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The men’s soccer team beat Seattle 4-0 on two goals by de Silva, one by Ivo and one by Saintus. Seattle tied Tulsa 1-1 in double OT on Friday. Tulsa plays Akron tonight. Akron beat us 1-0.
It should be interesting to see how this moves us up in the rankings. Akron was previously ranked #3 and Tulsa #18.
The Ponies are now 1-1 for the regular season.

GO PONIES!!!

I thought we'd win, but 4-0 against a team that got a tie against Tulsa ... AT Tulsa? That's a really impressive result, and it sounds like Paulo might be back to 100 percent. Congratulation, guys — keep it up!

Just read the release on the SMU athletic site:


Men's Soccer Defeats Seattle 4-0
da Silva Registers Two Goals In Victory

Sept. 6, 2009

TULSA, Okla. - SMU rebounded in the second game of the Radisson Tulsa Airport Classic to defeat Seattle 4-0. Paulo da Silva scored two goals for the Mustangs, registering his first multi-goal game since 2005.

Paulo da Silva started the scoring in the 37th minute when he headed a pass from Dane Saintus into the net to give the Mustangs a 1-0 advantage. Just two minutes later, Arthur Ivodoubled the Mustangs' lead heading into halftime by scoring off of a Dane Saintus pass. Paulo da Silva added his second goal of the match in the 79th minute, giving him his second career multi-goal game, and his first since November 18, 2005, when he had two goals against San Francisco in the NCAA Tournament.

Dane Saintus later tacked on a goal in the 85th minute, adding a goal to his two assists, and giving the Mustangs a 4-0 advantage. Saintus' two assists and four points both matched career highs, set on September 20, 2007 against Centenary (1 G, 2 A).

Craig Hill posted the 8th shutout of his career, making two saves in the process. SMU outshot Seattle 17-6 en route to the 4-0 victory. Seattle earned a road tie with #14 Tulsa on Friday, but could not earn a result against SMU.

SMU travels to Providence, R.I. next week to take part of the adidas-Brown classic, where they will face Ivy League foes Brown and Yale.

Scoring Summary:

SMU- Paulo da Silva (Dane Saintus) 37'
SMU- Arthur Ivo (Dane Saintus) 39'
SMU- Paulo da Silva 79'
SMU- Dane Saintus 85'

An excellent result. I believe this team and the coaching may be a lot better than some have given them credit for. Hope so, but we will see. We are putting a lot of talent on the field.

mustangbill67 wrote:An excellent result. I believe this team and the coaching may be a lot better than some have given them credit for. Hope so, but we will see. We are putting a lot of talent on the field.

I know I am supposed to stay out of your soccer discussions, but mustangbill67, I want you to know that when Bo Levi heard you could not make the game he went into a depression that affected his passing game. Come back soon.

mustangbill67 wrote:An excellent result. I believe this team and the coaching may be a lot better than some have given them credit for. Hope so, but we will see. We are putting a lot of talent on the field.

Touche- I am glad they won in convincing style. I am never opposed to giving credit where credit is due and also pointing the finger when blame is due.

So does this victory raise your expectations for the 'big dance' or are we still 'miles away from it'?

GO PONIES!!!

redpony wrote:

mustangbill67 wrote:An excellent result. I believe this team and the coaching may be a lot better than some have given them credit for. Hope so, but we will see. We are putting a lot of talent on the field.

Touche- I am glad they won in convincing style. I am never opposed to giving credit where credit is due and also pointing the finger when blame is due.

So does this victory raise your expectations for the 'big dance' or are we still 'miles away from it'?

GO PONIES!!!

No getting excited until we win a home game. Remember, that was the whole problem last year. Be it Marshall or Tulsa, we couldn't win at home.

Anyone wanting to check out the ponies next friday vs Brown, here's a link to get the game live and either listen or watch it.
http://www.brownbears.com/multimedia/schedule

Awesome — thanks for the link, gk00dad.

Akron beat Tulsa 1-0 on Sunday night. Looks like it might be an interesting conference race this year.

gk00dad- thanks for the link. I will try and pick up the game this weekend.

GO PONIES!!!

mrydel wrote:

mustangbill67 wrote:An excellent result. I believe this team and the coaching may be a lot better than some have given them credit for. Hope so, but we will see. We are putting a lot of talent on the field.

I know I am supposed to stay out of your soccer discussions, but mustangbill67, I want you to know that when Bo Levi heard you could not make the game he went into a depression that affected his passing game. Come back soon.

I figured it must be something like that! I listened to the game on internet radio. A depressing 4 hours although I am happy we managed to score 17 points in the last quarter. The rest of the season is a mystery to me. Anyway, back to real football.

redpony wrote:

mustangbill67 wrote:An excellent result. I believe this team and the coaching may be a lot better than some have given them credit for. Hope so, but we will see. We are putting a lot of talent on the field.

Touche- I am glad they won in convincing style. I am never opposed to giving credit where credit is due and also pointing the finger when blame is due.

So does this victory raise your expectations for the 'big dance' or are we still 'miles away from it'?

GO PONIES!!!

Getting to the "big dance" requires a lot of luck even in the best of years. Right now I am only hopeful we can do well in our remaining non-conference games and in the conference and get the invite. This team is still pretty young and should get better.

Assuming that you figure that we're pretty much even with Tulsa which is the preseason conference favorite (judging from results this weekend), I do not see us getting an at large bid due to our fairly modest schedule this year unless we either win the regular season in conference or the tournament. In the meantime, we just need to figure out what works. Its going to be hard to beat teams that are big and physical for us as always.

With only four teams making the conference tournament — and it's a good soccer conference, with SMU, Tulsa, Kentucky, South Carolina, UAB, etc. — it's going to be tough this year. But this win over Seattle is a good win, and could be an indication the team is better than some feared.

Good luck against Brown and Yale this weekend!