The Low Block Week One: Four Points from Three Great Halves

Welcome to the lowblock, the weekly column covering Northwestern Men’s Soccer throughout the 2026 fall season. While I can’t confidently claim that this is the first column of its kind (Pitch Perfect has us beat in that regard), I assure that there will be enough entertaining concepts to keep you coming back week to week.

I’ve been writing about men’s soccer a lot this offseason, and for good reason. This is a squad on an upward trajectory for the past three seasons, and this year it’s more than plausible that this team can finally take the leap into the upper tier of B1G soccer programs. A squad that pulled off multiple good performances against quality teams last season has added experienced transfers and young talents, putting them in prime position to reach double digit wins. 

After the first two competitive matches of the season, the Wildcats sit at 1-0-1 after comfortably dispatching New Haven and tying with Notre Dame in a wire-to-wire battle in South Bend. Those who didn’t toil for 30 minutes trying to secure a free trial to ACC Network will be wondering how Payne set up the team and how some of the newcomers performed in their first outings. This is the place to answer those questions.

Outside of a goalkeeper change [which will be talked about later], the lineup was unchanged between games. Payne lined his team in a 4-24 formation. Fritz Volmar and Baraka Tarleton were the two center backs, with Andrew Johnson and captain Bryant Mayer as the two fullbacks. Gabriel Smyth and Evrit Fisher served as the two holding midfielders. Peter Riesz and Toryn Penders made up the strike partnership while Marco Silva occupied the right wing and Andrew Millar, probably the most anticipated newcomer to the squad, lined up on the lefthand side.

The in possession structure wasn’t too complex. Johnson and Mayer would routinely push up to provide width when the ball was on their side of the pitch, joining the winger, striker and midfielder to overload that side of the pitch. A great example of this overload is actually the opening goal against New Haven. Here you can see Smyth in the middle, with Silva occupying the right half space, Mayer hugging the touchline, and Riesz in the middle occupying the center backs. Fisher is on the left side in this screenshot, but he quickly switches the ball over to Mayer.

The leftback for New Haven over commits, leaving a three on two of Mayer, Smyth and Silva. Once Mayer takes his space, we get this picture.

(All photos courtesy of B1G +)

Mayer has the attention of two defenders, leaving Silva free on the overlap if he chooses that option. Smyth is occupying another defender, and Riesz is occupying both of the centerbacks, leaving the square open for Millar who has drifted over from the left hand side. Mayer lays it on a plate for the National Champion, who took a touch and buried it into the bottom corner. 

Out of possession, the shape does seem to change a bit. There are times where the team presses as a front three with the right winger usually dropping into the midfield with Silva and Smyth. Other times the two strikers stay up top and it becomes a 4-4-2 situation, sometimes it even feels like a 4-2-3-1. It doesn’t seem to be 100% consistent. I don’t have any screen grabs to include, but it’ll be something to look at in the coming weeks to see if I can pin down the structure more consistently.

Welcome to Evanston‼️

Andrew Millar scores his first goal as a Wildcat 😼 pic.twitter.com/GVabMU6ton

I really like the way Payne has chosen to set this team up. Contrary to the name of this column, NU isn’t looking to hunker down and play a negative defensive style. This is the set up of a team that wants to play on the front foot. The overloads on the wings are to create quick interplays and link ups in tight and congested areas. NU is looking to bring the game to their opponents and outclass them.

In other words, these ’Cats are confident.

This set up also asks a lot of the midfield and the defense. With so many numbers constantly pushing into advanced areas of the pitch, Gabriel Smyth and Evrit Fisher have a lot of ground to cover defensively in order to cut out passing lanes and clean up whatever comes through the middle of the park. The same can be said of the back line. Without as much midfield cover in front of them, there’s inevitably going to be a lot of long, line-breaking passes that the back four will have to cover for. In the first few games I’d say they did a good job overall. Whether or not this is a sustainable model for the rest of the season remains to be seen. 

I’m going to spend less time on this game compared to the one that took place on Sunday, but there are still worthwhile things to talk about. As a whole, the team did a very good job retaining possession, and that was in large part thanks to the midfield duo of Smyth and Fisher. Both Smyth and Fisher were extremely composed and calm in possession, consistently playing through pressure and cycling the ball out to players in space. The two dictated tempo and kept the game firmly in NU’s control. 

The backline also did its job very well. Most New Haven attacks were snuffed out before they had a chance to pose any real threat, and both Volmar and Tarleton looked composed in buildup.

One thing that was exciting to see was how willing players were to take on their defenders. Penders, Silva, Millar all took opportunities to run at their man in space, and for the most part it was effective. Silva particularly was able to create chances when he cut inside centrally.

Each game is going to feature a MOTM as well as a top five performer. I will keep a running list of how many times each player earns a MOTM or a Top 5 appearance, respectively.

The best of a stellar backline. He was strong defensively while also consistently getting forward and contributing to the attack.

Barrett x1

Fisher x1

Addimandi x1

Smyth x1

I talked about Fisher and Smyth earlier, so I’ll address Addimandi and Barrett. Both of them came off the bench to score goals, with Barrett’s being an early goal of the season contender. But what I was most impressed by from both of them was their involvement in the attack. Of all NU’s attackers, Barrett seems to be the most comfortable operating in the tight spaces on the sideline that Payne’s system is built on. He played with an extremely high intensity, and had a particularly strong connection with Smyth on the right side. Addimandi was similarly impressive in his ability to drop deep and set up others. He had a particularly impressive through ball for Millar from the middle of the pitch, and overall was involved in a lot of positive attacking play.

Now on to Notre Dame.

The title of this week’s entry says NU played three great halves. Well, the first half against Notre Dame was the one half that wasn’t great. Not only was it less than great, it was perhaps the exact opposite of great. Here are my candid thoughts I wrote at halftime. 

