CHICAGO -- The Western Michigan men's soccer team plays its final game of the 2025 regular season on the road at one of the best statistical teams in the country. 

LAST TIME OUT
Western Michigan celebrated its 12 seniors on the pitch with a pivotal 2-1 win over the Drake Bulldogs. With a place in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on the line Friday afternoon, the Broncos picked up a crucial three points to make the postseason. 

Senior forward Jonathan Stout ultimately gave WMU the victory with his first game-winning goal of 2025 and fifth of the season. Graduate midfielder Juan Romero also recorded his first goal with the Brown and Gold to initially give Western Michigan the lead early in the second half of the match. 

POSTSEASON POTENTIALS
While the Broncos punched their ticket to the MVC Tournament on Friday afternoon in their win over Drake, their path in the tournament comes down to Wednesday's match. With three teams tied for second and only five points separating the current tournament field, there are a multitude of scenarios for the Valley's postseason.

WMU can be seeded as high as second or as low as sixth in the MVC Tournament. The Brown and Gold would be guaranteed to host a postseason match at The Farm if they finish higher than fifth in the conference after Wednesday night's matches. Heading into Wednesday's final match of the regular season for the Missouri Valley, there are a total of over 80 different scenarios for the final six-team field. 

MOVING UP THE OFFENSIVE THIRD
Western Michigan has been steadily moving up both the conference and national rankings over the past month as the regular season comes to a close. The Broncos have been national leaders in the corners for the past three weeks and have now broken into the Top 5. WMU is fourth in the country for corner kicks per game, averaging 7.56 through 90 minutes. The Brown and Gold have had double digit corners in five matches this season. Western Michigan had back-to-back matches with double digit corner kicks for the first time this season against Drake and Bowling Green. 

The Broncos have also cracked the Top 50 nationally in two other offensive categories going into the final match of the regular season. WMU is 47th nationally in shots per game with an average of 13.94 shots through 90 minutes. While the Brown and Gold are ranked higher in shots on goal per game with 5.94 in a match. Western Michigan is third in the MVC in both categories.

SCOUTING THE FLAMES
UIC comes into the final match of the season with the best overall record in the Missouri Valley Conference at 8-2-5. Most of the Flames victories came during non-conference action with wins against Air Force, Eastern Illinois, Northwestern, Wright State, Western Illinois, Loyola, and Chicago State. But UIC only has a single conference victory over Belmont in Nashville. The Flames have mostly tied other Valley teams with their one loss of MVC play coming to Northern Illinois at home. Despite only having a win in conference play, UIC leads the MVC, and ranks in the top 15 nationally, in assists (42), goals (35) and points (112) and are the only team in The Valley with triple digit points.

Many of those high numbers are thanks to the Flames leading midfielder, junior Edouard Nys. Nys leads the nation in shots (5.40) and shots on goal (2.73) per outing, while ranking second in Division I in points (33) and third in goals (14) to lead the Valley. UIC also has the conference leaders in total assists and assists per game in sophomore midfielder Carlos Nevarez and junior defender Sota Nakazono. Nevarez leads the MVC in assists per game (0.87), while he and Nakazono have a total of six assists at the top of the Valley table. In goal the Flames have mostly used senior Owen Cornell with a record of 6-2-5 with three shutouts and a save percentage of .655.