The Memphis men's soccer team lost their American Conference opener at home to FIU 1-0 on a David Boccuzzo goal in the 20th minute to fall to 1-3-3 on the season.
Even though it is cliche to say that conference play begins a new season, it does represent a clean slate, especially for teams like Memphis who have had a lackluster start to the season in non-conference play. For the Tigers, it looked much the same.
“Everybody was 0-0 starting today in our conference. That was gonna be our golden ticket, and we’re 0-1 now," Memphis head coach Richard Mulrooney said. "We still have four away games and two at home, so we got our work cut out for us."
This game extends Memphis’ winless streak to four games and is their second straight loss at home. The Tigers have also only scored one goal in their past three games, and have gone five straight halves without finding the back of the net.
After the 3-1 home loss to Florida Gulf Coast, Mulrooney tweaked the lineup, most notably replacing AAC Goalie of the Year Filip Sabatti with redshirt junior Jakob Buhrkuhl.
“When you win, I don’t change the lineup. You tie and lose, I’ve got to find something that works, and we still haven’t found that yet, so that job’s still available,” Mulrooney said. “We’re not scoring goals, the forward spot is still available, we’re not able to keep the ball, the midfield spot is still available. Right now we have 11 spots I’m looking to fill in Chapel Hill on Tuesday night because we’re not getting it done.”
The team is struggling in almost all facets of the game, as Mulrooney pointed out, and were fortunate to lose only by a goal. FIU got 12 shots in this game, five of which were on goal, and others were incredibly near misses, like Johan Arevalo’s shot in the 65th minute off a 2-on-1 break that rang just off the crossbar.
Defensive lapses and miscommunication led to boiling points on the field between the Tigers, such as Buhrkuhl yelling at his defenders, “Do your f****** jobs,” after another near goal by the Panthers, something reminiscent of their spiral during the Florida Gulf Coast game.
“We just got to become better, but I do have a belief in this team that we’ve got it," Mulrooney said. "It’s still trying to find that distinction of what’s going to get it done for us and what makes us fall short, and tonight we fell short."
The Tigers hope to get better fast, as on Tuesday they take a brief break in conference play to travel to Chapel Hill to play No. 21 North Carolina at 6 p.m. CT. That game will be streamed on ESPN+.
