While the soccer attention over at the University of Memphis is mostly focused on the women’s team (and justifiably so, given how successful they’ve been over the last decade) Coach Richard Mulrooney may be starting to get things cranked up for the men’s team. Just last year they went to their first NCAA Tournament since 2004 (only their third ever NCAA Tournament appearance), falling to St. Louis in the first round in overtime.
This year the Tigers came out of the gate on a roll, going unbeaten in their first six games: a 2-0 win at Green Bay, a 3-1 win at Northern Illinois, a 1-1 home draw with Georgia State, a 2-1 win at Central Arkansas, a 2-1 home win against Belmont, and a 1-1 draw at Lipscomb. Things then started to go South after that as the Tigers dropped their next three games: a 2-1 loss @ #16 SMU, a 2-1 home loss to an FIU team that knocked them out of last year’s AAC Tournament, and then a 1-0 loss at FAU.
Things are wearing a much more hopeful look now for the Tigers as they are back in the win column, with consecutive victories: a 2-1 win on the road at #9 Missouri State and then a 2-1 win tonight at home against Tulsa for their first win in conference play. It was a game in which the Tigers were able to jump on the Golden Hurricane early, which Coach Mulrooney was quite pleased with.
“Good start to the game obviously to get a goal and then get that second goal” he said.
Those two goals were both scored on good runs down the left side. The first goal came just over five minutes in off a towering header from Logan Longo. Then just thirteen minutes later the Tigers added a second one through Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos after good work by Elie Bokota to get him the ball. The Tigers took the 2-0 lead into the break and though Tulsa started to crank up the pressure in the second half, Memphis still look dangerous on the counter.
“We’re pretty good at it, yeah. We’ve got some wingers that can get in spaces and channels. We have some forwards that make some good runs. We’re not a one-trick pony with that but in saying that I’m actually a little surprised that we weren’t able to get a third from the counter just because of how well they opened up. But at the end of the day, the counter can be our friend for sure.”
Memphis might not have been able to add that elusive third goal but they didn’t have to worry too much as despite a lot of pressure from Tulsa, very few real chances were created and the ones that were saw smart saves from JD Gunn in the Memphis goal. The pressure eventually did pay off for Tulsa of course, but their only goal of the game was scored with just two seconds left on the clock. It may not have been a second straight clean sheet, but Coach Mulrooney will take it.
“It doesn’t matter how you do it sometimes, although everyone wants to play pretty and this and that. For us to go winless for four or five games to now win two in a row feels good. The guys are buzzing off of it. Obviously won a conference game and obviously won in the top 10 in a hostile environment for college soccer. The guys should be feeling good about themselves for sure.”
One thing Coach Mulrooney kept coming back to was that rough patch when conference play started and the Tigers lost their first three games in AAC play.
“We’ve dug ourselves a hole in the conference and tonight we filled the hole with sand a little bit and are starting to work our way out. We don’t know the other results and it doesn’t even really matter. What matters is us taking care of business whether it’s at home or on the road. But in general, yeah that was a long month or so with the winless streak. Now we’ve got two wins in 72 or however many hours it fees good. The guys have worked hard and I’m proud of them.”
The Tigers have four games left this season, all of which are conference games. Next up is at UAB and then they return home to the Billy Murphy Track & Soccer Stadium against Temple on Saturday, October 21st at 7pm.