By David Ngo — Staff Writer
San Jose State men’s soccer team (0-6) was defeated 3-1 by the UC Davis Aggies (4-3-1) despite dominating much of the first half.
SJSU looked like the better team, but things unraveled quickly following ankle injuries to junior defender Omar Lemus and senior forward Suliman Khorami, the lone scorer for the Spartans.
Injuries to two key players for the Spartans forced both Lemus and Khorami to exit the match early, swinging the momentum in UC Davis’s favor to start the second half.
“Omar had a twisted ankle, Suli had a twisted ankle so yeah it changed the momentum. This season everytime the momentum has switched, we’ve conceded a goal” said Head coach Simon Tobin.
“I think this game is the story of our season. If you could put our whole season into one game, this is it, it’s a reflection of where we are right now, we’re dominant in the first half, we were the better team, no doubt about it” said Tobin.
Shifting momentum, second half collapses and late goals has proven to be the Achillis’ heel for the Spartans this season.
An inability to finish games and compete for a full 90-minutes has plagued SJSU in six straight losses.
The Spartans will have to bounce back on a relatively short week, with a colossal task of traveling up the Bay to take on the No. 2 ranked Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto.
“We need to work on keeping our momentum, we always have good starts [to the game]. Against St. Mary’s we were up 2-0 and we seem to be blowing our leads so we just need to keep our momentum and not let it fall through” said junior midfielder Danny Sanchez.
The Spartans opened the second half with a quick goal from senior Suliman Khorami, logging his third goal of the season before exiting the match with a twisted ankle.
“The past six games it’s been the same things, our mistakes. We’re dominant, but then we kinda let go [in the second half]” said Khorami.
The Spartans have yet to win a game this season and will play arguably the best team in the country when they face off against Stanford on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.
Although SJSU has yet to win a game, Tobin believes the Spartans will be competitive once WAC conference play begins. For now, his men will have to make the trip up I-280 and take on the three-time NCAA tournament champion, Stanford Cardinal.
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