It has been said that the only thing that comes from pushing things under the rug is a lump in the rug. The Penn State men's soccer team is working on a pretty good lump right now.

The team that lost 3-0 to Ohio State yesterday afternoon at Jeffrey Field is a far cry from the one that beat No. 6 Southern Methodist earlier in the season. For that matter, it's a far cry from the team that gave defending national champion Indiana all it could handle for 90 minutes only two weeks ago, and it is about time people started to realize it.

Following yesterday's loss, a member of the Sports Information Department and I had a somewhat heated and rather loud and one-sided conversation about the state of the team and the coverage in the Daily Collegian this fall.

He contended that I had unfairly ripped on the team all year and insinuated that I secretly enjoyed writing malicious articles, saying that the team's 6-3-5 record and extremely challenging schedule justifies much more positive press than it is getting.

Maybe he has a point, but with what I'm seeing through my apparently biased eyes is this no matter how talented it might be, and don't

get me wrong, it is a very talented squad, the Penn State men's soccer team is on the brink of losing what was once an extremely promising season.

In its last six games, Penn State has gone 1-3-2. The win, a 4-1 victory against current No. 21 and preseason top-five team Maryland, was impressive. The loss to Indiana is understandable. But anything other than a victory against teams such as George Mason, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Ohio State is unacceptable for a team that considers (considered?) itself a legitimate contender for the national title.

As is the case when any team is struggling, there is a plethora of possible explanations, injuries being a prime example.

Senior captain Gabe Bernstein has barely smelled the field all year with a nagging hamstring injury. After sitting out an extra two weeks to make sure he was fully healed, Bernstein played extremely well for a short spell on Thursday night against Maryland only to re-aggravate the injury to the point that he may well be finished for the season.

Defensive stalwarts Pasi Karppinen and Markku Viitanen have both missed significant time to numerous ankle injuries, and in their absence Penn State's young replacements have been picked on. The Lions have surrendered at least two goals in each of their last four games, and this can be attributed to both injuries and freshman goalkeeper Conrad Taylor's return to earth following a stellar beginning to the season.

But it has been the offense that has been the most inconsistent unit on the team.

In the games against George Mason and Ohio State, the Lions abandoned their attractive ball control offense in favor of a desperate and sloppy long ball attack.

Senior All-American Chad Severs has finished well all year, but he doesn't have the ball at his feet nearly enough due to a complete lack of chemistry displayed by the offensive unit.

Simon Omekanda has had a disappointing sophomore campaign and spends far too much of his time on the ground complaining to the referees. He received a yellow card yesterday for blatantly screaming at the referees during a mid-field tantrum that somehow did not manage to get him ejected.

Freshman Richard Costanzo still pulls off the occasional amazing move to beat a defender one-on-one, but his teammates have stopped even trying to hide their frustration when he refuses to make the simple play.

Coach Barry Gorman said that this is the most high-powered offense that he has ever coached, but recently it is tough to see why. Penn State seems to lack chemistry at the offensive end and there is far too much miscommunication from such a talented group of individuals.

But it would be a huge mistake for any opponent to overlook Penn State come the post season. Any of these players could break out at any time and the midfield remains rock solid. David Walters and Brian Devlin have been models of consistency and there is no question that Walters is not only the team's best player, but also the one person who has the respect of all of his teammates. But the inconsistent play must be frustrating even to Walters, who said after the Maryland game that he thought the team had finally turned the corner.

Penn State is a great soccer team. Not a good soccer team. A great soccer team. I have only seen one game this year in which it was not flat out better than its opponent, and that was against the defending national champions. But in soccer when you are a great team, your opponents are going to pack it in on defense and hope to capitalize on a mistake. That's just soccer. If the Lions hope to make some noise in the post season, they need to stop making these deadly mistakes and start putting the ball in the net.

So that's why directly after yesterdays loss, when asked what he told the players after the game, Gorman said, "I told them, go back, get your gear on; you're going to practice. Cause they didn't do anything during the game."

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the Lions are better than they are playing.