges of the box throughout the first half. Though Sasaki himself didn’t score, he logged four shots, the most of any Michigan player.
And Sasaki’s menace reared its head in the 43rd minute, when he won a penalty off a foul on the edge of the box. Stepping to the spot was Rogers, who arrowed the penalty into the roof of the goal for the Wolverines’ opener.
“I’ve always been a big guy for penalties,” Rogers said. “Nothing new for me to score one.”
Michigan maintained its high energy levels into the second half, culminating in Rogers’ ambitious goal. The rest of the second half reflected this intensity. Though they failed to find the back of the net again, the Wolverines tallied another 10 shots, with UC Riverside having to call upon Hermosillo to make several saves and prevent an already one-sided contest from turning into a rout.
“We want to be aggressive in our mentality,” Michigan coach Chaka Daley said. “We want to try to play what we’ve been coached to play, possession based, see if we can build, but don’t just have possession for the sake of possession. Can we do it with a little bit of an instinct to affect the background? Can we do it in a way that forces the other team to be on their heels or pushes the buttons a little bit and forces errors or mistakes?”
The score itself was just 2-0, but the Wolverines took 16 shots, eight of which were on goal, overwhelming the Highlanders with a blend of speed and precise passing. Michigan’s high-energy, aggressive approach gave it an impressive victory that was more imposing than the scoreline suggests.
