Photo credit: Kathryn Knapp/Soc Takes

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — On a brisk day in Bloomington, the Indiana Hoosiers took just 21 minutes to get onto the board. But before that, the Hoosiers held their own, made perfect passes, defended, man marked and, more importantly, frustrated the University of Kentucky. After 90 minutes, IU took away the 3-0 victory.

“Three goals look great,” Yeagley said. “We played really well offensively. But defensively — to be able to defend like that at this time of the year is a formula that gives you the best chance to advance.”

A.J. Palazzolo sent the ball to Victor Bezerra, who centered it in front of the goal. Bezerra cleared his defender and buried the ball to the right of Kentucky goalkeeper Enrique Facusse and into the net for the 1-0 advantage.

“As soon as we got our first goal, we wanted more,” Bezzera said. “We knew one goal wouldn’t be enough. I was able to help my team today.”

Kentucky defender Aime Mabika collided with a Hoosier in the box in the 29th minute and limped off the field after being attended to. He returned seconds later. The 6-6 Kentucky native appeared to be nursing a left leg injury. He exited the match in the 31st minute.

A minute later, Bezerra dribbled past the defense and struck again, doubling the Hoosier lead.

“I can tell when someone’s feeling it,” Palozzolo said. “Vic was obviously feeling it. I tried to get him the ball as much as possible. Overall I’m really excited for this group.”

Offensively, the Wildcats’ Robert Screen ricocheted a shot off the left post in the 42nd minute for the visitors’ best look at goal in the first half. Celetano eventually cleared the attempt.

Indiana and Kentucky ended the first half in a physical battle. Kentucky edged the Hoosiers on fouls 8-7, while IU held the advantage on shots 6-2.

Kentucky pushed hard in the second half, throwing numbers forward and into the box. Jason Reyes snuck into the box on both attempts, sending two close calls toward the net in the 52nd and 54th minutes. But luck was not on the Wildcats’ side. IU goalkeeper Roman Celetano handled each attempt, sending the ball out of the box.

Indiana’s Bezerra found an opening in the 63rd minute, blasting his attempt into the net for a 3-0 Indiana lead. The three goals mark the first hat trick of Bezerra’s career. Bezerra now leads the Hoosiers offense with eight goals and three assists on the season. The hat trick is also Indiana’s third-ever postseason hat trick.

Aidan Morris shot the ball off the right post in the 89th minute for the Hoosiers’ last shot of the match. UK pushed one more time with Eythor Bjorgolfsson sending the ball wide left.

The Hoosiers held on for the 3-0 win to advance to the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Indiana outshot Kentucky 12-7, sending seven shots on goal to four. The match continued to be a physical battle with UK recording 17 fouls to 16.

The Hoosiers have not lost a match since Oct. 18th, a 3-0 decision to Maryland. Since that point, the Hoosiers have outscored opponents 20-2 while posting six shutouts. It’s fair to say this team is headed in the right direction.

“We’ve grown as a team since those games,” Palazzolo said. We’re meshing well. We are hitting our stride at the right time.”

Bezerra said he couldn’t agree more.

“There’s a lot of confidence,” Bezerra said. “We’re hitting the right stride. We had our best week of practice. We brought it into the game. Everything is coming down to execution. We’re executing better than before.”

IU (15-2-4) will host UC Santa Barbara (14-4-4) this Sunday at a to-be-announced time.

AROUND THE TOURNAMENT

Former Hoosier John Michael Hayden led the Louisville Cardinals to the round of 16 with a 1-0 win over UC Davis. In his first season as head coach, Hayden led the club to a 10-7-2 record. The Cardinals advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-straight year. Louisville will face a red-hot Georgetown in the third round. Georgetown (16-1-3) silenced Pittsburgh 5-0 Sunday afternoon.

Michigan (11-4-6) ended in a scoreless draw with Wright State (11-9-3). But the Wolverines prevailed 5-4 in PKs to advance to the round of 16 for the first time in nine years. Michigan will face Wake Forest (14-4-2), which topped Maryland 3-0. Defending NCAA champion Maryland saw its season end with an 11-8-2 record.

Penn State (12-4-3) dropped a 3-2 decision to Providence (16-6). In its 10th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Friars are looking to get to their second College Cup. Providence first appeared in the College Cup in 2014, but dropped a 3-2 result to UCLA in the semifinals. Providence improved to 11-7-1 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

Follow Kathryn on Twitter: @Katknapp99.

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic rises for a header over Victor Ulloa in the LA Galaxy’s 2-0 win over FC Cincinnati on June 22. Photo credit: Jamie Smed/Soc Takes

A new article in the New England Journal of Medicine by Daniel F. Mackay et al. raises the question of whether soccer follows the trend of “contact” sports in terms of increased risk of neurodegenerative disease for athletes. My article attempts to (1) summarize the key findings of the article with limited use of scientific jargon, and (2) place it in the larger context of where the beautiful game currently stands in its understanding of head injuries.

