The injury opened his eyes to some things that he
had never seen or had taken for granted.
"It put things into perspective," he said. "You're
thankful for what you do have."
During his rehab, he admitted, "It was tough
watching the guys play while you're just sitting on
the sidelines icing your leg; physically you can't do
anything. But watching soccer, you see other things
that you might not have seen while you were playing."
Things that might assist a player's creativity in
finding space and making plays? "Exactly that type
of thing," Zadro said. "You see things before they
happen. You anticipate a teammate making a run
into that space and you play the ball there before
he's there and nobody sees it coming."
Trask has seen that out of Zadro.
"He reads the play long before it happens," said
Trask, falling back on his earlier football analogy.
"Like a good quarterback, it's not just throwing a
good pass; it's sharing the ball amongst the team
and keeping everyone involved and when we need
for him to make that special play he makes it.
42
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VARSITY August 29, 2013
"The other part," Trask said of Zadro's finishing
skills, "is that he's got poise around the goal that
very few players I've worked with in college have.
He's truly like a professional player … if we can get
the ball to him in deep spots … that's what really
separates him from other collegiate players."
Zadro is distinguished by something else, too.
"I just turned 24," he said. "I think we may have
the oldest team in the NCAA."
Trask didn't dispute that comment; citing the 13
seniors, a 22-year-old sophomore midfielder from
Denmark (Anders Kristensen) and a 27-year-old
junior defender from Seoul, South Korea (JunHo
Seok), who was also uncovered at Illinois Central
College, a budding pipeline for the Badgers.
Taking inventory on his team's strengths, Trask
said, "I've got depth at every spot on the field, which
we've never had before. I never pushed these guys;
I had to wrap them in cotton wool, because with
an injury the drop-off was so great. Now we're two
deep."
That goes for Wisconsin's goalkeepers, Casey
Beyers and Max Jentsch, who are waging a battle
