Memphis Men’s Soccer Falls To #15 Missouri State

Coming into Tuesday night’s game against the 15th ranked Bears of Missouri State, the Memphis Tigers were riding an impressive seven game unbeaten streak. Even more impressive was the fact that they had not conceded a goal in four straight games. That included a 1-0 win against #9 Charlotte on October 5th. Unfortunately, that unbeaten run came to an end against Missouri State as the Tigers fell 3-1.

“Yeah, credit to them.” said Coach Richard Mulrooney. “Well organized, well coached, know their roles, do the small things right. They did it for the whole game. Sadly, we didn’t show up for the first half and that probably had something to do with them but more so on us not competing and not being able to keep possession. We’ve seen this team before. There’s a reason why we started 1-4. Tonight was reminiscent of that.”

The first fifteen minutes of the game was fairly dull with the teams trying to figure each other and the weather out (the wind was quite gusty). Missouri State eventually took the lead off a corner kick with ten minutes left to play in the first half. The second half started almost the same way the first half did, with not much happening in the first fifteen minutes. The Tigers fell behind 2-0 after some smooth passing from Missouri State. They threw themselves a lifeline with six minutes remaining in the game when Logan Longo headed home from a corner. But with so little time left, the Tigers threw everything they had into the attack and left themselves exposed at the back, allowing Missouri State to score a third and end the comeback bid.

Coach Mulrooney was disappointed with the way his team started but felt like they played much better in the second half.

“It was tough. Like I said, we’re throwing the kitchen sink at them and they’re defending for their life. But in saying that, we’re also leaving ourselves susceptible to that counterattack. I thought we could have maybe had a play to break it up. But it wasn’t meant to be. They go down and yeah they’re clinical.”

Despite the loss to Missouri State, it’s been a very good last month for the Memphis men’s team. And not just because of the results on the field. Former Memphis goalkeeper JD Gunn was called up by the Panama national team for games against the US and Canada, a huge point of pride and a sign of what Coach Mulrooney is building the Tigers men’s soccer program into.

“Massive. I don’t care whether you’re with Guam, whether you’re with Croatia or whether you’re with Panama. There’s not a lot of kids that do that, that were just college kids last year. So, to say that we had one, I’m proud of JD. He’s developed probably that much more in New England. Just a really cool thing. A first for this program, that I know of. He makes us proud and hope he gets some minutes at some point.”

The Tigers next game is on the road against USF before they return to the Billy Murphy Track & Soccer Stadium for their final regular season home game on Saturday, October 26 against FAU.