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We take on the Wildcats tonight @ 7 pm. WatchESPN is streaming this for free. Go Hoosiers!

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
• The Kentucky Wildcats enter Wednesday's match with the Hoosiers with a record of 8-0-1 on the season.
• UK is ranked No. 4 in the United Soccer Coaches poll, No. 3 in the Top Drawer Soccer rankings, No. 5 in the College Soccer News poll and No. 8 in the NCAA RPI.
• Kentucky has won four-straight matches, including a 20-1 win at South Carolina this past Saturday.
• The Wildcats' lone draw this season came at Xavier, 0-0, on Sept. 11.
• UK is 5-0 at home this season and have not allowed a goal, out-scoring opponents 9-0 in those matches.
• J.J. Williams leads the team with seven goals and 16 points. In goal, Enrique Facusse has allowed just three goals in nine starts, posting seven shutouts.
 
SERIES HISTORY
• In the overall series between the Hoosiers and the Wildcats, Indiana leads 25-1-3.
• The Hoosiers have won four-straight matches in the series and are undefeated in the last 20 games, posting a mark 17-0-3.
• Indiana's last loss to the Wildcats came on Sept. 10, 1995 in Bloomington, 1-0.
• The Hoosiers have out-scored UK in the series, 98-14.
• All-time, Indiana is 9-0-2 against Kentucky in Lexington.
• Last year, IU beat the Wildcats in Bloomington, 2-0, on goals from Timmy Mehl and Rashad Hyacenth.

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13 minutes ago, Stromboli said:

Huge matchup! Has Kentucky played anyone good? SOS near as tough as ours?

Looking at their schedule doesn’t look like they have a played a ranked team let alone ranked teams on the road.  

Louisville actually is ranked they played them at home though 

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While I would love to win and beating UK is amazing at any sport, this is the game where taking a loss will hurt us least by far of our remaining games because:

1. It will not be bad for our RPI which is already no. 1 and a loss on road to no. 8 will cost you no more than a couple spots and a top 4 seed is what we need (1-4 seeds are identical in tourney) 

2. our resume is already stellar with 2 top 10 road wins and 4 top 30 wins overall with 2 more top 30 games after tonight

3. It has no impact on Big Ten race.

In all honesty UK needs this game more than we do as they have all sub 100 opponents left and have only one top flight win over Louisville. If they don't beat us given their schedule I am not sure they get better than an 8-10 seed with the schedule they play as Conference USA is much weaker than Big Ten (UK and South Carolina play soccer in Conference USA because no other SEC team fields Men's Soccer).

With all that said I am hoping for a win and would love to ruin UK's one chance at a huge win. With that said lets remember that no matter what we are playing with house money tonight and a loss or tie hurts nothing more than pride. Any remaining loss would be far more devastating as it would hurt us in conference standings or would entitle losing to Butler who has fallen apart this year (due to graduating their goalie from last year who single handedly masked a very poor defense as well as losing one of their 2 stud forwards) with an RPI over 100 and would kill our RPI with a loss.  

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I saw this coming from a mile away.

We are the better team (and dominated the middle 75 minutes) but UK was really out to make a statement tonight and we caught them at absolutely the worse time. This is definitely their Wat Shot moment and I knew from the beginning they were out for blood. Unlike UNC and ND where we were one of many good teams on their schedule and the match was just another great opportunity, this was UK's Super Bowl and they played like it and their record crowd proved it. Also their wild celebration afterward (much like the Wat shot) showed they are just now arriving as when we get a big win it’s just another day at the office.

This same UK team demolished an equally good to us Louisville team 3-0 to hand them their only loss so far. UK is going to have their moment where they slip up against a far inferior team because they are a very good but not great team (much like our slip up to Nebraska the year of the Wat Shot). However, this is definitely the best team UK has ever fielded that I have seen. I would love a rematch in the tourney in the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 at home assuming we take care of business down stretch and get the 1 or 2 seed and they slip and are like an 8 seed (I think both will happen).

Now as I have been saying all season this is not last year’s defense. It’s still among the best but it’s not the best and Maher is still trying to replace Lillard (and will eventually and has great talent but not quite there yet) hence the difference. We gave up the early goal than had a fantastic wide open match for 75 minutes that represents how college soccer should be played with both teams getting opportunities. Than we got frustrated and committed a foul just outside box that UK scored on and then tacked on when we threw 9 men forward a few min. after.

From the moment the season started given our schedule I thought we would split in Carolina, Lose to UK and tie Michigan on the road. I still believe we tie them 1-1 Sunday but that still puts us on track to win Big Ten as this would be Michigan’s second tie and I think we win the rest which guarantees us the title. We may suffer a random tie against Butler or another Big Ten team (this would still guarantee at least a split with Michigan for title assuming they won out) but I think our next loss comes late in the NCAA tournament assuming we don’t win it which is quite possible.

Remember after the Wat Shot UK didn’t lose again and continued to look like the top team while we looked very good but not great and that’s where I think were headed with these 2 teams.

As long as Yeagley rallies us (and based on his past he will) we are fine. In all honesty if we play like we did tonight for 75 minutes I think the only other team with a chance to beat us is MSU and even that’s a toss-up. It was not our best game but it was not our worst. RPI fell only from 1 to 2 since we already have a boat load of top wins. This was the only game left on our schedule we could afford to lose and hopefully it’s the only one we do.

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