Friday marks the end of the regular season for the Alabama soccer team. The team will travel to Auburn to take on the Tigers at 7 p.m. at the Auburn Soccer Complex. The Tide must win this game in order to be one of eight teams to enter the Southeastern Conference tournament, which begins Nov. 3 in Orange Beach, Ala.
“My first thought is that it’s going to be fun,” head coach Todd Bramble said. “There’s just so much excitement around it. It’s pretty much winner take all in a lot of ways. Bottom line is we have to win to extend our season. We’ve been working since the beginning of August as a team for it to all come to the Auburn game, our last regular season game. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The Tide enters the season finale with 3-5-2 SEC record, while Auburn comes in with a 4-4-2 record. The team has played in big games throughout the entire season, but Friday’s game could be considered to be the biggest one yet.
“I think responding to the pressure is going to be the most important thing that we do a good job with,” Bramble said. “We played really well this past Sunday up in Knoxville. That gives me a lot of confidence already that this group can handle pressure. We just got to have better execution in front of the goal so we can score a goal that’s going to win the game for us.”
For the Tide to be successful, they have to get their shot count up and stay aggressive on offense as well defense.
“We need to take our half chances and we need to just shoot the ball,” Rosaly Petriello, senior midfielder, said. “Take your chances, no matter how far you are or how close you are. Let it ricochet off something and go in.”
Junior defender K. K. Duffy continued, “We play our best soccer when we take those chances. The games that we’ve won 2-1, 2-0 were when we had thirty shots on goal on the board. The past few games we’ve only had 10-15 shots. We’re better at half chances; we don’t capitalize on those 10 shots. We need thirty shots and we get a few goals in, that’s our game.”
The Tide is coming off of a 0-1 double overtime loss to the Tennessee Volunteers. However, Alabama heads into Auburn after playing one of the best games all season. Petriello said if the team can come with the same mentality against Auburn that they did against Tennessee, a victory will hopefully follow.
“Everyone is just so excited,” Petriello said. “With the rivalry with Auburn we just have to go out there with a bang and leave everything on the field. I’m excited because I know that we can win this game. We need to be as positive as possible.”
Duffy continued, “At the beginning of the year, our team set a bunch of goals and one of them was to win the Iron Bowl.”
Auburn will be coming off of a 2-1 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs. To stop the Tiger offense, the Tide has to stay tight on defense.
“I think we need to carry over what we did in Tennessee,” Duffy said. “We had ten players behind every ball. They barely got a look at goal because of how committed we were to everyone being behind the ball.”
What can Alabama fans expect to see from the Tide this weekend?
“A freaking fired up Alabama team,” Duffy said. “This is the only game of the weekend. We have nothing to hold back. We’re going to sacrifice everything. We have nothing lose.”
A victory will have the Tide leaving Auburn with the Iron Bowl trophy and a ticket to the SEC tournament.
