by Clark Hwang (@ClarkHwang25) – Spear Writer | Photos by SJSU Athletics
In a tightly contested matchup, the SJSU’s Men’s soccer team played San Francisco to a draw, ending in a 1-1 tie.
The game started with the Spartans playing defense in their half for the first 17 minutes, but sophomore forward Anthony Guzman was able to get an offensive play started by stealing a pass from San Francisco defenders. Guzman was able to take the ball all the way to the Dons’ goal line.
The Spartans were able to put a lot of offensive pressure on the Dons toward the middle of the game. This eventually led to SJSU scoring a goal in the 27th minute, with another play from Guzman intercepting a pass and was able to pass the ball to Angel Inigues who scored the first goal of the game. The goal put the Spartans up 1–0 at halftime.
In the second half, the Spartans seemed to falter, unable to get their offense going and remaining stuck in their half of the field.
“To be honest, I think we’re a bit down right now because the second half was quite poor. Our overall aim always is to control the game. And I think we did that somewhat in the first half, but the second half, I think they control the game,” said head coach Simon Tobin after the match.
With the goal being held down by senior goalkeeper David Sweeney, the Spartans were able to hold on to their 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, SJSU’s defense broke down and San Francisco’s substitute senior midfielder Arjan Dosanjh was able to score a goal.
With the momentum swinging in the Dons’ favor, they looked to capitalize on their next opportunity from the corner. But Sweeny was able to make a spectacular save, possibly the best save of the match which prevented San Francisco from scoring a go-ahead goal.
“Performance could be improved. Now, I mean, with Stanford, we gave USF a lot of chances at the end. Against Stanford we bury them you know, so you can’t you can’t give Stanford a look at the goal line”, said Tobin.
SJSU will be playing their next match against Stanford at home on September 4th at 7 p.m.