Tonight the SMU men’s soccer team will take the pitch against rival South Carolina at Westcott Field.
South Carolina comes into the game with the same record as the Mustangs, 6-3-1. Unlike SMU, the Gamecocks are on a hot streak. They have won four of their past five games. Their only loss came at the hands of Furman, 2-1.
The Gamecocks are lead by their sophomore goalkeeper, Jimmy Maurer. Maurer was named Conference USA defensive player of the week after he shut-out Florida International on Saturday. He now has six shut-outs on the season and is tied for first in the conference with a .68 goals against average.
As for the Mustangs, they have a stand out keeper of their own in junior Craig Hill. Hill sports a goals against average of .98 and has four shut-outs of his own.
The Gamecocks offense is lead by Sam Arthur, who has 10 goals and three assist in 10 games, giving him a total of 23 points for the season. The sophomore has one goal on two shots and an assist in just one conference game.
The Mustangs will look to stop them as they have allowed just 32 points this whole season. Also, Dane Saintus will lead the Mustangs’ attack as he has tree goals and two assist of his own in 10 games.
It is no secret how teams have been beating the Mustangs, playing over the top of their defense. Head coach Tim McClements talked about it earlier this week, “I think that most teams are going to play us that way. Three of the last four games we have played teams have done that and they have been able to disrupt us and have been able to find a way to win. So we should expect more of that going forward.”
McClements talked about what this may mean to the line-up, “We look at the area that we are giving up goals and the areas we are struggling and try to sure that up a little bit. It is affecting our line-up but mostly our line-up has been affected by injuries.”
The most notable injury to this Mustang team is leading scorer Paulo da Silva who will most likely miss tonight’s game.
The game is tonight at 7 p.m.
Mustangs remember former player
The game will be very emotional for SMU as they remember former player Anthony Mungioli who passed away. Mungioli attended Richardson High School and was an All-American midfielder for the Mustangs.
After leaving SMU, Mungioli started the Azzurri soccer club. Many SMU players found the Azzurri soccer club as a place to keep competing after college. One player is new men’s soccer assistant coach Giampaulo Pedroso.
“I started play mainly after I retired as a indoor soccer player so I looked into the program and I saw a lot of my friends from SMU and from Brazil,” said Pedroso. “I saw a lot of people that I knew and I saw an avenue to be competitive.”
Pedroso talked about his relationship to Mungioli, “it became a friendship really quick. I was a good friend of his and a player that played for him for the last five years at least.”
Above all, Pedroso wanted people to know what kind of man Mungioli was, “As a coach and as a teammate it was not just like show up and play. If he could help anyone being on a personal or professional level that took extra time he was always there for you.” Pedroso went on to say, “He always took a lot of pride in being a Mustang and supported the program by making his club, the Azzurri soccer club, available for a lot of SMU players to play during the off season and after graduating. A lot of us got into the Azzurri and were able to keep playing competitively because of him.”
Pedroso also credited Mungioli for giving him a feeling he had not felt anywhere else, “You always hear about camaraderie in soccer but being around the Azzurri soccer club it made it real to me, it is not just talk, it is fun and it is somewhere you want to take your family to and watch the game and you want to travel with the guys and be around the guys and he was a leader of the club and always promoted that. After seeing his legacy and everyone he touched and everything he did in the community I see it was pretty impressive he was able to make that real in every aspect of the word. It was like a Dallas soccer reunion.”
Mungioli was 51 and is survived by his wife, Karen Mungioli and two sons, Anthony and John Mungioli.
