With Alabama soccer’s loss to Texas A&M on Sunday night, the Crimson Tide fell to 8-3-4 on the season. All three of Alabama’s losses have been on the road, against an SEC team and when its opponents have scored multiple goals.
So what is it about these games?
“Playing on the road is hard, especially in a league like this,” head coach Wes Hart said. “We’ve got to embrace the battle a bit more.”
There’s always a home field advantage in sports, but historically, Alabama has done well on the road. Through its first six SEC games last year (three home, three away), the Crimson Tide went 6-0. Admittedly Alabama performed better at home with all three games being shutouts, but its third SEC road game was also a shutout, a 5-0 victory over LSU.
Six SEC games into this season, Alabama has two wins at home, a tie at home and three losses on the road. Rather than looking like last year’s team, which had three losses total and an undefeated conference record in the regular season, this squad is struggling.
This season has been reminiscent of 2021 conference play, when the Crimson Tide went undefeated in Tuscaloosa but lost every road game.
“The SEC’s a tough conference,” Hart said. “These games are hard; Kentucky, Arkansas and A&M are three quality opponents. It doesn’t get much easier. Ole Miss and Mizzou are going to be tough.”
Right now, Alabama is last in the SEC West but has four more chances to even things up, including the road contests at Ole Miss and Missouri.
The good news coming out of College Station is that goalkeeper Dylan Pixton got her first road conference start. The graduate student has been rotating games with freshman goalkeeper Coralie Lallier, but Hart said he broke the rotation to get Pixton some experience.
“I thought maybe it was an opportunity since she played well at home,” Hart said. “Let’s give Dylan a start on the road and see what she can do. I don’t blame her by any means, I don’t think that loss was on the goalkeeper. It was on the entire team, from the players to the coaching staff to everyone.”
While the team has allowed multiple goals during SEC road games, the Alabama offense has also taken a hit. This season, the Crimson Tide has averaged almost six shots on goal per game and a .421 shots on goal percentage. At its away conference games, both have fallen below average, including this most recent game in College Station, where the Crimson Tide had only four shots on goal and a .286 percentage.
Fortunately for Alabama, its next game is at home, against the LSU Tigers. The game kicks off Friday at 7 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
