Last Sunday, SMU men’s soccer took the pitch and battled Conference USA foe Marshall. While SMU dominated the game, it fell 1-0 to the Thundering Herd.

Marshall got on the board fast, as they got their lone goal in the second minute when Colby LaCrone buried a shot in the lower right corner of the goal.

The Thundering Herd grabbed anything they could find and held on for 88 minutes while the Mustangs got a furry of shots and good chances.

Sophomore Leone Cruz led the attack for the Mustangs, as he had six shots in the game. Cruz played most of the second half with two different shoes, after he borrowed one from backup keeper Jonathan Lester when his left shoe broke.

The Mustangs also had several scoring opportunities from Arthur Ivo (five shots), Jeff Harwell (three shots) and Gabe Arredondo (two shots). The Mustangs totaled 25 shots in the game, including six on goal.and had 10 corner kicks.

SMU’s defense played well, as they allowed only seven Marshall shots-only one on goal-and a lone corner kick.

While the Mustangs had good offensive chances, they were created in a way that is unusual for SMU. The Mustangs were playing very directly to the Marshall goal. Simply playing direct means that when Marshall would bring its back defensive line up to near midfield, the Mustangs would kick it over the defensive players’ heads and try to be the quickest to the ball and have an open chance at the goal.

Opposing teams have played direct on the Mustangs this season and were able to win.

SMU also stuck with the 4-3-3: four defenders on the back line, three midfielders and three forwards. SMU reverted back to this formation after going with the 4-4-2, which takes a forward from the 4-3-3 and moves him to the midfield. The move was to gain more offensive power.

At one point in the game, SMU seemed to switch to a 3-4-3 formation, three players on the defensive back line, four in the midfield and three forwards, putting more emphasis on scoring.

Despite the formation changes and good chances for the Mustangs, it ultimately was not enough. The Mustangs fell to 7-4-2 overall and 0-3-1 in conference. The Mustangs are the only team in their league yet to win a conference game.

SMU hits the road to face University of Alabama-Birmingham on Wednesday, followed by a Saturday night game against the University of Central Florida.