University of Memphis Athletics
University of Memphis
5-2-2
Central Arkansas
2-6
Second Half Goal Gives Tigers Victory Over Bears
Sep 30, 2014 | Men's Soccer
Memphis vs UCA Box Score
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Senior forward Fakhry Khulfan scored a late second half goal to help the Tigers net their win against Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark., on Tuesday night, 1-0.
In the 83rd minute, Khulfan picked up the ball off a deflection and put it in the bottom right of the net from 15 yards out and recorded his third goal of the season for the Tigers.
With the win, Memphis improves to 5-2-2 (0-0-1 American), and UCA falls to 2-6-0 (0-1-0 Southland).
In the first half, the blue and gray had multiple opportunities to score but just couldn't seem to capitalize on those chances. Raul Gonzalez played all 90 minutes and led the Tigers with six shot attempts.
Despite holding a 15-8 edge in shots, Memphis only put six of those shots on goal. Cody Uzcategui recorded one save in the match.
The UofM returns to action Saturday night to face UCONN for the Tigers second conference game this season.
To learn more about the men's soccer team, visit GoTigersGo.com and follow @MemphisMSoccer on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Head Coach Richard Mulrooney Post Game Quotes
On team performance…
“It was probably the most complete performance that we’ve had since Saint Louis. Even in the Saint Louis game, I thought that in the second half we let up a little bit, but I thought last night was an all-around good performance. We didn’t have long spells of playing poorly. I thought that there was a spell in mid-late first half that UCA started playing well and we sort of had to weather the storm but that happens in games. We found a way to get out of it and at the end of the day I feel that it was a fair result that we were the winning team. We had some good shots. It would’ve been nice to keep a few more on target to get some goals but as I told the boys sometimes it just takes 90 minutes to get that goal and that’s what happened last night.”
On Raul Gonzalez’s performance…
“The buildup was good and when Raul had all of those shots it was just how he got the ball. It would be a buildup into the middle out wide and he would get it. Obviously with his one-on-one abilities, we told him to go at his defender and he did. He cut it in and unfortunately his shooting let him down a little bit so that’s something we need to work on in practice the next few weeks. However, to create those opportunities, I do believe in moving forward that he’ll start getting goals from his shots. Unfortunately, they weren’t finding the back of the net last night, but that was one of the game plans to get him the ball and obviously work his defender. Whether it is a cross or a shot and it ended it being more shots, we got a lot of joy out of that.”
On the win…
“It was big. It was one of those games where if you lose it then you’re starting to think back to it and not think about Connecticut coming in. To get the win, it puts you at a peace of mind. It was a deserving win, but it was a tricky win. UCA is a good team and they’ve had a lot of 1-0 games that they’ve lost. I don’t think their record is indicative of how good they are, but at the same time, I felt as though we went in and took care of business and now we’ll see how Connecticut does against Providence and then we have them on Saturday. That’s our focus now. Anytime you win, it gains confidence and anytime you lose, you sort of doubt yourself and thankfully we’re on the latter part of that. We gained some confidence from the game last night.
On getting votes…
“It’s always good to be recognized. I think at the end of the year, whether that means we’re in the top 25 or not, we want to be in the NCAA Tournament. If that helps us great; if not we’ll still take care of business. That’s the fun part of it and it just shows that the guys are getting it done on the field. It’s good to see the University of Memphis there and not some other school getting votes and we’re on the outside of it. It gives you a good little feeling but at the end of the day, it’s just a small little part of what we need to do.”
Team Stats
KHULFAN, Fakhry (3)
picked up off deflection put in bottom r
83:16
