Men's soccer ranked No. 8 in preseason

[PonyPride]

From the SMU athletic department:


DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU men's soccer team enters the 2007 campaign with a number of top-10 preseason rankings in national soccer polls. The Mustangs are ranked No. 5 in the Soccer America preseason poll, No. 7 in the College Soccer News.com preseason poll, and No. 8 in the adidas/NSCAA preseason poll.

In addition, junior midfielder Bruno Guarda has been selected to the College Soccer News.com preseason All-America first team.

Experience runs deep as SMU returns seven starters from last year's 17-2-4 team, which finished ranked 11th in the adidas/NSCAA final poll after spending a majority of the 2006 campaign sitting atop the national rankings. The Mustangs' roster consists of four seniors, 11 juniors, four sophomores, and 10 freshmen, and is led by tri-captains Scott Corbin, Bruno Guarda and Ben Shuleva. All three are strong leaders in their own way and will play an integral part in guiding SMU on the path to the national championship.

SMU begins its preseason workouts on Wednesday and will face Army in exhibition play this Saturday evening at Meyers Park in Houston. The Jordan Mann SMU Alumni game is scheduled for Saturday, August 25, at 7:00 p.m. at Westcott Field. SMU's season opener is slated for Friday, Aug. 31 at 7:30 p.m. vs. Saint Louis, which is ranked No. 22 in the adidas/NSCAA preseason poll.

[southerncomfort]

I hear there's an awful lot of new soccer recruits from what some saw yesterday during physicals. Does anybody know why on earth Jason left us for the Marianas with so many recruits? Did we really need that many?

[Buddha]

Happens every year. Coach Hyndman is so revered that talented players want the chance to play for him. He is such an icon that players come to SMU — often paying at least part of their own way, and usually most or all of their own way — just to try out. There are guys who never even get to dress for a game who would start on some top-25 teams.... maybe not top-five, but definitely some of the teams on the proverbial bubble.