“The main thought right now is sloppy. Northwestern did not control possession or tempo or midfield or anything of that nature, but that’s fine. Payne did not set this team up to slow the game down, he wanted to play fast. You’re relying on high-risk, volatile situations to create chances; one touch play combinations between the wingers and fullbacks, long balls from the deep lying midfielders straight to the forwards, set pieces. There is a very high skill level required to reliably create out of these situations. I’m glad Payne trusts his men to consistently create opportunities while playing this style of soccer. But this first half the ’Wildcats weren’t up to the technical level required to make Payne’s setup work. Passes were wayward or lacking enough zip on them to reach their man. The link between the wingers and defenders (specifically Silva and Mayer) just wasn’t there. Riesz and Penders were barely features in the game,  the former couldn’t hold up play when receiving the ball long and the latter was ineffective when dropping deep to try and make up for the lack of service. Fisher and Smyth were given a lot to do in the middle of the park, and it felt like they swapped stretches of being reliable. Smyth cleaned up and advanced the ball well in the first half of the first half, with around 20 minutes left to play he became a bit more sloppy. Fisher started out very poor, but grew into the half. I feel the backline did its job well. Johnson was probably the man of the match in the first half, being strong defensively and dealing with a lot of the long balls coming his way. He was the man defending Capretto for the opening goal, but I attribute that more to Gino Cervoni coming too far off his line than anything Johnson did. Volmar did a great job using his recovery pace to sniff out attacks. Tarleton was good in buildup. The half was ambitious, but not good enough.” 

I think that basically covers everything I have to say about that first 45. Thankfully the second half was much better than the first. The main difference was NU’s press; it was absolutely suffocating. Notre Dame was barely able to hold on to the ball at any point in the half because the ’Cats were relentless in winning it back high up the pitch, and this directly led to NU having way more chances and more possession. 

It helps that they went away from over reliance on the long ball. Many times in the first half NU neglected trying to build up in the middle of the field in favor of sending a long ball forward in hopes that Riesz or Penders could attach themselves to it. It rarely worked, leading to NU never establishing a foothold in the game. But in the second, the team was much more content to keep the ball for long stretches and build through the middle of the park. Opportunities later opened up out wide because Notre Dame tried to clog the middle as a response to NU’s success in that area.

It really was just like a switch flipped, all of the sloppy passes from the first half were completely gone, replaced by fluid, high intensity buildup. 

And for the goal, I have no words. Another goal of the season contender.

Before the season I highlighted this game as an early season test for NU, saying that Notre Dame is a team that regularly competes with quality opponents, meaning a good performance for NU here should give them confidence heading into the B1G slate. So where do I stand after the fulltime whistle? 

Overall, satisfied. ND was a tight offsides call from going up two to the good in the first half, but NU completely played them off the park in the second that I don’t think ND replicated in the first half. What I asked for in the preseason was “a good overall performance”, what the team produced was a half lackluster, half spectacular one. In the end, NU showed it has an extra gear, I think it’ll be capable of reaching it throughout the year.

He did start out the game poor, but he was covering every blade of grass in the second half. Tracking back and winning defensive duels, progressing with the ball at his feet, creating chances. He was at the heart of everything NU did well in the second 45, which was a lot.

Andrew Johnson

Tre Barrett x2

Mayer x2

Volmar

Barrett and Volmar largely did the same things well against New Haven as they did against Notre Dame (Mayer was stronger defensively in this one). Volmar gets in as he was consistently tasked with chasing down and dealing with long balls throughout the first half, and did that job extremely well, while also being a little better in buildup than Tarleton. Johnson is very similar as well, a stalwart defensively and was one of the few bright spots in that disappointing first half.

The team isn’t back in action until a Friday visit to Evansville, which should be another winnable game. Payne gave lots of players opportunities against New Haven, I expect he’ll do something similar this time out, but there are a couple of lineup changes I want to see.

I’ve been extremely impressed by Barrett through these first two games, and I think Payne should experiment with having him start this next game. As I’ve said, he plays with so much intensity and gets himself involved in so many ways on the pitch that it’s easy to notice his impact. I think he’s outperformed Silva in both outings, and Payne should reward him with a place in the starting XI.

I think Cervoni earned the starting role in this game. Dominic Pereira was shaky claiming crosses against New Haven, and I think he was at fault for the lone goal conceded. Cervoni was also at fault for the goal conceded against Notre Dame, but his last minute save was the most impressive piece of goalkeeping either shotstopper displayed.

I think Peter Riesz will keep his starting role as one of the two strikers no matter what. No one else in the team can really match his presence as a target man or his hold up play, but the second striker spot I think is definitely up for grabs. I think Payne should let Addimandi start over Penders at Evansville just to shake things up. Addimandi has brought a lot of value through his ability to drop deeper and become a play maker. Penders tends to move around the frontline as well, finding himself out wide often and looking to run at defenders, but Addimandi has had more success in the first two games.

Finally, my big question: will we see more of Aaron O’Reilly? Last season’s top scorer only played in the second half against Notre Dame, and really should have grabbed a goal on a chance where he was played through over the top, but his touches took him away from goal and sent a wild shot over the bar. O’Reilly did look lively in his minutes, and I made a note during the game that the ’Cats had their most threatening spells of the game when the front four was him, Penders, Riesz and Barrett. He was playing out left instead of as one of the two strikers, and I wouldn’t mind him playing more out there. 

This will probably be the heaviest segment of The Low Block, there was a lot of things to get out of the way, next week will likely just be notes with less focus on the set up (assuming it stays similar). On to next week.

Rest in Power, Ronnie Bouemboue.