The Golden Eagles welcome the Panthers to Valley Fields with an eye on extending their control of the traveling trophy.
IT’S TIME FOR THE MILWAUKEE CUP!
And not just any Milwaukee Cup match between Marquette and Milwaukee, but it is the 50th Milwaukee Cup match! History happening right before our very eyes.
I don’t think it’s crazy to say that the Milwaukee Cup is definitely a bigger deal for Marquette over the last nearly 30 years. The fact of the matter is that Marquette was just 3-20-2 against the Panthers between 1973 and 1997. Things have turned since 1998! Since a 1-0 Marquette victory that September, MU’s record is 9-11-4. That’s much better!
This time around, Marquette will be looking to match their longest stretch holding the traveling trophy between the two teams. MU had it for three years after a 3-0 win in 1982, then another three after that 1998 victory. The most recent three year run came started in 2014 and a pair of draws kept possession with the Golden Eagles. Marquette won the cup in 2022 with a 5-2 victory at Valley Fields and then held it with a 1-1 draw last September at Milwaukee.
As a fun note: This is the latest that the Milwaukee Cup has been contested since a Marquette victory on October 22, 2008. Isn’t scheduling weird?
Marquette will be trying to win back-to-back home games in the series for the first time since a pair of victories in 2012 and 2014. That’s a long time, but again: MU is actually under .500 overall in the series since the turn of the century, so that makes sense.
In terms of how this match matters in the big 2024 season picture….. it’s probably best if the Golden Eagles get a victory. I think perhaps that their outside shot at an NCAA tournament bid flew out the window over the past week when their RPI jumped from #51 to the mid-60s even though MU was idle for five days between matches. UW-Milwaukee currently sits at #105 in the RPI as of Monday morning, so anything that’s not a win would just damage that reputation a little bit further. Marquette’s postseason hopes ultimately reside with their remaining Big East results — three top 50 matches! — but taking a sub-100/Quadrant 4 loss or even a draw wouldn’t be a fun time, either.
REMINDER: Marquette’s home contests are streamed nearly exclusively on FloSports, as are all Big East home matches and all league schedule contests. If you are paying full price for FloSports at $30 a month, you are doing it wrong. Please use this link to pay less than half of that, and even less if you can use a Marquette.edu email address.
Match #12: vs Milwaukee Panthers (5-2-3, 1-2-1 Horizon League)
Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Time: 7pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteSoccer
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
I skipped saying the all-time series record earlier, so here it is: Marquette is 12-31-6 all time against Milwaukee.
The Panthers do come into this match on a bit of a hot streak. They have won three of their last four and are unbeaten in four of the last five. They picked up home wins over Drake and Oakland in the past week, and they had a win on the road against Northern Illinois before that. The Oakland victory is particularly notable, as the Grizzlies were picked to win the Horizon League this season….. and Milwaukee was picked to finish eighth. That’s no guarantee that Milwaukee’s going to be better as the season rolls along, but it’s good news nonetheless.
Then again, the Horizon League might also just be a mess. Six teams earned a first place vote, including the Wright State team that finished in ninth place behind Milwaukee in the poll.
Milwaukee is getting outshot on average this season, 15.9 to 11.7, but they’re making the most of their chances. The Panthers have their opponents beat in shooting percentage and shots on goal rate, and that second one does tend to mean that they’re giving up lousy shots that aren’t really dangerous. You don’t want to be giving up shots, but if you have to, bad attempts aren’t too troubling.
Daniel Ibarra will be your UWM netminder on Tuesday night, as he’s played almost every match this season. The one exception: Milwaukee’s 3-3 draw with Wright State. Redshirt freshman Nolan Meyer had that one…… because Ibarra was red carded out of Milwaukee’s 2-0 loss to Purdue Fort Wayne with 38 seconds remaining. Did I go to ESPN+ to figure out what happened? Yes I did! PFW’s Shane Anderson grabbed at Ibarra after he scooped up a ball pushed into the box, Ibarra went to the turf then popped up and shoved Anderson to the ground with both hands. Quite the obvious straight red. When Ibarra’s on the field, he’s pretty good. He’s allowing less than a goal per 90 minutes and he stops over 82% of shots on frame. That’s probably adding a bit of desperation from Milwaukee’s opponents relative to the wild shooting.
On the other end, Alejandro Martinez is leading the way. He has six goals, twice as many as anyone else on the roster, and he’s added two assists on the other 12 goals that the Panthers have scored this year. That’s 14 points for the 5’10” Spaniard and transfer from UW-Parkside, and no one else on the roster has more than six. Martinez hasn’t scored in UWM’s last three matches, although he did have an assist on one of their four goals against Oakland last time out. Asher Ozuzu has tallied in both of Milwaukee’s last two contests, including twice against Oakland, and that’s how he has all three of his goals this season.