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10 minutes left in Tulsa, and we're tied with Northern Illinois, 0-0.
They're undefeated, and pretty good.
I'm guessing they're packing the goal and playing for a tie.

Just lost in OT.
NIU's a good team, but that's disappointing.

NIU wins in overtime 1 - 0. SMU only had two shots on goal to eleven by NIU. hopefully this is just a shock to the system and the team will refocus.

Right.
Sounds like the ultimate wakeup call.
I've read a bit today, and NIU really does sound like a good team (they're undefeated, after all, and just beat us), but still .... how would you like to be Hofstra Sunday? I'll assume we'll kick the snot out of them.

better luck next game

#2 team should take care of teams like this.

pretty disappointing loss, no way in hell should we lose to a team like northern illinois

That's true, but we have a couple of key starters who sat out after getting banged up last weekend. Didn't have all our bullets in the gun, or whatever analogy you want to use. Put the full roster out there, and we roll NIU.

Maybe it's a good thing. We've got a lot of experienced talent, but also the largest freshman class in school history. Good to show that we're not bulletproof, that the guys have to stay healthy and play hard every day. Also good to do it now, rather than in November.

giacfsp wrote:That's true, but we have a couple of key starters who sat out after getting banged up last weekend. Didn't have all our bullets in the gun, or whatever analogy you want to use. Put the full roster out there, and we roll NIU.

Maybe it's a good thing. We've got a lot of experienced talent, but also the largest freshman class in school history. Good to show that we're not bulletproof, that the guys have to stay healthy and play hard every day. Also good to do it now, rather than in November.

No excuses! This team is deep enough that a few injuries should not matter. I did not see the game but from the box score it looks like we got dominated. Our keeper kept us in the game. I know that stats alone do not tell the entire story, so I would hope that someone who saw the game will weigh in. I know we have some parents on this board.

Okay. First of all we were missing our left outside defender Leone Cruz. He usually is the guy that protects Craig's backside and makes good runs out of the back. He also gives us a hieght advangae on set peices. We were also missing Jeff Harwell in the midfield. That really hurt because we had to play an unusual 5 2 3 diamond with Paulo playing more withdrawn. This took us out of our attacking mode and made us more defensive. With two freshman defenders and NIU playing very direct, we got taken out of our game. Disappointing loss? Yes. End of the world? No. We were never going to go undefeated and we need to see how well we can cope with key personel losses. If you have to experiment, a throw away tournament where even if you lose you're not going to drop that far in the rankings is a good time to do it. It's early in the season, and just like in football, early losses don't hurt as bad as late season losses. I still believe that Hofstra is in for a butt kicking. The guys are p.o.'ed and ready to take it out on the next team.

Halftime vs Hofstra. SMU is up 1-0. Concerned though with the fact that we've only taken 2 shots to Hofstra's 6.

lets get the win

1-0 at halftime doesn't sound like a 'butt kicking' to me. We can not go around making excuses that some of our players did not play because they were banged up. All teams have that problem to some extent. Being outshot like we were is not acceptable. Let's hope the team can get it's act together and start playing like they are capable of.

GO PONIES!!!!

so what is wrong with Cruz and Harwell? I admit these are big losses especially Harwell's creativity in the attack.

SMU wins 1-0. Not what I expected at all. I expected them to go out and put a lot of pressure of Hofstra especially after Tulsa took them apart 3-0. Without talking to anyone yet I assume Hofstra took a serious defensive posture and play with a lot of men behind the ball. But from looking at game tracker it appears we have been outshot again. At this point until we see them play Tulsa at home next week I will chalk this weekend up as a last chance to experiment with formations and line ups before conference play starts. I suspect that this will be the last time we see this formation and we will probably get back to playing either a 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 3-5-2. On the up side no sense in getting all panicky until or unless they drop a game in the conference tournament. Cruz and Harwell are "internal team matters".