Photo: Maddie Connellan/WCSN
TEMPE – In the 1994 cinema classic starring Tom Hanks, “Forrest Gump”, the main character, whose name the movie is named after, coined an iconic statement describing the many ups and downs of life: “My mom always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.’”
While this phrase can be attributed to the movie, the sentiment of dealing with the positives and negatives of life is something everyone has felt before and can be applied to many different mediums.
This phrase can easily be seen in the ups and downs of sports, which are as common as an official calling a foul.
Going into Sunday morning’s outing against No. 9 North Carolina, Arizona State soccer was all the way up, boasting an unblemished record of 4-0-2 going into the affair.
However, the Sun Devils were greeted with a bitter penalty in the 34th minute, followed by a barrage of shots from the Tar Heels as the intensity picked up heading into halftime.
For most teams, a goal scored from the spot right before halftime is rather demoralizing, especially when combined with the hot conditions at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
Despite this, head coach Graham Winkworth rallied the troops into a better second-half performance where ASU created real chances in the box.
“This team has a lot of character,” Winkworth said. “I told them at halftime, ‘Who scored first for New Mexico State against us, who scored first for Texas against us, who scored first for Dartmouth against us? Did we lose any of the games? We were behind in all of those matches, and we came back and picked up either a win or a tie.’”
Ultimately, ASU (4-1-2) succumbed to the deficit, dropping its first match all season, 1-0 to No. 9 UNC (5-1-0) in a slow-moving Sunday morning outing inside the Sun Devil Soccer Stadium. While the end product never showed in the scoreline, the Sun Devils fought hard in the second half as the game opened up going forward.
“I felt like going into the second half, that was potentially going to be the opportunity for us,” Winkworth said, “and we were close, but we were just a little short.”
Winkworth and company tried a different approach than usual Sunday, opting to go forward primarily on counterattacks.
“Today was different because we had very limited width,” Winkworth said. “Normally we would have either wing backs or wingers providing crosses. There weren’t really many chances for us because we weren’t putting them in.”
This approach changed in the second half when the game began to open up, allowing for more crosses into the box from outside players.
“I actually told them the last 20 minutes to start putting crosses in from deeper because we’re bigger than them,” Winkworth said. “Create chaos.”
The opportunities from outside came and went as ASU tallied three shots total on the day, only one of which was on target, a figure that Winkworth can’t live with.
“We’ve got to hit the target more with our shots. I don’t know what it was today,” Winkworth said. “If we’re going to have three shots against North Carolina, then we’ve got to hit the target three times because that’s going to give us a chance of winning.”
Regardless of the showing offensively, the Sun Devils’ backline kept the game in hand, limiting UNC to four shots, two of them being on target, including graduate midfielder Summer Denigan’s 34th-minute penalty.
This figure earned praise from Winkworth, who noted the team’s exemplary effort.
“The girls ran their socks off. They were extremely organized defensively, Winkworth said. “Really proud of the efforts defensively. I wanted to be in the game going into the last part, and we were.”
Standout freshman defender Mya Angus especially stood out today, playing a variety of deep crosses into the box throughout the second half while holding her own defensively, which garnered Winkworth’s gratitude.
“She had to be our width today because we played such a narrow formation. So we needed her in the first half,” Winkworth said. “We didn’t really hold onto the ball long enough to get her and Amy (Medley) forward, but in the second half we had more opportunities in the final third because we were braver in possession and we managed to get our fullbacks higher.
“She’s a wonderful talent, and you know we’re looking forward to having her for the next five years.”
Winkworth put it bluntly when talking about how his backline responded to adversity Sunday morning.
“I will be surprised if too if there’s many teams that limit North Carolina’s chances as well as we did today,” Winkworth said.
ASU’s backline played a physical brand of soccer to stifle UNC’s attack after the penalty, a strategy that Winkworth implores to see more of.
“We don’t want to we don’t want to be a soft team,” Winkworth said. “We’re not trying to be dirty. We’re not trying to foul anybody, but we want to be physical. We want to match the physicality.”
Despite the unfavorable result, Winkworth sees several things for the Sun Devils to hang their hats on going forward as they prep for Big 12 play.
“Like I said to the girls, ‘If you played like this with this sort of level of intensity, heart, passion, quality defensively and add a bit of quality offensively, then we can achieve our goals this season,’” Winkworth said. “I look forward to some really intense Big 12 games.”
ASU looks to go through one final non-conference rehearsal in Tempe on Friday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m. MST against Grambling State before Big 12 play begins in the following week.
In an oddity, Winkworth finds himself looking at Sunday’s match against UNC rather fondly despite the Sun Devils suffering their first loss in the young campaign.
“It’s a strange feeling because we’ve lost the first game of the season. But I’m probably the most proud I’ve been of the team all season, so it’s a weird one, really,” Winkworth said.
