Keller’s halftime chat lights fire under Fremd

The speech.

Fremd players heard loud and clear what coach Steve Keller thought of their efforts during the first 40 minutes of soccer Saturday.

Following this one-sided conversation from Keller, the Vikings responded with a 3-goal explosion in a five-minute span en route to a 3-1 victory over Hersey in Mid-Suburban League crossover action in Palatine.

Brian Hindle had a hand in all 3 goals to inspire teammates Yusuke Kanaka, Ryota Wada and Jeremy Kosacz. The Vikings wasted little time erasing a 1-0 halftime deficit, as well as the bitter taste from a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Mid-Suburban League East Division leader Prospect two days prior on the road.

“We came out so flat against Prospect and really paid for it,” said Hindle, the Vikings’ captain.

“Then we did it again today with Hersey, so coach really gave it to us at the break. And it was what we all really needed, because we were fired up in the second half and we had so much energy which had been missing during our last two games.”

“I told the guys afterwards they really shouldn’t need those types of talks, and that it instead comes from within,” Keller said. “It was good to see them respond and play with some pride, emotion and energy. But we’ve done that against Naperville North, Prospect and then again today — and that just has to stop.”

The Vikings (5-2-1, 2-1-0) were unable to stop Hersey from the opening whistle, as the Huskies (2-5-2, 1-3-0) clearly had the advantage.

Jonathan Krok and Steven Barrios were running freely in the area, and teammates John Freitag, Nikola Vukovic and Mike Kaczor were picking apart the Vikings in the middle of the park with their possession and quick touches while refusing to lose any 50-50 tackles of second ball.

“It was a tale of two halves today,” said Huskies assistant coach Brad Abel.

He filled in for Darren Llewellyn, who was away for the weekend to watch his daughter play college soccer.

“For everything we did well in that first half to totally control the play, we stopped doing after the break,” Abel said.

“Once Fremd scored the equalizer, I could sense the air getting sucked right out of our guys. It was hard to watch.”

The Huskies nearly put the ball into the back of the net at seven minutes when Freitag ran onto a long throw from Krok at the end of his center channel run.

If not for a fine tackle by Kaczor, the freshman could have been in on Vikings keeper Steven Soltykiewicz, who split time with Colton Caesius.

Moments later, Huskies keeper Irvin Velasquez, who deserved a better fate, earned his place on the team highlight reel when he stopped Hindle’s point-blank blast that was created from a free-kick serve by Spencer Janes.

Led by captain Chase Monckton, the Huskies’ backline allowed little space for the Vikings to maneuver.

“I thought we stayed organized and kept our shape in the first half, and never really allowed much of anything from Fremd, but all of that disappeared in the second half,” Abel said.

A tell-tale sign was the amount of corners and deep throws the Vikings created early in the second half.

The sixth corner by Hindle, struck low to the floor, eluded several players from both sides — but Kanaka somehow got a boot on the ball and slotted it under a sprawling Velasquez.

Three minutes later, the Vikings went ahead for good on a bit of trickery by Hindle.

The senior found space and enough time to play a ball through to Ryota Wada, who unloaded a low-flying cracker past Velasquez from 20 yards.

Kosacz added to the Vikings’ lead at 57 minutes when he finished a Hindle serve off another corner at the back post.

On defense, the Vikings’ backline was playing with more confidence and keeping the ball away Krok and his teammmates.

“I don’t know why we’ve come out lacking so much energy lately, but we’ve got to start change that right away,” Hindle said.

The Vkings travel to Wheeling on Monday for a 6:30 p.m. match, while Hersey hosts Prospect on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m..