(Photo: Rebecca Striffler/WCSN)
On Sunday evening, the Arizona State Sun Devils matched up against the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions for what may very well be the most unexpected last-minute thriller in the young soccer season of 2021. In a tightly contested 90 minutes, the Sun Devils would grapple their way to a 2-1 victory.
Coming into the match, the Lady Lions were the easy underdogs. Following a spring campaign that brought them championship spoils in the Southland Tournament, head coach Christopher McBride’s squad saw two early defeats, one being an exhibition against the LSU Lady Tigers and the other to the Grand Canyon Antelopes. Shutout in both games, coach McBride’s Lady Lions would be looking to correct their offensive struggles against head coach Graham Winkworth’s seasoned Sun Devil squad.
With most of the program’s players coming back from an NCAA tournament appearance earlier this spring, Winkworth’s ensemble of veteran forwards and midfielders poured it on in an opening season victory against the Central Arkansas Bears, 6-1. It might seem such offensive aggression witnessed in the Sun Devils’ romp of the Bears on opening night would carry over to last night’s game against the Lady Lions. Unfortunately, such efforts would be left unrewarded for the majority of regulation.
Right out of the gate, the Sun Devils dominated possession and field position, constantly threatening the Lady Lions’ backline. Southeastern Louisiana refrained from challenging ASU’s freshman goalkeeper Birta Gudlaugs until around the 8-minute mark, with junior midfielder Mya Guillory shooting one straight down Broadway into the sure hands of Gudlaugs. Guillory’s take at goal would be the Southeastern Louisiana only attempt for the entire first period of play.
To contrast, the Sun Devils’ unrelenting offensive pressure would result in a barrage of different scoring opportunities for different players. An early foul drawn by standout senior forward Nicole Douglas, would set up fellow senior midfielder Alexia Delgado for a free kick just off-center at the nose of the penalty box. With just 51 seconds off the ticker, Delgado would sail it over the crossbar. Such an instance would characterize the nature of the Sun Devils’ fortune offensively: plenty of looks, but with no goals to show for it.
Needless to say, the Sun Devil offense kept senior goalkeeper Nadine Maher busy for the first 45 minutes. Whether it was buffering a corner kick that curved in, intercepting an overshot lead pass around the penalty box, or just a traditional diving save, Maher was phenomenal for her team in the opening period. And evidently, she provided the model of defensive excellence by which her team would follow, executing a smothering brand of what was essentially goal-line defense. The Sun Devils’ star-studded frontline in senior forward Olivia Nguyen, midfielder Eva van Deursen, Douglas, and Delgado would collaborate to get close, only to be thwarted by the Lady Lions’ compact backline.
“Their defense was really good, big credit to them. They kept the midfield really tight, so we couldn’t find feet,” Nguyen said. Winkworth further confirmed Nguyen’s account of the Lady Lions’ defensive success early on. “
All credit to coach McBride and Southeastern Louisiana. They’re an NCAA team for a reason. They took Rutgers 87 minutes to score against them in that NCAA tournament.”
Coach McBride’s backline in tandem with Maher would hold the Sun Devils’ robust and aggressive offensive attack for 78 minutes in this one. After the contest’s first 45 minutes, the two squads were at a 0-0 stalemate with the Sun Devils boasting an advantage of seven in shot attempts. Despite this lobsided tally through the first period, the Lady Lions worked to diminish its relevance, coming out and putting one up on the board less than two minutes into the second session.
Somehow, with very little numbers on the Lady Lions’ offensive side of the field, the ball found the foot of a striding junior forward Ellie Williams on the right side of the penalty box. Rare as it was, Williams made good on the opportunity, lifting the Lady Lions to a 1-0 lead.
Now with the lead, the Lady Lions’ backline packed it in even more than before, leaving little to no room for the Sun Devils to attack up the middle. “I think they probably sat back a little bit even more when they were winning one-nil because they wanted to protect that lead,” Winkworth said.
This more conservative strategy, emphasizing defensive positioning over offensive assertiveness, worked giving the Lady Lions the greatest sense of formidability even without accounting for the huge blow that a sudden injury to Delgado brought to the rest of her Sun Devil teammates.
“She goes to see the doctor tomorrow, so it doesn’t look like it will be a short one. We’ll have to keep our fingers crossed, pray a little bit, but she’s going to be out for a little while, I think,” Winkworth said of his senior midfielder.
With all the aforementioned factors playing into the Lady Lions’ favor, the equalizer would eventually come after Williams’ goal thirty minutes earlier. As hope ducked away with just 12 minutes of play left to go, senior forward Corey Sullivan and Nguyen for the Sun Devils connected and executed on a cross to nod the score back up at one apiece. When asked about the play, Nguyen went on with the following statement: “That was something that Corey and I had stayed after practice and practiced several times, so it was really cool to see that come to fruition in a game, and especially in a situation like that to tie it.”
With the momentum of the match now neutralized, it was anybody’s game. As the Sun Devils continued to hog the ball and maintain advantageous field position, it was only a matter of time before someone caught an opening. That someone was Nguyen once again, who delivered for the Sun Devils in the most epic of moments, leaving a miniscule 46 seconds on the clock for the Lady Lions to answer.
“I thought Liv was excellent tonight. I thought she was probably the player of the game, not just because she scored two goals, but she was lively,” Winkworth explained. “She worked hard on defense. But also she was dribbling at people, which is something we want in the final third. I think we need to be more disciplined in being brave to attack like that and that’s something that a few of the others will work hard on this week.”
Arizona State, now at a record of 2-0 to start its fall 2021 campaign, will head on their first road trip to take on the Bulldogs of Mississippi State (1-1) on August 26 at 5:00 p.m. MST.
