Men's soccer- unranked, disrespected??

[indianmustang]

smu down 0-1 to akron
30 minutes left in game
http://smumustangs.cstv.com/gametracker ... rtschool=&

[redpony]

Final score: Akron 1- SMU 0. Hard to win when you commit 20 fouls and give up a penalty kick. Seemed like they played the entire game in 'panic' mode. Hope they can be more competitive with unranked Seattle.

GO PONIES!!!

[mustangbill67]

Final score: Akron 1- SMU 0. Hard to win when you commit 20 fouls and give up a penalty kick. Seemed like they played the entire game in 'panic' mode. Hope they can be more competitive with unranked Seattle.

GO PONIES!!!

How can you say SMU were not competitive with one of the best teams in the country when we allowed only one shot on goal in addition to the penalty kick? Based solely on the box score, it looked like a very evenly matched game. It is about time we starting playing a more physical game as that is what Div 1 soccer is all about unfortunately.

[redpony]

How can you say SMU were not competitive with one of the best teams in the country when we allowed only one shot on goal in addition to the penalty kick?

Sorry, my definition of 'more competitive' is winning the match. If you lose you just were not competitive enough to win.
I thought the first half we played well. IMHO the PK was a back breaker.

GO PONIES!!!

[mustangbill67]

To measure competiveness in a game as fickle as soccer in terms of winning or losing is simply not realistic. I bet Akron believes we were competitive! Without actually viewing the game, it is impossible to say whether it was evenly played or whether we were under tremendous pressure all night. In any event, Akron has one of the best teams in the country, so the result is nothing to hang our heads about. We need to forget it and look forward to the rest of the season, which I believe will get us back to where this program needs to be.

[Pony4Life]

No kidding. You sound like a soccer fan, redpony, so surely you know that some PKs are more legitimate than others. Without having seen the game, we don't know if it was one of those mystery calls or if someone really got clobbered in the box.

So without knowing the specifics of the goal itself, what we do know is this:

• Same number of shots on goal (2 each)
* Trailed 7-4 on shots — not a wide margin
* Corner kicks — a stat coaches look at to evaluate time of possession in the offensive end — were 3-2 (Akron)

The end result is a very close loss on a neutral field against one of the top-ranked teams in the country. It sucks to lose, but to suggest we "weren't competitive" is just silly.

[redpony]

mustangbill67 - To measure competiveness in a game as fickle as soccer in terms of winning or losing is simply not realistic. Akron has one of the best teams in the country.

Pony4Life - The end result is a very close loss on a neutral field against one of the top-ranked teams in the country. It sucks to lose, but to suggest we "weren't competitive" is just silly.

Ok- we disagree. No problem. To me losing is just unacceptable. When I lose at something I feel that I was just not adequately prepared or competitive enough. People and teams are measured by their W-L record, not how they played the game. That said, I was suprised at the final score. We either played quite well or Akron is somewhat overrated in the pre-season polls (and/or a combination of both). I would like to have seen the foul on the PK. I tried to find the game on TV but was unable to as there is not much U.S. soccer televised here in South America. I can watch soccer from all over the world here but very little from the U.S.
It will interesting to see how we do against Seattle as they played very tough against Tulsa. It will also be interesting to see how Tulsa plays against Akron.
At the end of this tournament we should have a much better idea of how our team is going to perform.

GO PONIES!!!

[gk00dad]

Ponies are up 2-0 on Seattle. Goals in the first half by Paulo Da Silva and Arthur Ivo with Dane Saintus assisting on both.

[gk00dad]

3-0 Mustangs. Another goal by Da Silva, this one from 25 yds out. SMU outshooting Seattle 15-5 for the game.

[gk00dad]

Dane Saintus adds a fourth goal in the 85th minute as SMU looks to shut out Seattle.

Game over...4-0 SMU. Looks like they had their shooting boots on today, outshot Seattle 17-6.