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Don't know the details as do not have CSTV but the men lost tonight to Kentucky 2-1. Looking at the box score. it appears we again dominated but could not score.

From SMUMustangs.com:


Men's Soccer Drops Tough Battle To Kentucky
Geppert scores fifth goal of the season


Lexington, Ky. (SMU) - Junior forward Scott Geppert scored his fifth goal of the season Saturday night to give the SMU men's soccer team a 1-0 halftime lead, but Kentucky stormed back with two second-half goals to upset the Mustangs, 2-1.

The loss - the Mustangs' first in nearly two months - drops SMU's record to 11-3-2 overall, and 6-1-1 in Conference USA games. UK improved to 7-8-2 overall, and 5-2 in C-USA games.

Geppert got the Ponies on the board early when he collected a cross from junior midfielder Bruno Guarda and buried it into the corner of the net in the sixth minute. The lead held up until the second half, when UK's Tim Crone scored a pair of goals in the 60th minute and 65th minute.

SMU dominated many statistical categories, outshooting the Wildcats, 17-13, and maintaining an 8-3 advantage in corner kicks. Kentucky, however, played a very physical style, getting called for 16 fouls, compared to just two fouls called against the Mustangs.

Guarda, who came into the game as the leading scorer in Conference USA, increased his season total to 21 points with his assist on Geppert's goal. His seven assists lead the Mustangs, and his seven goals this season tie him with junior forward Richard Oliva for the team lead.

The Mustangs now return home to close out the regular season with a pair of games this week, at 7:30 Wednesday night against Bradley and at 7:30 Friday night against Central Arkansas. For ticket information, log on to SMUMustangs.com or call 214-SMU-GAME.

SMU, the only Division I athletic program in Dallas, Texas, sponsors 17 sports and has been ranked as the top school in its conference for 10 straight years in the Director's Cup overall athletic rankings. More information about SMU and its coaches, athletes and teams is available at www.SMUMustangs.com.

I watched the replay last night. Kentucky played a very physical style bordering on flagrant. Unfortunately, we had a bunch of chances that didn't get into the net and they had a couple of great goals. We were short on defense due to a yellow card suspension and it showed a bit. But clearly after watching the NCAA's the last few years and watching the game last night, we have trouble with teams that foul and foul and foul and the ref was not calling them half the time and when they did call them, rarely handed out yellows. Our style is built on grace and quickness and when teams just kick your legs out from under you, it doesn't make for a good game. We had two chances to put the game away early and didn't get it done.

Being thrown off our game by hard physical play has been an on-going issue. Of course it would help if we would consistently finish our chances. This has also been a part of the problem. Great teams learn to adapt, play well under pressure and finish. Don't know if we are there yet. We had the same problem with UCSB the last two times we played them.

Didn't help that we were missing Ryan Mirsky, who brings a big physical presence to our defense.

Unfortunately, the NCAA tournament is heaven for thugs. The refs put the whistles in their pockets. We are bigger and more physical on the defensive side than we used to be, but that doesn't help the offensive side. I do agree that we need to do a better job of finishing. We had officially 17 shots but I don't think that counts ones that sail wide or over the bar and there were many of those. At least get them on net.

How nice would it be to see Kenny Cooper playing his senior year at SMU right now????

Dark Horse wrote:How nice would it be to see Kenny Cooper playing his senior year at SMU right now????

Well FC Dallas was one and done as usual this year. Maybe we could bring Kenny in under an alias.

the game was replayed on cstv last night

expony18 wrote:the game was replayed on cstv last night

Did we do any better?

nope...