Horned Frogs play a quality UAB squad at home, continuing quest for the postseason
With their chances to qualify for the conference tournament dwindling, the Frogs face Alabama-Birmingham in a critical home matchup.
By Danny Gillham
Sports Editor

For the men’s soccer team, time is not on its side.

The team has only six matches remaining in conference play, and sits in 10th place two spots away from the eighth and final seed in the Conference USA tournament.

“I think every game for us here on out is infinitely important,” associate head coach Blake Amos said. “It’s a fine line you walk. You have to be urgent because we have just a few games left, and can still get in the conference tournament.”

They begin that quest against sixth-place Alabama-Birmingham today at 3 p.m. at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium, and junior midfielder Andrew Porteous said everyone knows the importance of this game.

“I don’t know how much it would move us up in the standings,” Porteous said. “But I know that it’s very important, and we have to win as many games as we possibly can from here on out.”

Playing for a spot in these last six games will be a difficult task, and Amos said they will not put added pressure on themselves to accomplish getting into the tournament.

“If you put that weight on your shoulders of ‘you have to or it’s over,’ people usually crumble,” Amos said. “We’ve taking a different attitude, in that we know we can play well, we have played well, just turn it into results.”

The two teams don’t seem too far off from each other, when comparing their current conference records (TCU is 1-3, UAB is 1-1-2), but Amos warns that appearances can be deceiving.

“Stats don’t tell the true story, UAB’s a very good team,” Amos said. “I think that they haven’t played well, and I think we can take some points off of them.”

The team will also look to take advantage of the home contest, the first of three in a row.

“We have the advantage of being at home on our own field,” Amos said. “It’s very nice to have our futures in our own hands at our own field.”