When soccer is played correctly at a high level of competition, it is viewed by its spectators as an art form performed by a cast that can expertly compose and dominate each part perfectly. In this light, the numbers on the athletes’ jerseys fade away, masked by the cohesiveness that highlights a team’s ability.

Playing with this level of unity, the Illinois men’s soccer club team has been able to blend together many different playing backgrounds and experiences to produce a team that is undefeated thus far. Casting even more light on a team that is often overlooked for its lack of status, the team improved to 8-0 on Saturday when they defeated Northwestern 2-1 and Loyola 2-0.

From exchange students to former NCAA Division I athletes, there is an eclectic slew of experiences that merge and help establish a truly unique team.

Competing at the highest level at Illinois, as there is no NCAA men’s soccer team here, the club team is an RSO comprised of two squads, an A-team and a B-team.

Though club status provides many challenges, such as exposure and financial constraints, Stefan Wingo, a fifth-year senior who is both the head coach and a player for the A-team, has seen one positive aspect that he considers to lead to a more unified team.

“It definitely makes it tough from just an organizational sense, but to be honest it is kind of cool to be not officially affiliated with the University,” Wingo said. “I think it kind of gives us a niche that we can fit into. It is hard to relate to players on an NCAA team because they’re always hanging out with other athletes and always traveling for long weekends and going to different places. But I think with these guys, you see them all over the place. We have engineers, we have fraternity brothers and we have business majors. They all have really active social lives and are involved in other organizations, so it is much easier to relate to us.”

Using Quad Day as its biggest marketing tool, the club has repeatedly attracted more than 100 players to tryouts, only to take about five players to the A-team each year.

With no NCAA Big Ten conference to compete in, the A-team is instead a part of the Western Division of the Midwest Alliance Soccer Conference, which contends for a national title in the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association. Not actually in a league, the B-team organizes its own games with teams from these conferences to play during their off weekends and has a less rigorous practice schedule.

After finding the club on Quad Day, junior Alessandro Angiuli became one of three exchange students in the club. Angiuli is a native of Italy with a background in soccer. He played for the youth team for International Milan, a major league soccer club in Italy, for three years starting when he was 15.

“Here all the players are very big, they train a lot with their bodies, while in Italy we just try to learn about soccer,” Angiuli said. “It’s more theory than physical training. A lot of strategy and not all that running found here. It is quite hard, but I like it.”

Adapting to this new style of play, Angiuli has, like Wingo, taken his past soccer perspective and combined it with current one to generate a multi-viewed approach for Illinois soccer.

Transferring to Illinois after his sophomore year from Mercer University, Wingo is one of three who once played at the Division I level but found he lost his passion for the sport when playing at the NCAA level.

“I really disliked playing a lot of the time or I disliked going to practice,” Wingo said. “But here I look forward to going to practice every day and look forward to playing in the games on the weekend. This is actually a lot more fun, to be honest. For Division I, it is all about being stronger, being fitter than the other teams and not so much focus on technical ability. But here if you have practices that make good, technical players, you can do well because that is really what sets teams apart because everyone’s at the same athleticism level.”

Focusing strongly on technique and athleticism, the two seemingly opposite ideologies have both been implemented at Illinois.

With the strategy covered by a mixture of different backgrounds, there is similarly a fusion of old and new.

“This year, it is a lot of new guys, so we’re trying to build (camaraderie) up again. I try to make sure we play well and during game situations if you see people’s heads aren’t in the game, I try to be a leader. There are a few other seniors on the team, and they all try to do the same thing,” said Ismael Romo, a senior on the B-team.

From mentoring the freshmen to all going out together after games, the team has forged a bond that goes beyond the field complete with international flavored pranks.

“We were driving up to a game the other day, and I fell asleep in the car, so it was just me, another American player and the Spaniard and the Italian,” Wingo said. “They all decided to slam on the breaks while I was sleeping and then scream at me because I guess that’s what they would do when they’re in their cars driving to games in Europe, so that scared the crap out of me.”

The team-wide bond has nurtured friendships and values that, in turn, transfer back to the soccer field. With all the players focused on striving for the same goal, a common competitive mind-set has taken over.

Crowned the 2012 MASC regional champions and having reached the 2012 NIRSA National Championship Elite-Eight, the team once again has high hopes. With regional playoffs set for Oct. 26 and Oct. 27 and the national tournament scheduled for Nov. 21 through Nov. 23, the club team hopes to go all the way this year.

Casting each pass with a certain grace, there is not only a sense of fluidity to the game, but a display of skill and form as well. The flow is kept constant in anticipating each other’s movements. What’s left is a beautiful, ever-changing field of players weaving in and out creating an exhibition of something relatively simple in conception, but often so difficult in attainment.

By coming together to form one cohesive unit, the men’s Illinois club soccer team comes pretty close to this achievement.

Charlotte Carroll can be reached at [email protected].