PonyFans.com

Men's soccer draws #6 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

First Round Bye. Their first game will be Sunday at WESCOTT vs winner of Akron/Northwestern

Go Mustangs!!

Go Mustangs

Nice easy bye- we'll probably only play last years champs -the Akron Zips - in our first game.
Guess we'll see real quick if this team has 'it' or not.

GO PONIES!!!

Great to have a home game and a bye!!! Go Mustangs!

redpony wrote:Nice easy bye- we'll probably only play last years champs -the Akron Zips - in our first game.
Guess we'll see real quick if this team has 'it' or not.

GO PONIES!!!

What do you mean if this team has "it"?

You mean the kind of "it" that allows a team to get through a brutal non-conference schedule, beating teams like UCLA and Duke ON THE ROAD and then bounce back from an injury-riddled regular season to win the conference tournament in a very good soccer conference?

The fact is this team has been through hell and back, both in terms of schedule and injuries, and has come out as one of the top 10 in the country. This is a horrible draw, though, because Akron and Northwestern are exceptional teams, too. Either could come in to Dallas and win, although it would be no surprise if we won. Don't sell Northwestern short. Yes, they're playing the defending national champions, but they're an excellent team, too.

Whether we win or lose Sunday, this team already has shown it has "it."

Gee, so sad to hear we are the only team in the country that has had to play with injuries.
The schedule this year is what we should have been playing since SH left- top level competition instead of the cupcake schedule of last year. Sorry you don't agree but this program has been much less successful since SH left. Compare his last four yrs vs the last four yrs of this program.
I expect a lot because we were touted as having some of the best regional players in the country this year in addition to a top 7 national recruiting class the year before. Talent is there - no excuse for not being top 5-7 like we were picked preseason.

GO PONIES!!!

How would this team fair in the BE? I don't know too much about SMU's soccer team, from what I understand we used to be won of the best and have been building back up since losing our HC.

peruna11 wrote:Men's soccer draws #6 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

First Round Bye. Their first game will be Sunday at WESCOTT vs winner of Akron/Northwestern

Go Mustangs!!

Good job SMU. Would rather not have to face the possibility of meeting Akron, but we can go very far. Let's win a NC!

redpony wrote:Gee, so sad to hear we are the only team in the country that has had to play with injuries.
The schedule this year is what we should have been playing since SH left- top level competition instead of the cupcake schedule of last year. Sorry you don't agree but this program has been much less successful since SH left. Compare his last four yrs vs the last four yrs of this program.
I expect a lot because we were touted as having some of the best regional players in the country this year in addition to a top 7 national recruiting class the year before. Talent is there - no excuse for not being top 5-7 like we were picked preseason.

GO PONIES!!!

A. Where did I say anything about SMU being "the only team in the country that has had to play with injuries"? I talked about SMU and said nothing about the health of any other team.
B. As for comparing years ... different coaches, different opponents, different players. Apples and oranges, to say the least.
C. You want top 5-7 ... we got the No. 6 seed. Even by your definition, SMU has "it."

Go Mustangs!

But back to what matters ... does anyone know if Akron/Northwestern can be seen on-line anywhere?

Interesting about Northwestern. They won both the regular season and tournament for the Big whatever and not only didn't get a seed, but they also travel to Akron for the first round. Not much respect.

Terry Webster wrote:Interesting about Northwestern. They won both the regular season and tournament for the Big whatever and not only didn't get a seed, but they also travel to Akron for the first round. Not much respect.

Yeah - I found that odd. It's not like the Big Ten is a bad soccer conference.

We need to be thankful we won our tournament, otherwise we are probably on the road Thursday and then again Sunday if you compare what we would probably get to what South Carolina got.

From what I've heard, both Akron and Northwestern are physical teams. I suspect they'll be a bit black and blue after they play each other. But be prepared for rough tackles and lots of shin shots when we play the winner. This will be no easy match-up for us. The BE tends to have physical teams as well. Remember our game with St. Johns a few years ago in the NCAA tourney? We have a finesse game, and will have to utilize our speed against these hard tackling teams.

Looking at NU's schedule, they had some good wins, and some pretty bad losses...Valpo and others. That hurt the sos quite a bit I imagine.