What did the study show?

The study showed that a subset (more on this later) of professional soccer players exhibited an increased risk of dying due to neurodegenerative disease than non-soccer players did. It also showed that professional soccer players — aside from the neurodegenerative disease part — seemed to be less likely to die from traditional killers such as heart disease and cancers such as lung cancer.

Which neurodegenerative diseases did they look at?

1. Alzheimer’s disease – The most common form of dementia. Risk factors include age and a history of brain injuries.
2. Parkinson’s disease – A primarily motor disease affecting a specific part of your brain.
3. Motor neuron disease – This is a type of neurodegeneration that affects the nerves controlling your movement. A common example is Lou Gehrig’s disease (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
4. Non-Alzheimer’s dementias – Dementia is a catch-all term for change in cognitive function. Non-Alzheimer’s dementias are diseases that have some overlapping symptoms as Alzheimer’s, but involve different symptoms as well. These differences are due to brain regions affected, particularly during early stages of the disease. An example is frontotemporal dementia.
5. Dementia NOS – All dementias (Thank you Dr. Stewart for this correction).

It is important to note that this study did not measure rates of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) directly. This was due to limitations in how the authors were able to procure the data (not their fault, by the way).

The sampling question

Something that is being missed in the analysis is that it was a study of male professional soccer players. This unavoidable bias is due to the fact that pro soccer players in Scotland are men. Therefore, the controls were required to be age and sex-matched, and hence all of this data comes from male soccer players and male controls. Whether this is applicable to women soccer players is an unanswered question. This is an important consideration as some data suggests that the rates of head injury in women’s soccer exceed those in the male version of the game.

Additionally, is this a Scotland-only effect? I ask this because there was a study that showed increased Lou Gehrig’s disease in a sample of Italian soccer players. To the best of my knowledge, this result had not been shown in soccer players from a different geographic region. This would suggest a synergistic effect of genetics (Italian for ALS or Scottish for soccer) and sport. To put it simply, this data may not be applicable to the soccer population at large. (It should be noted that this article shows an increased rate of motoneuron disease generally, but not ALS specifically.)

A particular strength of this study is that it mitigates a prevalent problem in the field of brain injury research — the self-selection bias of “bad brains.” The idea is that when someone is experiencing symptoms of neurodegeneration, they are more likely to donate their brain to science. Therefore, the percentages we get are skewed. In this study, the authors examined data to basically ascertain how it was that a person died. Therefore, they eliminate the “bad brains” bias, and their data can be interpreted as representative of — at the very least — the male soccer-playing population of Scotland.

Other takeaways

1. No soccer position-specific effect on neurodegeneration, but existing one on prescription for dementia.
2. Increased rate of dementia-related prescription in soccer players versus controls (reason unknown and the authors don’t speculate, but it could be due to increased awareness or socioeconomic status.)

Where is the sport with head injuries?

The sport is dragging its feet. FIFA needs to mandate harsher penalties on high-impact contact to the head, regardless of intention/getting the ball. Recently, the USL explored temporary substitutions for head injury diagnoses, which deserves applause. MLS, on the other hand, has failed to update its concussion protocol in spite of telling Four Four Two and the Associated Press that it would. It’s been over three years.

The overarching question about the risk of heading resulting in CTE remains unanswered in the literature. Previous work suggests that technically proficient headers of the ball are unlikely to be concussed due to ball to head impact. However, the hand-wavy question of subconcussive injuries (due to an impact on the brain that causes minor, externally unnoticeable changes in the brain) remains under-explored. Given that we have a case report of CTE in a soccer player who had no history of concussion, the subconcussive question is an interesting one. (The TL;DR version is that it’s just too early to say anything about heading the ball and CTE. I previously explored the question of heading in youth soccer.)

Overall thoughts

This is a well-powered and important study — the first of its kind for soccer — that shows that professional soccer players are likely to have an increased risk for neurodegeneration later in life. This is in agreement with data from other more traditional “contact” sports such as MMA and American football. Future work will need to expand this data set to include women soccer players, amateur soccer players and soccer players from different geographic/genetic backgrounds.

Follow Nipun on Twitter: @NipunChopra7.

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• INDIANAPOLIS — Saturday was the first home game of the season for the Indy Eleven, playing against the Hartford Athletic. Although a rainy day, it wasn’t enough to deter the record-breaking crowd that attended the match. A total of 20,251 tickets were sold for the game, the most in…

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Photo credit: Travis Isaacs

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — In the postseason, all bets are off. A team that dominated another one just a couple weeks before turns into a team struggling for control. It happens. It’s what makes the game of college soccer so fun. But it’s frustrating for the players, the coaches and the fans.

