As senior midfielder Jorge Gomez Sanchez watched his shot go wide of the net, he stretched his shirt over his head in frustration.
The Owls (6-3-1, 0-1-1) failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities in their 0-0 tie after double overtime against Memphis on Saturday at the Temple Sports Complex. This was the first home game this season the Owls didn’t win.
Temple finished the night with 25 shots, seven of which were on target, but wasn’t able to turn any of its chances into a goal in its first conference home game of the season.
“We’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities that we had tonight,” coach David MacWilliams. “We’re not hitting the target, and that’s just composure in front of the goal.”
The lack of scoring for Temple not only led to 120 minutes of playing time that ended in a tie, but it also made the outcome disappointing for the team.
“It’s very frustrating, and it gets in your head at a certain point,” senior defender Stefan Mueller said. “I mean, the 26 chances weren’t all goal-scoring opportunities, but that was just how it was today. Some outside the box, not on frame, but we need to convert more chances, and that’s just what it came down to today.”
As the clock started for the first period of overtime play, the Owls wanted a goal, and they had a chance to make it happen when Memphis was called for a foul in the 100th minute and Temple took a free kick.
Instead of a goal, however, freshman midfielder Albert Moreno was issued a red card, the first for the Owls this season, which left Temple to compete with ten players for the second overtime.
“I’m really disappointed,” MacWilliams said. “We put ourselves in a tough situation, you know, to play with ten men in a conference game.”
The red card also means that Moreno will be suspended for the next game against Villanova on Oct. 4, so Temple will have one less regular starter in its line-up.
The tie makes Temple’s conference record 0-1-1. Last season when conference play rolled around, Temple struggled and went 2-6-0, something the team is still very aware of.
“I think we played well in both games and both games could’ve went either way,” MacWilliams said. “So yeah, I mean there definitely is a concern when you haven’t gotten a result, so we’ve just got to keep working.”
Temple has seven American Athletic Conference games during the season and five remain, only two of which will be home for the Owls.
“This was a big game for us today,” Mueller said. “But now we need to win the next game.”
The Owls will play Villanova at home on Oct. 4, which will be followed by their next conference away game against Southern Methodist on Oct. 8.
Maura Razanauskas can be reached at maura.razanauskas@temple.edu or on Twitter @CaptainAMAURAca.
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