STARKVILLE — Aaron Gordon believes in his players.
A four-goal performance against Nicholls State last week and an effort Monday that generated a lot of scoring chances but resulted in a scoreless tie against Southern Mississippi left the Mississippi State women’s soccer coach feeling good about where his team is as it enters its Southeastern Conference opener against Vanderbilt (3-3) at 7 tonight in Nashville, Tennessee. The match will be available online via SEC Network + and for those with WatchESPN access.
While Gordon would have loved for the Bulldogs to have converted any of their chances or half-chances against the Golden Eagles, he felt his team controlled the match and now has to hone its ability to finish off an opponent. He hopes the Bulldogs will get an opportunity to put that skill to the test this weekend.
“I think our team takes away a lot of positives from the fact we are creating more chances than we ever have,” Gordon said. “Our positive-negative ratio for our corner kicks is like a +22, which it never has been, and we are coming off two performances where we basically gave up one shot on goal in two games in a weekend. I think that is a real positive statement of a team that has played more together, jelled more together, and has chemistry.”
MSU defeated Nicholls State 4-0 Friday thanks in part to the first career goals by Red Bruffett and Payton Gruenewald. Carly English also earned her first career assist.
For the season, freshman forward Kiley Martens leads the team with two goals. Sophomore forward Mallory Eubanks also has scored a goal.
Against Southern Miss, MSU had a 10-2 edge in shots and an 8-1 advantage in corner kicks. Unfortunately, Eubanks hit the crossbar and the Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize on a handful of other scoring chances to complete a weekend sweep.
But Gordon feels the Bulldogs are making progress and learning how to be more aggressive on offense, especially when it comes to taking more shots, or half-chances as he calls them. Gordon feels the two performances can give his players confidence and provide motivation to know that they are close to making a breakthrough.
“I think in the final third of the field against Southern Miss we didn’t have kind of the ruthless, cutthroat mentality when the other teams keeps four at home and keeps a defensive midfielder at home the whole game and drops back two players,” Gordon said. “That is where taking on a player, being a player, having something special happen from assertive behavior will get you that easy chance you need. We just didn’t have that.
“We needed that bit of quality, whether it be a cross, a one-vs.-one, a final pass that would get us that easy chance. We had three or four good looks in front of the goal, but we just didn’t hit the target again. We are trying to correct it the best we can.”
MSU (1-4-1) will wrap up the weekend with a match against Lipscomb (4-1-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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