Photo by Jonathan Segal
By: Brandon Wise / Staff Writer
Coming off of arguably their best performance of the year, the FIU Golden Panthers headed to Dallas, Texas to take on the Southern Methodist Mustangs for a battle to jump up in the Conference USA standings.
The team, however, came up just short as the Mustangs defeated the Golden Panthers 2-1 in overtime on Oct. 16.
Early in the match, the Golden Panthers held an early lead. Freshman Quentin Albrecht put one in the back of the net after receiving a great pass from another freshman, Roberto de Sousa. Coach Munga Eketebi knew that Albrecht had this kind of season in him when they recruited him.
“We brought [Albrecht] in to be the go to guy,” Eketebi said. “And the fact that he is the leading scorer this year means that he is meeting our expectations. He is still adjusting after coming from Germany, but he is going to do good things for us down the road.”
Rodney Greiling played a strong game in the net, even though he allowed two goals in the match. In the 60th minute, forward Juan Castillo slipped one past Greiling to tie the match. Then in overtime, SMU defender Diogo de Almeida finished off the game with a goal.
Making four saves on the night, Greiling played well, but could not finish the game in overtime. However, Eketebi was proud of his keeper.
“Rodney was outstanding,” Eketebi said. “This is one loss that is tough to swallow, but everyone raised their game. I am really proud of the guys.”
Tussle in Tulsa
The Golden Panthers are now 4-6-3 on the season and 1-2-1 in conference play. With four points in Conference USA, they are now sixth in the table, while SMU is now 8-4-1 overall and 3-1-1 in the conference, tied for second with Marshall at 10 points.
The team will head to Tulsa to take on the Golden Hurricane on Oct. 19. Tulsa is last in Conference USA at 0-3 in the conference and 4-8 overall. Tulsa is coming off of a tough 3-0 loss to Memphis. Eketebi knows the importance of this game.
“Tulsa is going to be a must-win game for us in the hunt for the conference tournament,” Eketebi said. “We still control our own destiny in the conference, but we are starting to have our backs up against the wall here.”
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