The San Diego State men’s soccer team (8-4-2, 5-0 WAC) defeated San Jose State (3-6-6, 2-2-2 WAC) 1-0 on Sunday, Oct. 20 at the SDSU Sports Deck.
Both teams were playing aggressively to start the match. The Aztecs attempted five shots, and the Spartans only attempted one by the first half.
In the first half of the game, referees gave a yellow card to Spartans graduate student defender Jarette Barajas.
Head coach Ryan Hopkins spoke to his team during halftime after being scoreless in the first half.
“I literally wrote nothing on the board,” Hopkins said. “I literally just said, ‘Guys, let’s just pretend this is the start of the game and you have 45 minutes to win the game.’ We literally just went back through the scouting report and literally what I wrote before the game and just did those things a little better.”
At the 59-minute mark, senior goalkeeper Djibril Doumbia had a remarkable save. Doumbia was outside of the penalty area, kicking the ball away, which reached Spartans junior midfielder Angel Iniguez. Iniguez was able to kick the ball from near the center circle aiming towards the goal area. Doumbia sprinted backwards and was able to block the ball from going into the net.
Doumbia mentioned what was going through his mind at that moment.
“I know the biggest thing Ryan Hopps hates is when goalkeepers get chipped,” Doumbia said. “So in that moment I had a little flash in my head of Hopps face and what would be the consequences. So I had to go and had to take a little double look at it loose up in the air and just had to push it wide and it went out.”
Hopkins talked about Doumbia’s save and his performance throughout the season.
“He creates his own problems,” Hopkins said. “I think he’s getting bored back there and he wants to create some fun for himself and some heartache for me. He’s been awesome. Had some struggles, we removed him from the lineup and to show that character, to take that (and) come back strong after an injury and he’s performed really well in the league and I think he’s a big part of our success.”
The Aztecs scored the only goal of the match at the 74-minute mark, when junior forward Austin Brummett took a corner kick. The corner kick went towards senior forward Robbie Matie in which he made a header that hit the top bar.
By the end of the match, the Aztecs had 15 shots, outnumbering the Spartans who had seven. Dumbia and Spartans junior goalkeeper Ronin Axelson each had a total of four saves.
The Aztecs had a total of 18 fouls while the Spartans had 16. A total of 11 yellow cards were given throughout the game. The Aztecs who received the yellow cards were junior midfielder Beto Apolinar, senior forward Terence Okoeguale, defender freshman Cianole Nguepissi and Matei.
Spartans sophomore midfielder Gilberto Rivera earned two of those yellow cards with the second one given to him at the 75-minute mark. With the second yellow card, Rivera was taken out out of the game, leaving the Spartans down one player.
Doumbia talked about the team’s performance against the Spartans.
“We had a lot of unity today in the first half,” Doumbia said. “It wasn’t our greatest half but we talked about it (and) figured out little knots and kinks and we came back out in the second half. We had a lot more unity and just togetherness. I think we definitely struggled in the first 10 to 15 minutes to really find the speed of the game. It’s a little bit slow but after a little while we got back into it and got the win.”
The Aztecs will head to Edinsburg, Texas as they face the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Thursday, Oct.24 at 4:30 p.m.
“Continue to bring our work rate, our mentality and our positioning,” Hopkins said. “We know those three things are the keys to all of our success. I think it was great what we did earlier on the road. I think that gives us a lot of confidence going into these games. Looking forward to watching the guys compete and hopefully we can stay on top.”
