The Mustangs have come up a long way since the beginning of the season.
The SMU men’s soccer team had difficulty winning their first game the season, which wasn’t until the fifth one against Duke in a 1-0 overtime win.
They are now sixth in the conference and must place fourth in the conference and earn a decent seat for the C-USA championship.
Before even thinking about the C-USA championship, the Mustangs must first defeat Memphis.
Even though the Memphis Tigers have a better conference record, 4-3-0, the Mustangs will put up one of their best fights of the season.
It will be the last game of the season for the Mustangs and they will come out with great motivation. The seniors, especially defenders Adam Still and Diogo de Almeida, will showcase their passion for the team and leave a great career behind at SMU before heading to Tulsa for the C-USA championship.
If I had to predict a score for the match this Friday night, I would say the Mustangs take the victory 2-1.
SMU will have a tough time defending Tiger sophomore forward Mark Sherrod, but they will come out victorious in the end.
SMU will then be able to focus on the C-USA championship. The Mustangs will have to go through some of the best teams in the nation, such as South Carolina and University of Alabama at Birmingham.
It’s impressive how the Mustangs were able to beat South Carolina at Stone Stadium during the second half of overtime. That match was actually the only conference loss for the Gamecocks.
South Carolina is looking in great position right now as the first in the conference, and may actually have a shot at the championship like last year.
As for UAB, the Blazers are probably the best candidate for the championship this year.
They are 5-1-1 in the conference and 11-3-3 overall. The Mustangs put up a fight against the Blazers in the last home game, but fell to the one and only goal scored by UAB’s Darion Copeland.
The Blazers are currently second in the conference; they would have been first if it wasn’t for the only conference loss against South Carolina.
My prediction is that Mustangs will end fourth in the conference for the season, so they will have to play either Memphis or UCF.
Having said that SMU will defeat Memphis, the Mustangs will push the Tigers to fifth place and therefore will have to face off in the quarterfinals again.
Now if UCF is able to defeat Marshall, the Mustangs will then have to face the Knights.
Either way, the Mustangs will have a hard time going on to the semifinals. As far as going on to the finals, I don’t think SMU will be able to do so.
Cesar Rincon is a sophomore majoring in Journalism and Spanish with a minor in Cinematography. He can be reached for comment at [email protected]
