Kentucky Men's Soccer to Play at Xavier Midweek
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men’s soccer team will cross the Ohio River to play at Xavier in a battle of unbeaten sides on Tuesday.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET at the XU Soccer Complex in Cincinnati.
The match will be streamed on Xavier’s “All-Access” service.
The setup
Kentucky goes into Tuesday’s midweek tilt having won all four of its games this season, its best start since beginning the 2009 campaign 5-0-0.
UK has started 3-0-1 through the first four games each of the past two years.
Xavier has a 2018 won-lost-drawn record of 2-0-2. The Musketeers defeated Cincinnati 3-1 last Friday at home.
Kentucky won two matches by a collective score line of 5-0 last week. The Wildcats defeated No. 7/6 Louisville 3-0 in front of 1,827 members of the Big Blue Nation last Tuesday. That result became all the more impressive when Louisville defeated No. 2 Duke 3-0 on Sunday.
The Wildcats won their Conference USA opener and first road game of 2018, 2-0 at UAB, on Saturday.
Junior co-captain JJ Williams, reigning C-USA Offensive Player of the Week, scored two goals against Louisville and another one at UAB.
Sophomore center back Aimé Mabika scored a penalty against Louisville midweek, and assisted a goal Saturday v UAB. He of course was dominant in defense during each of UK’s clean-sheet performances last week.
Sophomore goalkeeper Enrique Facusse, the reigning Conference USA Golden Glove Award winner, now has 11 career shutouts from 22 starts.
He’s remained without a blemish through 360 minutes of play this season
Against Louisville, Facusse had to make two saves playing behind an experienced, but mostly young, back line of (from left to right) sophomore co-captain Keyarash Namjoupanah, sophomore Leon Jones, sophomore Mabika and senior Tanner Hummel.
Facusse made six saves Saturday v UAB and has made 12 saves through four games this season.
The opponent
Xavier will be seeking its third home victory of the season. The Musketeers have home wins over Cincinnati Christian and Cincinnati, and two 0-0 draws on the road at “autonomy conference” opponents Oregon State and Northwestern.
They have been led by senior midfielder Simen Hestnes, who has a four of the team’s nine goals this season.
Xavier was Big East Tournament runner-up last season, and finished fourth on the league table during the regular season. Andy Fleming is in his eighth season as Xavier head coach.
The precedent
Kentucky and Xavier tied 1-1 with JJ Williams scoring at The Bell a year ago. The result was the first draw in the 13-game all-time series, pushing UK’s overall lead in the series to 7-5-1. Kentucky had the most recent victory between the sides in 2014 when they defeated in overtime at The Bell.
Kentucky is 4-1-0 in matches away at Xavier.
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