The Mississippi State soccer team will go west this weekend in search of its first conference victories of the 2009 season. The Bulldogs will visit Arkansas (7-3-4) at Fayetteville tonight at 7 p.m. and travel to Baton Rouge for a Sunday afternoon matchup with LSU (9-3-2).
The Bulldogs match up well with Arkansas, a squad who, like MSU, plays tough defense, giving up few goals. MSU head coach Neil Macdonald said his team has been working on increasing offensive output with specific drills this week.
“[Last week] we struggled to create [opportunities] in the final third [of the field],” he said, “which is something that we’ve been addressing this week -movement off the ball, and supporting the person on the ball in the final third. Trying to get numbers involved in the attack.”
For the last few games, junior forward Kat Walsh has accounted for most of the shots and all of the goals MSU has scored. Macdonald said he wants to get all the forwards and midfielders involved in the attack to create ball movement.
Freshman midfielder Madison McKee said the various drills in practice emphasize the midfielder’s responsibilities.
“We’ve worked on speed of play in the midfield, fast touches, good touches, looking up, switching sides and switching fields,” she said. “And pressure, hard-core pressure. Not dropping off at all. Then, talking and communicating really well so we don’t waste energy tracking people.”
On Sunday, another top-20 team awaits at LSU. Macdonald said his team will play the same strategy used against the last two top-10 teams that came through Starkville.
“We’ll attack in a 4-3-3, and defend in a 4-5-1,” he said. “Our transition has been good, very effective when we play it. That’s why we had the success against South Carolina and Florida. We’ll continue to do that and really look to counter-attack LSU as much as anything.”
LSU has been one of the top scoring teams in the league this season, beating no. 8 Georgia by six goals and several teams by 4 goals, while also fielding a stingy defense that has given up two goals only twice this season. Forward Kat Walsh said attacking with numbers, which MSU has been practicing all week, is how you challenge such a team.
“We’re working on ball support, people having options with real short, simple passes,” she said. “If I can combine with somebody else, it gets me in, and we’ll have the numbers in the box. We could have an attacking mid making an overlapping run behind me so I can either dish the ball through there or shoot.”
Such an aggressive strategy can cause teams to overcommit on a quick turnaround by the opponent, but Walsh says she is not as concerned considering MSU’s defense, which has given up just over one goal on average per game.
“You’ll still have players behind the ball,” she said. “And you’ll have people that can cover positions, tuck in and drop. It’s not really a big problem, but if you want to score goals, you’ve got to take risks.”
Walsh transferred to State from LSU in 2008 because she said there were no opportunities to earn a starting spot for the Tigers. Sunday’s match will be her first chance to prove to her former team she has what it takes.
“That’s the game I’ve been waiting for ever since I left LSU,” she said. “Too much time has been wasted to call this just another game, and now is my time to finally make big things happen. I’ve never been so excited for a soccer game in my life.”