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

Men's soccer cruises past University of Tampa

The soccer team's pre-season got off to an encouraging start with a 2-0 victory over the University of Tampa in the cross town rivalry known as the Rowdies Cup.

The Bulls improved their record to 11-7-2 all-time in the series against the Spartans and were able to get a first look at eight of the 14 new players coach Kiefer brought in this off-season.

"Tonight was good cause we got to play a lot of guys and nobody got injured," Kiefer said. "We've been working on defending for the last three days and we were able to get a shutout, so there are a lot of positives to draw from it."

The match, which was played in three 30 minute periods instead of the traditional 45 minute halves, was a good way for the coaches to measure their team's fitness levels early on.

"We got a long way to go in a lot of areas and fitness is one them," Kiefer said. "In fairness to the players though, we've been going twice a day for the last three days in the 95 degree heat, so I'm sure their legs we're heavy."

That sentiment was echoed by the players after the match.

"My whole body is tired right now," team captain Yohance Marshall said. "Overall though, I think our fitness is pretty good for this point in the season."

In the first period of play the Bulls were able to control the ball better than they would for the rest of the match. In the 20th minute, junior mid-fielder Kevon Neaves struck a line drive from outside the 18 yard box that ricocheted off the post and into the back of the net to give the Bulls a 1-0 lead.

USF would strike again before the end of the period after Neaves made a good run weaving in and out of defenders. He passed the ball out wide to a streaking Jordan Seabrook who had assisted him on the first goal. This time, Seabrook launched a cross that found the foot of senior forward Simon Schoendorf for the second Bulls goal.

"We have a lot of offensive minded players," Seabrook said. "We've been working mostly on defense thus far so I'm happy with the way everything flowed tonight."

The second and third periods saw less action as the number of shots on goal diminished along with the time of controlled possession. The Bulls had a lot of set piece opportunities off of free kicks in the second period but were unable to capitalize on anything. The final period was more of the same as both teams struggled to maintain possession of the ball.

"We haven't spent a minute on the attack (in practice) but we were still able to get two good goals which is nice," Kiefer said. "But no doubt about it, the main priority is how we handle and possess the ball and I feel like we didn't take care of the ball well enough tonight."

In the end the Bulls out shot the Spartans 9-1. An encouraging sign as they move forward on the training grounds toward a season of high hopes for USF offensively.

"This was a training session for us," Kiefer said. "We just have to keep working on it. We're back out there tomorrow morning at nine."

-David Rice