“Just a very poor start from our part,” head coach Rafael Martinez said. “The focus wasn’t there, the intensity wasn’t there, the execution wasn’t there. It was by far our worst game of the season. I don’t know what happened if our focus was not in the game for whatever reason. We just weren’t in the game. We weren’t ready.”

The Tigers came off a 4-3 road game loss to Iowa Lakes which coincidentally was one of the two teams that MCC lost to back in 2014 with the other being Iowa Central.

“At halftime, I had to say that it was the worst level that we had played on the season,” Martinez said. “I don’t think we can blame another game. We have to blame ourselves, our preparation for the entire game, and obviously the way we stepped onto the field. That starts with [me since] I’m the leader of the program. We need to consider what is that we did wrong so that it doesn’t repeat itself in the future because we can’t afford it with this type of competition.

The No. 15 Tigers’ frustrating day started on the kickoff as MCC hit the ball out of bounds to start the game.

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE

“I think the first play sums up the game,” Martinez said. “On kickoff, we kick the ball out of bounds and just didn’t get better. You could just feel in the environment that we were getting just more frustrated, less focused, more rushed and that worsened the execution. We tried to fix it. We tried to make some adaptations that we thought would give us better angles of passes and a better presences on the field.”

Indian Hills took advantage of MCC’s poor execution in the first half as MCC’s midfield broke down after the Warriors took a second shot from a free kick in the eighth minute.

“The first goal was a free-kick from them,” Martinez said. “They played the ball into the box. We did not clear the ball well and weren’t compacted enough in the midfield to recover that second ball. The player from Indian Hills had a great shot. With the wind, it made it just that much harder for our goalkeeper to handle and he wasn’t able to. It’s kind of what happened on the second goal as well.”

The Warriors held a 1-0 lead after halftime but again took advantage of an MCC midfield breakdown in the 55th minute.

“We lost the ball the ball in the midfield,” Martinez said. “They went into transition and the [Indian Hills] player found himself open and took a shot from far away. The ball just made the right curve to get into the post and so second goal”

“I feel like even though our performance wasn’t good this was a game we had control besides those two, three mistakes that we had in the game. I had three shots on goal for them and they had two goals. They secured the ball well. We didn’t take advantage of that offensively or defensively. We just didn’t execute on the level that this team can perform.”

MCC still had several opportunities in the final minutes with several free kicks and corner kicks. The Tigers did manage to score in the 82nd minute off a corner kick from Matheus Pereira that was headed and scored by Kotaro Hirokawa.

By the end of the day, MCC totaled 11 corner kicks and outshot Indian Hills 12-6 with six of Tigers’ shots being on goal.

“It’s a matter of execution,” Martinez said. “We had the presence there [at the end of the game]. That’s what you want when you are attacking so you create chances so you have possession in the final frame. It’s just a matter of being calm enough or accurate enough or execute well enough so in that area you get that last pass sets someone up for an easy shot or a good scoring chance.”

The Tigers will look to bounce back against Iowa Central CC at home on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“I can’t remember the last time as a program we have lost two games in a row,” Martinez said. “We have to recover mentally, physically and start working again to get ready for the next game. The next game is going to be just as challenging. This conference isn’t going to wait for us. We have to take the next steps in the right direction and fix it. The good thing about this is that I believe that we are in control of it.”