Men's Soccer shuts out St. Louis

It was a busy night for USF goal keeper Diego Restrepo in the Bulls 2-0 win over Saint Louis as the team collected its second shutout of the preseason.

SLU only managed two shots on goal, but the Billikens' attack was a steady onslaught of blown set piece opportunities and crosses that found the heads of USF defenders.

"It got frustrating cause we were committing fouls close to the box," Restrepo said. "But, that's something that will fix itself with time and experience as the season goes on."

The main focus in the team's practices thus far has been on defense.

"We've been working on defending and the transition to the attack," coach George Kiefer said. "When we won balls we were looking to get behind their defenders and I think our pace gave them problems but we didn't find a good balance for possession and counter attack."

Saint Louis controlled the ball early but were unable to create any opportunities for a shot on goal. In the 24th minute, the Bulls counter attack mounted enough pressure to score a goal when a blown clearance by the SLU goal keeper fell in front of sophomore mid-fielder Jason Devenish who finished it off easily.

Their 1-0 lead seemed in danger at times as Saint Louis, ranked No. 25 in the pre-season poll, continued to dominate possession throughout the first half. The Bulls had trouble getting a sufficient amount of men forward in support of the attack and as result spent a lot of time defending their own half of the field.

It looked like the Bulls were going to carry a slim one goal lead into the half until the 45th minute when they were able to organize their best counter attack effort of the night. Mid-fielder Marshall Schulz delivered a pass to Alejandro Taylor that drew the goal keeper off his line. Taylor successfully controlled the ball and scored easily with the keeper out of position.

The Bulls defense was tested more in the second half as the number of Saint Louis opportunities mounted but never resulted in a goal.

"I think we did what we wanted to do," forward Jordan Seabrook said. "Defense is an area of focus for us. We want adversity in the preseason so we can learn how to get through it together and overcome it during the regular season the way we did today."

Set piece opportunities were abundant for the Saint Louis attack. When the final whistle blew SLU had outnumbered USF 10-2 in corner kicks alone.

"That's where a lot of goals come from in this game," Kiefer said. "It's a concern going forward. You can't give teams like that the amount of corners and dead balls that we gave them tonight."

Kiefer was pleased with the way Restrepo was able to handle the pressure that free kicks and corners can create.

"Diego does a good job of organizing the blocks and pushing guys together," Kiefer said. "They got behind our defenders a few times though, and we want to be able to get out of games without teams getting a good look at the goal."

Despite the lack of possession and tendency to give the opposition chances there were positives other than winning for the Bulls as they head to Virginia this Saturday.

"The first positive is we kept a clean sheet," Kiefer said. "Of course the two goals, and I think we we're seeing our depth. We used a lot of players and we're seeing that some of our subs could be on our first team."

The Bulls depth will get better as they still have another player who has yet to join the team and a few who have been nursing injuries.

"We're missing some key guys that help us move the ball right now," Kiefer said. "I feel encouraged about where we're going when you consider that."

-David Rice