This article was originally published on September 30, 2022.
Goals from Alexia Delgado and Eva van Deursen propelled Arizona State (6-0-2, 2-0 Pac-12) past the California Golden Bears (5-3-3, 0-2) 2-1 on Thursday evening. The win was the first victory against California since the 2018 season.
After starting conference play with a loss to UCLA, Cal traveled down to Tempe to face the Sun Devils, who were coming off a highly-contested win in Boulder against Colorado, thanks to van Deursen’s two second-half goals.
The first half was full of ups and downs from both sides. However, ASU goalkeeper Pauline Nelles never failed to protect the goal from incoming shots. The only time she let one slip was off a handball foul which resulted in a penalty kick from California’s Mia Fontana. Fontana’s kick put the Bears ahead 1-0 in the 11th-minute.
After the Bears got on the board first, the Sun Devils were eager to respond. They started to play more aggressively to get the ball moving. On California’s side of the pitch, ASU’s Nicole Douglas set up a nice shot for Keri Matthews, which soared over the goal.
Despite not putting up any huge numbers, it was easy to notice how well Douglas had been playing. She was all over the place. When she had the chance to make an excellent shot in the 21st minute, she was fouled, which led to a free kick by ASU’s leading scorer, Alexia Delgado. Delgado nailed the free kick into the top left corner tying the score 1-1 in the 21st minute. This goal also broke Delgado’s personal single-season high for goals.
There were only two substitutions from each team nearing the end of the half. The lack of substitutions reflected the high quality of play from all players on the pitch.
With a lack of subs, players started to react slower and could not track the ball as well as they could earlier in the match. As a result, fewer shots were taken by both teams. The first half was filled with aggressive hand fighting and aggressive play going for the ball. Although each team had a reason to play aggressively, California played with a chip on their shoulder while ASU defended their home field.
The second half of the game resembled how the end of the first half was played. Players were playing slowly, and many had trouble communicating with each other, especially ASU.
ASU had adjusted at halftime to push all the play inside. However, they struggled with California’s wings streaking up the field during the first half. Because of this style of play, getting good passes into the middle of the field was difficult and led to few chances.
Finally, in the 73rd minute, Eva van Deursen toe-tapped the ball into the goal after a lofty assist from Alexia Delgado sending the enthusiastic student sections at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium into a frenzy of blowhorns. This was the second game in a row where van Deursen scored the game-winning goal.
For the remainder of the match, California did all it could to keep applying pressure. They were able to keep the ball on ASU’s half of the pitch but could never connect for a goal. A last-second shot by California’s Courtney Boone would be the last of the match.
“We got a positive result, with a very average performance tonight,” ASU head coach Graham Winkworth said. “I don’t think we were that great, so we’ve got a lot of work to do these next two days, so when we play Stanford, our levels are back to where they should be. The teams are only getting harder and harder.”
ASU hosts Stanford on Sunday, October 1st, at 1 p.m. MST in Tempe.
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