(Photo by: Hazel Foubert/ WCSN)
TEMPE — In the final minutes of the Arizona State soccer (6-2-3, 1-2-1) Big 12 home opener against West Virginia (8-2-1, 4-0), head coach Graham Winkworth stormed off the pitch capping a frustrating game for the program. After a night that saw ASU have one shot during the final 66 minutes, Winkworth received a red card for leaving the technical area more than once.
“Apparently I left the technical area and then apparently I left it again,” Winkworth said. “If I did that certainly wasn’t on purpose the second time. I don’t believe I did but, [the referee] wasn’t going to have a conversation.”
Though there were some fireworks on the sideline, the first half of this contest showcased frequent action on the field in a game that ended in a 2-1 West Virginia win. The Mountaineers struck first in the twelfth minute when they took advantage of a corner kick. Senior defender Annika Leslie smacked a gorgeous ball onto the waiting foot of redshirt freshman defender Gianna Koss for the opening score.
However, the Sun Devils responded almost immediately. Just 26 seconds later, freshman forward Kierra Blundell notched her eighth goal of the year, assisted by junior midfielder Enasia Colon on a free kick.
The next twenty minutes consisted of numerous wonderful saves from ASU’s junior goalkeeper Pauline Nelles who was fantastic all night.
“[Nelles] is a great shot-stopper, great on her feet in the back, we know we can trust her,” junior defender Grace Gillard said. “Ultimately we need to be better in front of her to make sure she doesn’t have to make those saves.”
Not only did the ASU defense falter in the first half, but the team had a hard time taking advantage of opportunities on the offensive side of the ball. The most notable scoring chance the Sun Devils missed out on was a powerful shot by junior forward Cameron Valladeras in the sixteenth minute. West Virginia keeper Mackenzie Smith leaped to her left and got just enough of the ball with her right hand to knock it off its path, hit the crossbar, and keep the game knotted at one apiece.
After ASU was unable to score in the sixteenth, West Virginia answered in the thirty-fourth minute on yet another assist by Annika Leslie. However, this time the benefactor of Leslie’s great pass was junior forward Ajanae Respass who also snuck a goal past Nelles.
“There’s a weakness from us from a set piece standpoint,” Winkworth said. “Unfortunately they scored two set pieces and we scored one.”
Not only was Winkworth frustrated with the set pieces, but the lack of shots from his team was also a cause for concern for the ASU Head Coach.
“[West Virginia] press was extremely well organized, but we just didn’t show enough quality in possession of the ball,” Winkworth said. “We just weren’t technically good enough in possession of the ball today.”
Perhaps the Sun Devils’ best opportunity in the second half came from another set piece from senior forward Keri Matthews into Blundell who missed the header. The immediate reaction from Blundell seemed to be a microcosm of this entire matchup for the Sun Devils: missed opportunities and frustration on the offensive side of the ball.
After that missed chance, the wind seemed to be sucked out of the Sun Devil’s sails, and a couple of feeble attempts of pushing down the field in the final minutes fell short before the final whistle blew concluding ASU’s Big 12 home opener.
The Sun Devils struggled to get any resemblance of offensive production. However, there is hope amongst the ASU squad regarding offensive improvements in their next matchups.
“Just seeing what wasn’t working, what we can do better, and then hopefully we can sort it out and make more chances again,” Gillard said.
After this tussle, ASU falls to 11th in the conference while WVU improves to first. Though the Sun Devils struggled against the Mountaineers, they will have a chance to redeem themselves in front of the Sun Devil faithful on Sunday when they take on the Cincinnati Bearcats at 7:00 PM Mountain Time.
