ORLANDO – The UCF men's soccer team returns to the pitch for a Wednesday matinee against conference rival No. 23 SMU at 3 p.m. The match will take place prior to the UCF football team hosting SMU at 7 p.m. Admission to the men's soccer match will be free for all who attend.
The Knights are looking to snap their recent losing skid, dropping a pair of conference matches to Memphis and FAU. UCF got out to its best start to a season since 2011, winning four of its first five matches with the lone loss coming to now No. 4 Wake Forest.
Lucca Dourado has been a goal scoring machine for the Knights, scoring in five straight matches and tallying seven total goals over that span. The streak is an impressive one but does not stand alone on the national stage. LIU's Emil Jaaskelainen has scored in seven consecutive matches and has a total of 10 goals this season through nine contests, good enough for the national lead. With UCF's lone goal against FAU, Dourado tied Navy's David Jackson who also had a stretch of five straight matches with a goal, but saw the streak snapped on Saturday. Dourado is ranked second in the country in goals per game and fourth in points per game and shots per game.
Despite the two consecutive losses, the Knights are still posting impressive offensive numbers, collecting 2.14 goals per game, placing them 33rd in the country. The Knights are third in the country in corner kicks per match, averaging 8.29. They are the team that fouls the least in the nation, committing just 7.29 fouls per game.
UCF and SMU will collide for the 26th time in a series that has been back-and-forth but close throughout, with the Mustangs holding a 10-8-7 advantage. The Knights faced the Mustangs five times in the calendar year of 2021 and came out on top four of the five times, including a victory in penalty kicks to send the Black and Gold to the American Athletic Conference title match during the 2020-21 season. All told, there have been 18 matches decided by a goal or less in the series with only two matches decided by three goals or more. One of those lopsided results was the previous meeting between the two teams, with SMU taking a 5-0 victory on Oct. 31 of last season.
The Knights and Mustangs have only ever played against one another while being members of the same conference. Both schools joined Conference-USA together in 2005 as well as The American in 2013. The two have played in three conference title matches over the last five seasons and have faced each other six of nine times in the league's postseason tournament since joining. The two matched up in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2019, with the contest decided by a score of 2-1 in overtime. UCF's time as a conference opponent with SMU will reach its conclusion at year's end with the program set to move to the Sun Belt in 2023.
The Mustangs enter the match with a record of 6-2-1 and a conference mark of 2-1. SMU started its American play with a 1-0 loss to Memphis, followed by a pair of wins over FIU and Temple. They've tallied some large victories over non-conference opponents, including a 4-0 win over Oral Roberts and a 7-2 decision over UTRGV. SMU averages exactly three goals a match, placing them fourth in the country. Knut Ahlander leads the Mustangs in scoring, netting nine goals and tallying two assists for 20 points.
SMU is ranked 23rd in TopDrawer Soccer's poll and is receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, the only poll recognized by the NCAA.
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