SMU forward Arthur Ivo fights for control of the ball with Kentucky midfielder Tyler Burns Sunday afternoon at Westcott field. SMU lost the final home game 2-1 (Casey Lee)
The SMU men’s soccer team fell to the Kentucky Wildcats 2-1 Sunday.
SMU (9-5-2, 2-4-1 Conference USA) travels to Florida International University, the No. 8 team in conference, for its final regular season match. Then the Mustangs return home for the conference tournament, which takes place Nov. 12-16 at Westcott Field.
If the season ended today, SMU would finish seventh in the conference and would face No. 2 Kentucky (10-4-3, 6-1-0). The Mustangs, with seven points, are two points ahead of FIU and three points ahead of conference cellar dweller UAB.
Sunday’s home finale proved very physical and saw all of the goals come in the first half of the game.
The Mustangs got on the board first, when freshman Arthur Ivo got a goal in the second minute. Ivo got the goal after Dane Saintus settled a long ball and gave it to Diogo de Almeida, who crossed the ball through the box. The goal is the third of the season for Ivo.
Kentucky struck back quickly, as the Wildcats got the equalizer in the 17th minute. The goal came when Marco dos Santos fired a shot that SMU goalkeeper Craig Hill batted away, but Chad Hagerty was there to finish for the Wildcats.
The game stayed tied at 1-1 until 40 seconds before halftime. Kentucky took the lead when Stephen Beiro scored a header on Sam Vernall’s corner kick.
“I think it was pretty simple that the guy [Beiro] had a free header, so some one missed their mark,” said SMU head coach Tim McClements. “It is something we had been struggling with for a long time, and we have tried to correct the problem and have done a lot better in recent games.”
The Mustangs battled the entire second half to try and get the equalizing goal against Kentucky, but it was not enough. One of the best SMU chances came in the closing seconds, when a free kick was awarded to SMU after a foul was called on Kentucky. The Mustangs took the free kick from just outside the 18-yard box, the larger of the two boxes fronting the goal, but could not bury it.
A controversial moment happened earlier in the game, when forward Paulo da Silva was taken down well inside the 18-yard box. No foul was given, and the Mustangs lost the ball while da Silva came up limping. da Silva seemed to favor his leg the rest of the game and was noticeably uncomfortable.
“It should have been a penalty kick,” said McClements. “The guy kicked him mid-shin and he goes down and is injured the rest of the game because of the foul. If we get that call, then we are up 2-1. It is just an unfortunate situation.”
