TEMPE, Ariz. – One of the characteristics that distinguishes soccer from other team sports is that one team’s domination in important statistical categories does not necessarily equate to victory.
Such was the case in the Sun Devil soccer team’s 1-0 loss to Cal on Friday night as the Sun Devils fell despite big advantages in shots (12-5) and corner kicks (6-0).
For the Sun Devils (9-3-4, 2-2-3 Pac-12), Friday’s game represented only the second time this season that they failed to find the back of the net as they also did not score in a 0-0 tie at Washington State earlier this month.
“Throughout the whole game, I thought we played well,” said Sun Devil head coach Kevin Boyd. “Our second half was not as good as our first half, which is not us. I still thought we had the better chances in the second half. The whole game I thought we were the better team in terms of more attacking and being more dangerous.”
The Sun Devils seemed to have more energy right from the start as they were plus-five in both shots (7-2) and corner kicks (5-0) in the first half. That was the good news. The bad news was for all the work it had done, ASU found itself going into the half facing a 1-0 deficit.
Despite having to fight off ASU’s attack for most of the first 45 minutes, the Bears (11-4-1, 3-3-1) made the most of the chance they did have, scoring a goal in the 13th minute to go up 1-0. Thel Einarsdottir took a cross from Arielle Ship and put her shot into the far right post for the goal. The goal came on the first of Cal’s two shots in the first half – the second shot coming in the final seconds of the half.
Cali Farquharson and Aly Moon had three shots each to lead the Sun Devils, who were disappointed their hard work did not result in any tangible offense on the night.
“I felt that we did a great job. We did all that we could do but it was just one of those games we could not find the net,” said Lucy Lara. “Congrats to Cal for getting the goal, but we just had so many chances.”
In addition to the scoring chances it created in the run of play, ASU’s attack also created six other potential scoring opportunities on corner kicks.
“A couple of our corners were not in the right spot,” said Boyd. “Our delivery of the ball needs to be a little better. We need to get our head on the ball. We had a couple good chances but unfortunately the ball did not find the back of the net.”
The Sun Devils return to action on Sunday when they host No. 4 Stanford at 1 p.m. The team will be honoring its senior class – Jessica Domenichelli, Brianna Gonzalez, Chandler Morris and Courtney Watson – in a ceremony prior to the game.