DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team hosts Green Bay on Friday night, September 6, in its regular season home opener. Please note that kickoff against the Phoenix is slated for 6 p.m., one hour earlier than its originally scheduled time. 

Free pizza, courtesy of Vinny's Pizza, will be provided to the first 100 NIU students showing their OneCard and admission to all NIU Soccer matches is free of charge. With the DeKalb-Sycamore high school football game also scheduled for Friday night, fans attending the Huskie soccer game are encouraged to park in lot PS, across the street on the north side of the NIU Soccer Complex. 

Following Friday's contest, the Huskies will close their weekend when they travel to Dayton on Monday, September 9, kickoff against the Flyers is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. CT.

The Huskies enter Friday's match against Green Bay on the heels of a pair of narrow losses last weekend in Chicago. NIU fell at DePaul last Friday (Aug. 30), 2-1, as sophomore Louis Sala (West Bloomfield, Mich./Orchard Lake St. Mary's) scored his first career goal for the Huskies. NIU then faced Loyola (Sept. 1) and dropped a 1-0 decision despite outshooting the Ramblers, 14-5. 

"It is exciting to get back home after a disappointing opening weekend, playing two tough road games at two tough places to travel to," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "Getting back on our field in front of our home crowd, the guys are excited about it and hopefully we can get a good crowd. I know there is a lot of people coming from outside the NIU community, so I'm hopeful that the NIU community will support us as well.

"The crowd last weekend at the football game was great, the student section looked great, and with football being on the road we hope our game could be a nice option for students to come out to."

Green Bay posted a 1-0-1 mark on the opening weekend of the season, playing to a 1-1 draw against Valparaiso (Aug. 30) before defeating Western Illinois, 3-1 (Sept. 1). Four different players have scored for the Phoenix while Jamison Yoder has played in goal in both matches, recording six total saves with a .750 save percentage. 

The Flyers of Dayton opened the 2019 season with a pair of setbacks, falling to UIC, 3-2, in double overtime before dropping a 3-1 decision to Cal State Northridge. Federico Barrios has recorded 14 saves with a .700 save percentage while playing both matches in goal for the Flyers, whose three goals this season have all been netted by different goal scorers. 

Next week, the Huskies will once again play a split weekend, beginning on Friday, September 13, when they travel to Milwaukee to meet Marquette before hosting Bradley on Sunday, September 15.