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TU men's soccer

Just hit the underside of the crossbar and still deflected out. So close.
 
Really decent aditional three opportunitys in the last minute. 1 1/2 min left.
 
Great finishing by SMU was the difference in the match.
 
Yes but rankings matter this time of year and it would be disappointing to lose.
I wasn't commenting on anything but the 1 seed. Obviously it would have been better to even get a tie, much less a win. We would have dropped less in the rankings. But it did nothing to change the seeding. Would have got a 4 seed with a tie or a loss. Here's how I think the seeding would have gone with a 3-3 tie against SMU.

1 FIU
2 USF
3 SMU(holds tie breaker with TU over record with FIU)
4 Tulsa
5 Memphis

We would have got the second seed with a win...

But the way it went with tonight's loss.
1 FIU
2 SMU
3 USF
4 Tulsa(holds the tie breaker with Memphis)
5 Memphis
 
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I wasn't commenting on anything but the 1 seed. Obviously it would have been better to even get a tie, much less a win. We would have dropped less in the rankings. But it did nothing to change the seeding. Would have got a 4 seed with a tie or a loss. Here's how I think the seeding would have gone with a 3-3 tie against.

1 FIU
2 USF
3 SMU(holds tie breaker with TU over record with FIU)
4 Tulsa
5 Memphis

We would have got the second seed with a win...

But the way it went with tonight's loss.
1 FIU
2 SMU
3 USF
4 Tulsa(holds the tie breaker with Memphis)
5 Memphis
Fair point.

An away draw probably would of held us pretty steady in the rankings but I am betting we see a big drop. Can redeem ourselves in the conference tourney but this team seems vulnerable compared to last season's squad.
 
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This is the most talented team top to bottom we’ve ever had. Now it’s crunch time.
 
This is the most talented team top to bottom we’ve ever had. Now it’s crunch time.
No doubt. Our focus should be NCAAs and reaching semis / finals. This team has that kind of talent. They need to play like it. Fourth place in conference is obviously disappointing but conference was never the ultimate goal.
 
Great finishing by SMU was the difference in the match.
Yeah, we had a brain cramp the last 10-12 minutes of the 1st half and played really passively. That was the difference. When we play with speed and we dictate the tempo, we really put teams on their heels. As quickly as we scored in the 2nd half to make it 3-2, I expected SMU to be a little more decisive in their possessions and attach and they just weren't and we really showed a high quality of play. I wish the urgency and focus would come out in all the games we played. And I have never seen Tom move Fazio up to the 9 and play Meinhard and MHS on the wings like he did in the last 10 minutes. He pulled Edwards off and we played with a back 3 of Cashion-Bottenburg-Richnow. We added Wyatt to the MF crew along with Baena, Sach, and Protzek/Torrijos. We played with urgency and we had SMU scrambling all of the place.

The last foul on Baena, with the shirt/shorts grab by the SMU player was definitely a foul and if there were VAR for fouls in the box, it definitely would have been given. I thought that was more a foul than the one given on Meinhard at the start of the half.

We need to string some games together in Florida. Still winning the tournament championship should position us nicely in the NCAA tournament.
 
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We need to naturalize Meinhard and sign him up to score goals for the USMNT.
 
Wyatt is an interesting player. Skilled and scrappy but pretty easily dispossesed, I presume due to his smaller stature. Still the team is better when he is on the field
 
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That was a mistake by the cb, lucky it didn't cost us.
 
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Well that sucked, he was going for the ball head on, don't exactly see how that is a penalty. The goalkeeper was laid out. 1-1.
 
This is the most talented team top to bottom we’ve ever had. Now it’s crunch time.
Completely disagree. This team does not show the explosiveness of last year.

This team does not finish well.
 
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There is a reason we are #4 seed. We will likely not get out of our tourney.
 
Not sure what y’all were seeing this year. This was a weak team, very weak on the offensive end. Average to below average team.
 
Ugh. Memphis looked the better team in the second half. Great defense and counter attacks by Memphis.

Damn.

Chances at making the NCAA?
 
