SAINT PETER, Minn. - No. 3 Gustavus men's soccer couldn't find the back of the net Saturday, but held Augsburg scoreless as well in a 0-0 tie at the Gustie Soccer Field. The Gusties snap their eight-game winning streak, but remain unbeaten at 9-0-2 overall and 4-0-1 in the MIAC.
The Gusties applied most of the pressure in the first half, out-shooting the Auggies 7-3 overall, but just 1-0 on goal.
Joe Flory had the lone shot on goal for either team the entire game, which happened in the 25th minute. Shots were even 5-5 in the second half, but nothing got through to the keepers.
Gustavus out-shot the Auggies 12-8 and had six corners compared to one by the visitors.
The Gusties earned their seventh shutout of the season and lowered their team goals against average to 0.45.
"Augsburg is one of the best teams in the country right now," said Head Coach
Tudor Flintham. "People who have watched them play know they are one of the best teams with the ball and they are really well balanced. They pull you in a lot of directions and cause a lot of problems, which makes us do some things we wouldn't necessarily do in every other game, but simultaneously our strengths kind of counter balanced that, so it was an interested match up of ying and yang in some ways. When we leaned into our strengths it looked like we could maybe get a result there. We looked dangerous when we went around edges and forced cross finish play or won a corner or free kick, but the reality is I don't think we executed our game plan as well as we possibly could have done. We'll take the point. We don't love the performance but it's ok."
Gustavus travels to Saint John's next Friday for a 4 p.m. MIAC matchup in Collegeville.
"We'll take a few days to take stock, regroup, and heal up a little bit," Flintham added. "We need a much better performance in the next game and that starts with us having an attention to detail and leaning into what our strengths are as a team."