Sunday afternoon, the Indiana men’s soccer team hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes in a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal match. The two teams just met Oct. 29. IU wasted no time taking control, scoring thee goals in the first 30 minutes in an eventual 5-1 win.

This time, Ohio State flipped the script. The Buckeyes took four shots in the first 13 minutes before the Hoosiers even had a shot on target. Spencer Glass recorded the first shot for the Hoosiers in the 31st minute. Eleven minutes later, IU jumped in front when Joshua Penn sent a high ball into the net, beating OSU goalkeeper Parker Siegfried for the 1-0 lead. IU managed to take one more shot before the end of the half.

“I just wanted to keep it on net,” Penn said. “I knew the goalie wouldn’t have a good look at it.”

IU head coach Todd Yeagley said that first goal was a much-needed one. “It was a huge goal. Going into halftime without a goal, we knew Ohio State would come out even stronger. That goal kind of simmered down the game a little bit.”

The story of the first half was not the shots or lack of attempts. It was the fouls. Ohio State committed nine fouls, while earning two yellow cards. IU committed five fouls in the same stretch, with one yellow. It was obvious that it was a physical match. IU, the Big Ten regular-season champion, was pushing to make it to the semifinals. Ohio State was too, only without a win their season was most likely over.

“They’re a gritty team,” Glass said. “At this point in the season, every team is going to battle like it’s their last game. In a game like that, we’re up and we don’t want something silly to happen. There were little reminders all game that yeah it’s an intense moment — but it’s not worth it.”

In the second half, the physicality continued. Just 26 seconds in OSU’s Devyn Etling received a yellow card. And in the 51st minute, Etling threw an elbow and was shown red. Down a man and a goal, Ohio State didn’t give up without a fight. But a young Hoosier squad kept itself composed, staying focused on the prize.

In the 85th minute, Glass made a run toward goal. Glass sent the ball to A.J. Palazzolo, who slotted into the lower right corner of the net for a 2-0 lead. The Hoosiers held on for the 2-0 win.

“We were a little slow in the first half,” Glass said. “The second half we found our rhythm. We were able to hold things down and come out with a shutout.”

Yeagley said he was proud of the team’s performance. “We knew today would be very tight,” Yeagley said. “The game was very physical from the start. Our guys handled it well. We tried to keep them cool and composed. Our guys stepped up in key moments.”  

IF ANYONE KNOWS IU SOCCER…

Ohio State head coach Brian Maisonneuve is no stranger to the Hoosier way of play. Maisonneuve spent his college years at IU, tallying 44 goals and 22 assists while helping IU earn a 73-15-7 record. He did that alongside Todd Yeagley. In 1994, the duo dominated the national awards. Maisonneuve was named the Hermann Trophy winner, while Yeagley earned the Missouri Athletic Club National Player of the Year award. The duo then played together for the Columbus Crew. When Yeagley was named head coach of the Hoosiers, he recruited Maisonneuve to be his assistant. One of the top assistants in the country, Maisonneuve moved on in 2018, taking over the reigns of Ohio State. It’s fair to say few have better knowledge of the Hoosier way.

UP NEXT…

IU (13-2-3) heads to Maryland for the Big Ten semifinals. The Hoosiers will face the Maryland Terrapins in Friday’s first semifinal (4 p.m. ET). The last time the two clubs met, Maryland handed IU a 3-0 loss. Since that match, IU has dominated opponents, outscoring them 16-2, while posting three shutouts. The time before that, IU lost 2-0 to Maryland in the NCAA Tournament semifinal. So it’s fair to say the Hoosiers will be fired up. And if Sunday’s match was any indication, they’re ready.

Follow Kathryn on Twitter: @Katknapp99.

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INDIANAPOLIS — The Indy Eleven edged the visiting Swope Park Rangers 2-1 on Wednesday night at Lucas Oil Stadium to secure at least one home match in the USL Championship playoffs. A second goal from Dane Kelly un-leveled matters late and the hosts held on to lock up — after New York Red Bulls II fell later in the evening — the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Eleven will return to their former home pitch, Carroll Stadium, to host their postseason home game(s).

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Follow Robbie on Twitter: @SoCalledRobbie.

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Click the image above to request the league code. Image credit: Fantasy Premier League

It’s that time again. Yes, Indy Saints FC‘s Fantasy Premier League returns for the 2019-20 season.

Compete with other Premier League supporters all season long for bragging rights. It’s free to play.

Interested participants are to fill out this form, after which you’ll be sent the league code to join. If you don’t receive the league code or have any issues registering, please email [email protected] or [email protected] for assistance.

Register, invite your friends, set your lineup and get ready for the kickoff of the 2019-20 Premier League season this weekend. Liverpool and Norwich get things started Friday, Aug. 9, with the remaining clubs all taking the pitch Saturday and Sunday.

Best of luck to all participants!

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