Muddy goalies were flying everywhere, players were hustling, falling over each other. Goals were being scored.

With players asking for full body massages and looking exhausted, one would think that the Penn State men's soccer team had just finished a double-overtime thriller.

But the Nittany Lions (1-4-1) were just going through a typical Wednesday practice on "Little Jeff," the field next to Jeffrey Field.

Practice ended with Penn state men's soccer coach Barry Gorman splitting his team into three squads, having them play each other then switch teams after a goal was scored.

Some players were frustrated, others were laughing, but all of the players were going at their teammates hard with the intensity that is usually seen in games.

"Practices right now are pretty intense," captain David Gray said. "We're working full-sided with a lot of running, making sure that we are all getting our legs moving a lot."

Though the players were going at each other hard, they still looked as if they were having fun competing.

Gray, a senior defender, especially likes the drill because he got the opportunity to show his offensive skills.

"When we get to play on the mini-field it's always fun," he said. "I get to shoot the ball a lot which is nice."

A typical practice week for the Lions consists of Mondays off, technical work on Tuesdays, hard practices on Wednesdays and Thursdays and reviewing the opponent on Fridays. Saturdays are typically a day off before the games on Sundays.

Gorman regiments his practices to build off each day to get the team ready and focused for the upcoming games.

"Today we were a little bit more intense, tomorrow we will be a little bit more intense and Fridays we go over what we have done," Gorman said. "Saturdays we let everyone get rested for Sunday."

Gorman does not let his team focus on the next opponent until later on in the week so as to focus on themselves first then prepare for the opponent second.

This week's opponent is Michigan State Sunday at Jeffrey Field and

senior forward Simon Omekanda knows that the team will spend the rest of the week learning about the Spartans.

"We're going to have to look at their shape and how they play," Omekanda said. "We're going to start having the second team play like they would and have us adjust to it."

Omekanda said that on the upcoming off day on Saturday, he would be going to the football game to cheer on some of his friends and then mentally prepare for Sunday afterward.

But Omekanda enjoys his Mondays off a little better.

"Monday's my good day," Omekanda said. "I have one class at 2:30, so I sleep until 2 p.m."

Once hearing this, Gorman gave Omekanda a weird look and said, "You sleep until what?"

"Two," Omekanda said back to his coach. "I don't have class until 2:30, so I go to that and come home and rest until Monday Night Football."

Gorman shot an even more incredulous look at his star player.

At least he knows he's not working his players too hard.