STARKVILLE — Mississippi State soccer will look to continue its historic 2024 season this weekend as Starkville hosts an NCAA Tournament regional for the second and third rounds.
The Bulldogs (18-2) will square off against Washington (10-6-4) at home on Friday at 6 p.m. following the conclusion of Kentucky and Notre Dame’s matchup. They’ll hope to battle either the Wildcats or Irish on Sunday for a trip to the Elite Eight, but first, they’ll have to overcome the resilient Huskies team.
Making do in midfield
The Bulldogs suffered a big blow in their last regular season home fixture against Kentucky, losing Colombian midfielder Ilana Izquierdo for the season with an injury just before halftime. Izquierdo was the metronome in midfield for MSU, pulling the strings as a passer and forming a strong partnership with Macey Hodge to police the center of the pitch.
There was no time to grieve, however, and Armstrong had to find the next player up immediately. A combination of freshman Ines Simas and senior Hannah Johnson has been the remedy so far, offering similar attacking qualities as the Bulldogs try to replace Izquierdo’s production in the aggregate.
“When Ilana went down Ines answered the call and has done an unbelievable job,” Armstrong said after the win over Southern. “Today we looked at doing something a little bit different. Hannah Johnson has played nearly every position in midfield, even some up front. She’s so versatile, she gives us that energy in midfield to drive out and create. Her and Ally Perry do such a good job of interchanging with each other so we’re confident and comfortable with either of those two in midfield.”
While the midfield hasn’t quite been the same, it has been enough to give the Bulldogs a semblance of the midfield control that helped catapult them to an SEC championship and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re always going to miss Ilana,” Armstrong said. “She’s such an incredible person, incredible player, but it’s next person up and the girls have done an incredible job doing that and that’s going to continue as our focus going into Washington next Friday.”
Goals galore
MSU isn’t just a shutdown defensive team, it’s a group that has been able to score frequently from multiple sources.
The Bulldogs featured seven different goalscorers in the 7-0 win over Southern last week. Fourteen players have at least one goal this season and three players have at least five goals, with Ally Perry leading the way on 10 goals. The Bulldogs have also shut out every opponent in Starkville while scoring 31 times in 11 home games.
Goalscoring is never a given though, even for the strongest teams.
In a difficult end to the SEC Tournament, a 3-1 loss to South Carolina, there was a lack of chance creation as well as execution. The Gamecocks were able to overwhelm MSU in the second half, perhaps capitalizing on the team’s fatigue, but that worry faded quickly after a week of rest and preparation before the big dance began.
Armstrong did note there was a bit of restlessness in the team leading up to Southern with how much time they had to prepare, but that the energy was at a level they hadn’t seen in a while. The result was goals.
“We needed to regroup, we needed to recover and get some rest, but also we needed to teach,” he said. “A lot of times as the games come so thick and fast it’s about being sharp and not not overloading them with new information in such a short time frame. To get back to teaching was really important.”
Scoring against Washington won’t come easy, but the Bulldogs have shown this season that they are more than up to the task of breaking down opponents. The team will look to do it again with a week of planning and a home crowd behind them.
Scouting Washington
MSU’s next opponent hasn’t scored a goal yet this postseason, yet they’ve only lost one of those three matches.
The Huskies demonstrated their resiliency and defensive prowess in 0-0 draws against No. 17 Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament and No. 25 Utah State in the NCAA Tournament, advancing past both opponents via spot kicks. The Huskies failed to register a single shot on target last Friday in Logan, Utah, and yet they booked their ticket to the Round of 32 anyway.
“We watched them yesterday as a staff,” Armstrong said Saturday. The Bulldogs played a day after the Huskies but took the time to watch the matchup against Utah State.
“Obviously they did a really good job of neutralizing one of the most potent offenses in the country in Utah State, at Utah State, so the travel will have taken a toll but they came through with flying colors. One of the best defensive teams in the country. They’re a big team as well, athletic, so we’ve already started to watch them just because they played yesterday.”
Armstrong’s team will face a tough nut to crack on Friday, but that doesn’t mean the Huskies don’t have firepower. Top scorer Ioanna Papatheodorou earned a call-up to the Greek national team with her eight goals this season. She is a free-kick specialist as well, helping upset then No. 5 Michigan State with a laser strike around the wall and into the top corner of the net.
Washington isn’t a high-scoring team, but they are far from easy to score against. That will be the major obstacle for the Bulldogs on Friday as the team hopes to carry its prolific form into the next round.
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