The UA soccer team (1-15-2, 1-9-1 Pac-12) enters the last day of the season sporting one of the worst records in the country.
Just don’t tell that to ASU (7-11, 3-7). The Sun Devils fully expect their rival to play their best game of the season Friday in Tucson.
“They’ll play their best soccer yet,” coach Kevin Boyd said. “I think they’ll be dangerous in their chances if we give them any.
“That last game, rivalry game, Territorial Cup point, at their place, I mean that’s why I think they’ll play their best game yet.”
In a rivalry game, team records are tossed out the door. Heavy underdogs have more than a fighting chance at pulling an upset.
“We’re not going to take anything for granted,” Boyd said. “When it comes to a rivalry, you can throw all of it out. It doesn’t matter.”
There is also state pride on the line, and no one involved in the game will settle for anything other than a win.
Years ago, junior midfielder Taylor McCarter, a Tucson native, wanted to play for Arizona. But she changed her mind, now playing for ASU.
“I definitely do not want to lose to them, not at all, McCarter said. “We’re going to come out with a lot of fire, but they will too.”
Senior midfielder Nicole Acosta doesn’t doubt the Wildcats are fired up heading into the game.
“(The rivalry) is always big no matter what,” Acosta said. No matter the record or the season, both teams always show up.”
Last weekend, ASU probably had their best week of the season on the field and look to carry that momentum into their final game, and then the offseason.
With just one win on the season, the Wildcats would like to forget about this year altogether. The most glaring statistic is they’ve scored just seven goals in 18 games, and no player has more than one goal. The other 11 teams in the conference have at least 18 goals at this point.
UA has lost six games this year by one goal and just 3.8 percent of their shots have found the net. The average in soccer is 10 percent of shots score.
Boyd feels UA is a better team than their record indicates.
“I would say they’re far better than their record shows,” Boyd said. “You’re not going to find a single team out there that’s played them that didn’t think it was a hard game.”
Notes
Prior to 2008, ASU had never lost to their rival in soccer. However, UA won the next two games in the series, before ASU responded with a hard-fought win in front of a sellout crowd in Tempe last year.
It’s still unknown whether senior defender Kari Shane will play in the final game of her career. Shane was described as “day-to-day” by her head coach earlier in the week.
In this year’s State Farm Territorial Cup Series, ASU trails UA 2-0 after both the men’s and women’s cross country teams finished behind the Wildcats at the Pac-12 championship meet.
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu
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