Mississippi State’s soccer team opens its season this weekend in Birmingham, Ala., playing Kennesaw State and Georgia Southern in the Samford Tournament.It is the first time the Bulldogs will face either opponent during head coach Neil MacDonald’s four-year reign, and he is expecting a fair challenge from both teams.
“Kennesaw has a very good soccer program,” MacDonald said. “They have quite a good number of international players on the roster, so they should present a good challenge for us.”
The Kennesaw State Owls have been impressive in preseason, earning victories over Clayton State and Georgia State, but MacDonald is equally focused on the challenge that Georgia Southern provides. The teams played each other just once before, in a 3-0 loss in 2000.
“I expect a well-organized, hard-working team from Georgia Southern,” MacDonald said, “but we really won’t know until we play them.”
MacDonald is also concerned about the fitness of his players going into the weekend, with five out injured and the already short preseason schedule being cut shorter after Friday’s 1-1 tie with Nicholls State was rained out after 30 minutes. State dominated that match, going 1-0 up on 12 minutes with a goal from senior Treena Ferguson. Ferguson also hit the post and had a shot cleared off the line before State conceded from the ensuing counter-attack with Nicholls State’s first shot on goal.
“Our biggest challenge was that we didn’t get a full 90 minutes on Friday,” MacDonald said. “I think we started to look like a good team during the 30 minutes we played, it’s just unfortunate the game got cut short.”
With both of State’s weekend opponents completing their preseason schedules, the squad has been training hard to compensate for their lack of games.
“The preseason schedule is way too short,” MacDonald said. “We’ve been doing lots of light scrimmages to catch us up, but we’ve got five injuries at the moment and that’s cut the squad down a bit.”
Despite the injuries, MacDonald has reason to be optimistic, with the new players progressing every day and forming cohesion with the rest of the squad.
The coach has already shown he will not hesitate to use the new recruits, starting freshmen Lauren Host and Leanna Baldner in defense for last Friday’s game.
“Everyone’s doing well,” MacDonald said. “The new players are gelling quite nicely, and they should get some opportunity to play this weekend.”
MacDonald said he expects to stick with the team’s regular 4-4-2 formation, using the upcoming games to find out the best combination of players.
“The 4-4-2 has started working really well for us since the spring,” MacDonald said. “I think we’ll be sticking with it for this season, and use the tournament to see how players match up in each position.”
The Bulldogs, ranked last in a preseason coaches’ poll for the Southeastern Conference Western Division, will have ample opportunity to disprove their ranking in the slew of games to come over the next couple weekends. Fortunately they have history on their side, winning five of their last seven season openers.
The game against Kennesaw State will be played today at 4:30 p.m. while the Georgia Southern match is scheduled for Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
The Bulldogs will follow this weekend’s match-ups with by heading to Murfreesboro, Tenn. on Sept. 7 to take on Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State University at the MTSU Tournament.