Not sure what y’all were seeing this year. This was a weak team, very weak on the offensive end. Average to below average team.
Lots of good individual players but never really put it together. Still wonder if they sneak in at large if SMU wins the tournament.
 
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Yes. Poorly organized on the front end. Tom has his work cut out for him moving forward.
 
Yes. Poorly organized on the front end. Tom has his work cut out for him moving forward.
We also missed the center back from last year Zinnhart (sp?). Too many easy goals through the middle - the kind where the forwards have space and the keeper has no real chance.
 
Hope we can perform better than at end of season. We will likely get a low seed, if we get in.
 
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Did anybody think that penalty kick was warranted?
Yes unfortunately.

I would say the GK probably did not have to trip him because of how far he pushed the ball to the side. And the replay showed he did.
 
Disappointing loss. Give the Memphis goalkeeper a lot of credit, he made some tough saves. I hope we get an at-large bid but I'm not getting my hopes too high.

We had better talent than Memphis, but Memphis had more desire. Maybe the guys were overconfident after handling them so easily in the regular season game.
 
Disappointing loss. Give the Memphis goalkeeper a lot of credit, he made some tough saves. I hope we get an at-large bid but I'm not getting my hopes too high.

We had better talent than Memphis, but Memphis had more desire. Maybe the guys were overconfident after handling them so easily in the regular season game.
We went from a possible top 4 seed in the tourney to wondering if we even qualify in the span of 5 days. Wow.
 
Did anybody think that penalty kick was warranted?
I'll have to watch that. I didn't get to start watching until the ET periods started. If it is as described elsewhere in the thread, usually GKs are given a lot of leeway when they challenge in the box. IF Lopez got a touch on the ball, a referee is really going to look for any foul that may have impeded the attacker getting to a rebound or loose ball in the box. If the GK makes contact with the attacker in the process of going after the ball and gets a touch on the ball, typically those are left alone. Matter of fact, if the attacker makes contact with the GK after the successful challenge, then many refs will call a foul on the attacker. GKs are the most vulnerable players on the field because of their unique nature, the ability to play with their hands, going after the ball on the ground, usually hand and headfirst into the fray, refs take a little extra precaution to keep them protected.
 
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Disappointing loss. Give the Memphis goalkeeper a lot of credit, he made some tough saves. I hope we get an at-large bid but I'm not getting my hopes too high.

We had better talent than Memphis, but Memphis had more desire. Maybe the guys were overconfident after handling them so easily in the regular season game.
The defense was fine except for 1-2 games. The goal Memphis scored in ET last night was one of those really good goals. The service was perfect, just barely clearing our CB and dipping to the perfect height for the Memphis F to head it in. I thought Lopez got caught flat footed, maybe assuming Bottenburg was going to get to it.

TUs issue all season was the lack of clinical finishing. There were spurts and some great finishing by a couple players (Meinhard, MHS) but not enough support and not nearly enough quality service despite seemingly getting the ball deep into the attacking 1/3 by Cashion and Will Edwards. TU missed a couple of point blank chances last night and they also over thought a couple of situations in OT where they made extra passes...shoot the damn ball, low and hard. It is the hardest ball for GKs to control a rebound on. I think we make it in and still likely host a 1st round game but it will then be on to the road after that.
 
Our RPI was still 14 after the loss to Memphis so there is still a shot for us getting a top 16 seed and a 1st round bye albeit losing your last 2 games is a downer. We should be safe for a bid and at a minimum host the 1st round game if we don't get a top 16 seed. We really need Kentucky, and MoState to win conference championships as it will only strengthen our RPI. SMU lost to USF in PKs and Memphis lost to FIU (this is good for us). Now we need FIU to hammer USF. Kentucky will play James Madison in the Sun Belt final. Mo State will play Evansville in the finals of the MVC tournament. Maryland, the #1 seed in the Big Ten and #16 in the RPI lost to Indiana the other day so RPI wise, that's a good thing for us as well.
 
FIU still stumps me. They killed top 25 competition all year but lost to some slubs. I think they had more top 25 wins than anyone in our conference by a long shot.
 
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