Men's soccer ties Winthrop, gets eliminated on PKs

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

Mustangs Eliminated From NCAA Tournament On Penalty Kicks
SMU finishes the season 10-5-5

Nov. 15, 2012

DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU men's soccer team tied Winthrop, 1-1, but was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, 3-1, on penalty kicks Thursday night at Westcott Field. Freshman Eddie Puskarich scored in regulation for the Mustangs. With the tie, SMU finishes the season at 10-5-5, while Winthrop improves to 12-8-2.

Puskarich put the Mustangs up, 1-0, with his goal in the 48th minute. Junior Juan Castillo made a run down the right side of the box and slid a through ball to Puskarich who finished from six yards out. The goal was his third of the season.

Winthrop tied the game with 2:10 remaining in regulation as Achille Obougou picked up a bouncing ball in the box and tapped it in near the goal line for his seventh tally of the year.

The teams remained tied, 1-1, after two overtime periods, sending the game to penalty kicks. The Eagles won PKs, 3-1, as goalie Enrique Miranda stopped three Mustang attempts.

Winthrop advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and will play at Louisville at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

[Treadway21]

Losing 5-0 going into the game was a bad omen. Good season all in all, but the tournaments is where it counts.

[PonyPride]

That's true. That said, SMU was the better team last night, and it wasn't close, in my opinion. Winthrop's goalkeeper was sensational and kept his team in the game — that happens, like a baseball team running in to a hot pitcher. Even Winthrop's coach said in the post-game press conference that he wasn't sure the better team won ... and he was right.

Every team has bumps and bruises at this time of the year, and SMU is no different. Tyler Engel, the team's top scorer this year, missed the conference tournament with an ankle injury and came in at the end of regulation last night and gritted his way through overtime, but clearly was limited. Damian Rosales, on the other hand, also came back after missing time in the C-USA Tournament with an injury and was sensational. I thought he had maybe his best game.

This team has been fun to watch this year, and deserved to move on, but that's part of soccer. Got a lot of young talent coming back next year, so there is ample reason for optimism going forward.

[redpony]

We hear these same garbage excuses every year. It is now time to get a coach that can keep this team ready to play (not lose 5-0) and move up in the tourney like SH used to get us. TMc has had plenty of time to get this team back to the top tier and has failed. I would be willing to bet that within 5 years LB has our bball program better than losing in the first games of the ncaa tourney

[Billy Joe]

pretty pathetic - this was a really good top notch program a few years ago - why again is this joke of a soccer coach still here? He should get his arse fired immediately. We will see what kind of AD we have real quick. I would have fired the coach the second this game ended.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Well, it is obviously impossible to weigh in on this topic without being labeled as a homer or a hater, and it is pretty obvious the Tim haters will always be that way even if he stays here 24 years with loaded teams and gets us to two College Cups.

But, to be fair, even though the first three seasons of the current regime were obviously below SMU standards, the past three seasons have seen SMU penalties away from the College Cup, winning the C-USA Tournament, and winning the C-USA regular season going away (in seasons where C-USA has been extremely strong nationally). Three straight NCAA appearances with a 1-1-3 record as well. Not exactly the kind of record that gets a coach fired.

This season was expected to be a bit patchy - even before we knew Juan Castillo would miss most of the season. Tyler Engel stepped up admirably to fill the lack of scoring as best as he could, but when he went down at the end of the season it was probably one too many obstacles for such a young team to overcome (certainly to be interpreted as an "excuse").

This team is loaded with young talent (yeah, another excuse...), but in my opinion, it sure seems like the staff who put this group together should have the chance to see SMU into the BIG EAST.

[Buddha]

You guys are kidding, right? There are countless games when a hot goalie steals a game, and that's exactly what happened last night. Dan, you're not a homer if you go to the games and say what you see. I actually go to the games and there's no way you could watch last night and be disappointed, other than with the fact that we're not playing Sunday. My kids (they both play club soccer) and I agreed that SMU whipped Winthrop all night, and so did those sitting in front of us. We outshot them 23-15. I knew we had a big advantage on corners but didn't realize it was 18-5. We lived in their end of the field. Their goalie was awesome last night. It happens.

The score in the CUSA tournament was alarming, but deceiving. (Wait ... weren't you at that game either?) We had a few chances early that we didn't finish. Yes, we should have. But then when another team gets a lead in an elimination game like the CUSA final, you have to press forward, and we did, which left us open to counter-attacks. Give Tulsa credit: they scored three goals on counter-attacks because we were pressing to get back in the game.

Dan is right: this was supposed to be a transition year, and then we started it without Castillo, the top returning scorer, so the focus of the offense shifted to Engel, who was limited last night but has been great this season. The incoming freshmen were supposed to be good. Michael King was the "name" guy, I guess, but Brandon Lee, John Lujano and Eddie Puskarich were all better than I thought they were going to be, and by the end of the year, they were playing huge roles and look like outstanding players for the future. Morales, who transferred in, is outstanding. Castillo looked like his old self for the last couple of games, but obviously wasn't right for most of the season. Simmons (soph) was great this year, and last night. Rosales has been a real find this year. The goalie, who will be back next year, was the player of the year (in CUSA) and he's back.

It took a while for the new parts to gel this season, but they played really well for most of the season. It's a shame they're not playing this weekend. If you can blame effort or talent or the game plan or something for a loss, that's one thing, but last night, you couldn't. The guys played hard and played well. The talent, while heavy on the freshman and sophomore classes, is there. The game plan was working all night. But Winthorp also played well, and deserves credit for winning. Two good teams played well last night -- SMU played better -- and unfortunately, someone had to lose.

Actually nobody lost. The game was a tie. Winthorp moved on because of PKs, which are a total crapshoot, anyway. That's not the way a game should be decided, but that's another argument for another day. I'm sorry the season ended in a tough way last night. Thanks to the seniors and all of the 2012 Stangs.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

The goalie, who will be back next year, was the player of the year (in CUSA) and he's back.

Not to mention the fact Tim was Coach Of The Year too!

The most impressive thing to me last night was how Winthrop tried their best to use their big size advantage to push us around (what did they have, 6 yellows?), but it didn't bother us or affect our game one bit - which is one of the things some people fear as we move to the BIG EAST.

Not that some size won't help SMU as we go forward, but we certainly aren't going to be bullied off the field next year by any stretch of the imagination.

Lujano, Lee, and Puskarich can all play, and now that King has a year under his belt at center back (which is probably the most challenging position for a newcomer - or at least the one where the errors are most glaring) we could very well be set in quite a few positions for the next two to three seasons. Exciting times!

[mustangxc]

SH was not world beater in the post-season either. Story of SMU soccer. Is there a coach out there that can get us to the College Cup with any sort of consistency?

[redpony]

SH was not world beater in the post-season either.

And that was the frustrating thing about SH. However, I don't ever recall (maybe old age has dimmed my memory) SH's team getting booted from the tourney their first game for two years in a row.

We need a coach that can not only have a competitive team next year in the BE but also one that can take us to the upper levels of the tourney (NCAA ).