Duval County produced a beautiful night for soccer, but not for winning; as the Dolphins and Owls tied 0-0 before a Florida Atlantic three-match conference swing. FAU owned the possession in the first half, but could not find the back of the net. As the match went into halftime it was 0-0. The first half of play saw a dominant offensive attack by Florida Atlantic with the Owls producing six shots. No shot found the net for the Owls as they produced only one shot on goal. Defensively for FAU, the Owls only allowed one shot attempt for the Dolphins. Continuing into the second half it was a yellow card festival as six yellow cards were shared between both teams. Nacho Alfaro’s night was not easy anymore as in the 77th minute, Jacksonville had two shots on goal with Alfaro saving both shots. The Owls attack picked up as well with a Mamadou Diarra strike being saved in the 80th minute. In the 86th minute, the Dolphins had a free kick opportunity to gain the lead but the FAU wall stopped the opportunity. FAU’s counter attack led to opportunities including an 89th minute corner attempt that was saved by Jacksonville as Florida Atlantic did not find the equalizer. FAU had 12 shots with three on goal while the Dolphins had seven shots, but tied the Owls in three shots on goal. For corners, the Owls had eight attempts. Alfaro (GK) had three saves while the Dolphins hit that same mark at three as well. The matches number one statistic: fouls(!) The Owls committed a season high 16 fouls with five turning into yellow cards. For the Dolphins their fouls total was 13 also tying FAU with five yellow cards. Florida Atlantic (2-3-2) (0-1-0) returns back to paradise for a showdown of the Owls as they take on Temple (2-5-2) (0-1-0). Temple was predicted to finish seventh while FAU was predicted to finish fifth in the AAC. Temple’s first conference match was against conference championship favorite #19 Charlotte. Temple only had two shots taken with one on goal during that first match against the 49ers. For FAU the game is a great bounce back opportunity before two more AAC matches.
