Memphis 901 soccer falls 1-0 at home
Memphis 901 FC'S three-game unbeaten streak was broken Saturday as the club fell 1-0 to North Carolina FC at home, a result coach Tim Mulqueen called disappointing.
“I'm not happy,” he said after the match. “With Charlotte and this game we let ourselves down. Those were points that we shouldn't have dropped. We dropped them.”
Memphis came into Saturday's match following two draws and the first win of the season last weekend. Mulqueen said his side created good scoring opportunities throughout the match — Memphis took 13 shots, five of them on target, compared to North Carolina's nine shots, two of which were on target — but simply didn't finish them.
North Carolina's Akeem Ward scored what would be the winning goal in the 38th minute after a long ball gave North Carolina possession at the edge of the 18-yard box. Memphis didn't close down the passing lanes at the edge of the box, letting Precka feed the ball to Ward, who one-touched the ball to the far upper corner of the net.
Memphis created two good scoring chances between Ward's goal and halftime, but didn't convert on either.
“We broke them down quite easily. We didn't finish our chances from some really good looks,” Mulqueen said. “Those have to be goals at this level.”
Forward Brandon Allen, 901 FC'S 2019 leading scorer and the leading scorer through the first five matches of 2020, had the most scoring opportunities Saturday but he wasn't able to convert on those shots, including two headers that went just wide.
Goalkeeper Jimmy Hague made a big save a few minutes into the second half -- aided by a well-timed tackle from man of the match Mark Segbers -- to keep Memphis in the game, but the inability to finish inside the box killed Memphis down the stretch.
“We know that we can score goals, I think there were goals to be had,” Segbers said. “I think we showed that we can break them down with our attacking movements and that we have a good attacking group.”
Segbers said Memphis tried to strike early and push the tempo in the first half, but that North Carolina made adjustments in the second half that slowed down the game and forced Memphis to play up the middle rather than up the wings. Wing play created many of 901 FC'S best opportunities of the match.
“I think we just have to take the positives and go on to the next. We have three road games coming up so there's no time to feel sorry for ourselves,” Segbers said.
In addition to creating more shots, Memphis had more possession throughout the match, strung together more passes and had a higher pass accuracy rate than North Carolina.
“I think what we need to do is really hold ourselves accountable,” Mulqueen said. “There's too many times we're expecting the next guy to do something we should be doing.”
Mulqueen said the three-game road stretch waiting for Memphis wasn't necessarily daunting — “this is not a situation where we're going to Anfield to play Liverpool” — but that coming off a tough loss, it would be a hard week ahead for the team.
“Our mindset going into next week, it's just a case of what we're willing to accept," he said.
"If we want to be a pretty good team, then that's what you'll get. If we want to be a team in the playoffs then we need to make all those critical plays that we left on the table today.”
Memphis heads to Charlotte next to take on the Independence on Saturday.
What did you think of Memphis 901 FC'S performance Saturday against North Carolina? You can reach me via email at Corinne.kennedy@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @Corinneskennedy