It is time to stop making excuses for Cougar Soccer. After the loss to Texas State, Coach Citowicki is talking about what comes next, and we need to hear it as a warning, not a pep talk. This is the moment where the season either finds its footing or slips into a long fall, and the coach's post-game comments tell us he knows the margin for error is gone. For comparison, look at how the football team answered Boise State's punch last week in Cougs answer Boise State's punch with a Vorhees touchdown, 7-7 at the half. They traded blows and kept it close. Soccer did not do that against Texas State, and the difference matters.
The Boise State game was a brawl where both sides landed shots. Soccer's loss to Texas State was not a brawl. It was a stumble. Citowicki is not hiding from that. He is talking about fundamentals and adjustments, which is the right move for a coach who just got out-schemed. But here is the problem: we have seen this script before. The team had a clean win over SDSU, documented in Coug Soccer Coach Citowicki Breaks Down the Win Over SDSU and Cougar Soccer gets the job done in San Diego, win highlights inside, and that win showed what this team can do when the plan holds. The Texas State loss showed what happens when the plan breaks.
The takeaway is blunt: this team cannot afford two bad games in a row. The conference schedule does not forgive a team that takes a step back after a good win. Citowicki needs to prove that the SDSU win was the real Cougar Soccer and that the Texas State loss was the outlier, not the other way around. That is the open question he leaves us with after his comments. The next game will tell us if the adjustments he mentioned are real or just coach-speak. Watch the set pieces and the defensive shape. If those look fixed, the season is alive. If they look the same, we are in for a long October. Go Cougs.