The NIU men’s soccer will be hosting Valparaiso today for its home opener and Portland Sunday for the NIU adidas Invitational.

The Huskies (3-0-0) are coming off a weekend in which they won the University of Michigan Invitational, thanks to senior defender Pat Sloan’s two game winning goals, and are expecting another successful weekend.

“We expect to go 2-0,” said senior defender Francis Otira. “We have been working hard in practice on things that needed fixing. We had a good week of practice and feel confident.”

In order for NIU to have another successful weekend, they will have apply what they’ve been working on in practice into real game scenarios.

“We need to continue to move the ball quickly,” said Huskies head men’s soccer coach Eric Luzzi. “We need to play safe in areas of the field and not give the ball away as well as make sure that our level of defending is sharp. If we do those things, we will have a good weekend.”

Otira thinks that NIU just needs stay focused on the here and now and not get ahead of themselves.

“We need to keep our focus,” Otira said. “We just need to take it one game at a time; one play at a time.”

The Huskies are excited for their first home game and are hoping to improve their record there.

“Our home record of late has not been very good,” Luzzi said. “We want to correct that this year. Our standards as a team are higher this year and we want to protect our home field.”

Otira wants to make the Huskies’ home venue a difficult place for opposing teams to come in and play.

“We want to make this place a fortress,” Otira said. “We want to dominate our home field and make it difficult for other teams to play here.”