Quick one while I sit at the airport:

Texas Aggie soccer continues conference play today at Auburn. Kickoff is set for 2PM and the game will stream on SEC+/

Auburn is another ranked team in A&M's parade of top 25 opponents. The Tigers come into this one with a #12 ranking, however their Thursday night loss to Tennessee should have them dropping in the polls.

Auburn is currently 7-2 on the season with notable wins over BYU (2-1) and Georgia (3-0). They registered losses against Florida State (1-2) and Tennessee (1-2 OT). Thier Florida State match was tighter than A&M's game with the Seminoles. Auburn was more narrowly outshot 13-8 and FSU managed just 1 more shot on goal (4-3).

In total, Auburn has outscored opponents 23-8 and outshot them 167-89. Sophomore Anna Haddock has the bulk of their goals with 7 as well as 3 assists. Haddock also has a bevy of shots with 34 including 17 shots on goal. Haddock was named to the preseason all-SEC team this season after receiving All-Freshman honors last year.

Another 2020 SEC All-Freshman is Maddie Prohaska, who serves as goalkeeper for Auburn. Prohaska has allowed 8 goals this season while making 24 saves. Auburn only has 3 shutouts on the year so far.

Auburn is performing surprisingly well after being chosen as #7 in conference in the preseason SEC poll. Their 2020 results weren't bad, but they failed to advance to the NCAA Tournament after going .500 in conference play. A&M should have better luck against the Auburn defense than they did at cracking Arkansas' backline.

Needless to say, this is a must win for A&M. They're all going to be must wins and since it's needless to say at this point, I won't be saying it anymore. This is a winnable game, even for a depleted A&M side. Hopefully we get some players back healthy and walk off with a shutout win.

Got our confetti ready.

Some poor passing and way too much timid passive play. Someone step up and be the aggressor. Ball control and possession time is great when you have a lead but not so much when you are down 2 goals. A loss by 2 goals or 22 goals is still a loss. Give McDonald a chance to run on a ball without allowing the defense to get set. It's a frustrating game and season so far to watch.

3-0 now after another penalty kick goal.

0 shots on goal after 77 minutes.

I don't think McDonald is an answer this year at forward after seeing her play a lot. No reason she won't improve and be a key contributor in the years to come as she improves.

If this is our available roster, I would like to see someone like Geczik at forward to see if she could create more than those there now.

Ref doesn't award pk when Russel is taken down in box a few minutes later gives one to Auburn. Even the first pk awarded was weak.

We set the school record with 0 shots on goal for the game.

I don't think anyone is really surprised we dropped this game to a good Auburn team on the road. However, the way we gave up the 3 goals today was frustrating. The first goal was just unacceptable on a long free kick that bounced in front of Caldwell and then over her head into the goal. The second on a PK after Katie Smith kicked the back of a player's feet, and the third on another PK on a pretty weak call by the referee, especially considering Ali Russell was ridden to the ground in the box on the other end just minutes earlier. The team fought and had effort so it's hard to be upset with what we have to work with right now with five starters out of the lineup and a few others playing through injury. This has just been a very unlucky season for A&M so far combined with a brutal schedule.

But despite our limitations, we have to be better offensively. A&M hasn't scored in 326 minutes (7 consecutive halves and a short OT period), which is probably nearing a school record. We didn't have a shot on goal today against the Tigers. That is just miserable any way you slice it. We've tried different lineups and combinations up top and nothing has worked. Abel played only 24 minutes and left the game for good and was ineffective. McDonald is struggling to keep the ball and beat any defender 1v1. Jai Smith is not playing at the level we saw back in the Spring. Ali Russell gave us a spark and earned a PK that wasn't called. And that was it. No real help from the midfield in Colvin, Boeckmann, Bates and Pounds, who all struggled to keep the ball without turning it over through an errant pass. With Lauren Geczik being the only true weapon we have on the field, maybe it's time to move her forward as someone else suggested in another post. It can't be any worse and she can shoot the ball with accuracy.
Sample had an excellent game outside of one mistake, while Katie Smith had a day to forget, including aggravating her hand injury.

Right now we need to be realistic about what we have to work with on the field. Our chances of keeping the NCAA tourney streak alive is on life support and we really need a win over Tennessee to give us any chance outside of winning the SEC tournament. If we lose on Friday, I don't see a path unfortunately as even a 10-7-1 record might be out of reach with some players returning from injury. It's been a tough season and it could get much worse.

Well she missed a clear PK on Auburn and handed them 1 on a clear dive

She has no place at a mens game based on what I saw

Abut a minute before the second goal one of our players was dragged down by the arm. No foul was called.
Ali Russell got bumped a lot harder in the box by each of the 2 Auburn players than the Auburn player got bumped on the 2nd PK. With 25:50 to play I thought that Auburn played a ball back to the keeper and she picked it up. I heard some noise, probably our fans, after no call was made.
I thought for sure Katie Smith re-injured her hand. When she came back in she seemed to be playing forward.
Back in 2012 we had a stretch where we scored only 1 goal in regulation over a 5 game stretch but won 3 of those games, and that team had Groom, Monogue, Brinson, Bailey and Kunz on it. Saying we are missing 5 starters is a little misleading because all 5 would not be starting at the same time, but we are certainly missing 3 starters these last 2 games.